Sound of Darkness

“You never know. People love streaming, and a historical tome can make for a great documentary, or become fictionalized for its entertainment value. Half of my love for history came from reading fiction.” She laughed softly. “Maybe you’ll get Liam Hemsworth—or Zac Efron! Not that it matters—I mean, what’s wrong with a book being amazing on its own?”

“You truly are kind,” Pickering told her. “Maybe we’ll work together one day.”

“That would be great.”

“Hey, it could happen,” Pickering said. He glanced at his watch.

He didn’t need to excuse himself. Megan spoke quickly.

“Please, thank you for meeting me. And I know how concerned you are. You go ahead and get back to Sally.”

He pursed his lips into a grimace and nodded, then left the waiting room. Megan waited a minute and returned to the office.

“Was that what you needed?” she asked Mark and Ragnar anxiously.

“Perfect,” Mark assured her.

Ragnar studied Megan—he was already calling Angela to ask for the tech department to get started on researching train schedules from New York to Washington.

“Did you learn anything? I still think he’s wonderful.”

“Megan, come on. You’ve been around your sister long enough, I imagine. And although she’s new with the Krewe, she’s not new to law enforcement. Liking or not liking someone doesn’t make them innocent or guilty,” Mark warned gently.

“Which,” Colleen said, coming into the office, “means we can’t assume Gary Boynton might be guilty.”

“I’m not assuming he’s guilty,” Mark said. “But I don’t like him,” he admitted.

Colleen grinned. “As Dierdre’s parents see it—employed, courteous, and caring.”

“Yep. That’s what they see. I see opportunist, smarmy, and yes, careful of his image,” Mark said. “Though it doesn’t make him guilty. But I do think we still need to talk to Dierdre and perhaps her parents about the ex-boyfriend they didn’t like. And I want to talk to Carver again. Or I should say, I want Colleen to talk to Carver again.” He hesitated, glancing at Megan. He wanted to go through the crime scene photos on the victims they hadn’t gotten to in time.

He wanted to know if Carver had killed them both while working alone. Or with an accomplice. But he knew there would be details only someone involved would know.

Megan glanced at her watch.

“Guys, don’t worry about me. I’m going to hitch an Uber back to Colleen’s place, then take her car to my meeting. If it ends in time, I’m going to the Smithsonian. I’m good, really,” Megan said.

Colleen reached into her bag and handed Megan a key chain.

“You don’t need an Uber. We’ll get you back,” Mark said. He glanced at Ragnar.

Ragnar arched a brow.

“I’ve some detail work I want to go over with Colleen,” Mark said.

Ragnar understood. “Work here until I get back. I’ll get on Dierdre and her parents for anything else we might glean. All right, I’ll get Megan to Colleen’s place.”

“We won’t leave until you return.”

“Hey, I’m okay!” Megan said.

Ragnar was already out of the room.

The sisters said their goodbyes and Megan followed after Ragnar.

When they were gone, Colleen looked at Mark. “Did Megan really help?”

“I think she did. In the best way, she pointed out the distance between DC wasn’t that far, and the train made it an easy trip.”

“Train schedules, tickets—”

“Angela is on it. Sally?”

“Well, she hasn’t dated anyone except for Brant Pickering in years. Friends have been trying to fix her up with someone new, but she’s not ready yet. She told me she isn’t the type for one-night stands and now...she thinks they do love each other, and they’ve discussed the future. I believe he isn’t here now for just the aftermath, just to get her through; he’s here because he realized he almost lost her permanently.”

He was quiet.

“I know,” Colleen said quietly. “The fact that we do like him doesn’t make him innocent.”

Mark smiled. “We’re going back to Carver when Ragnar returns.”

“So I gathered. And this time?”

“I’m going to pull up the crime scene photos on the two victims who didn’t make it. We’ll study them and find details, and I think you’ll be able to get Carver talking. And with that, we’ll find out if he did kill the first two women, and possibly, whether he did so alone.”

It wasn’t pleasant to bring up the photos from the first two murders. The women had suffocated in their pine boxes.

Both had been young and attractive in life.

Emily Watkins had been a ballroom dance instructor. Tall, lean, and lithe, with brown eyes and blond hair. In the first photos, of course, her blond hair was a fact that couldn’t be seen—dirt had turned everything on her dark. But he continued with the photos, taken as she had been dug out and placed on the coroner’s table. And little by little, the pictures revealed more.

“The red barrette,” Colleen said.

“Good. Anything else?”

“She’s wearing a little pendant. I think it’s a shamrock.”

Mark studied the picture himself.