Sound of Darkness

Vince agreed to come in. Mark ended the call and stood, just staring at the coffee.

Their investigations now had to be twofold he knew. They needed to find where Carver had built his coffins.

And they needed to find the second would-be killer.

He gripped the counter for a minute, remembering the night he and Red had discovered the coffin holding Lainie Nowak. Red barking, him calling it in and frantically digging...

The media had received an “Embracer” note. He’d just hoped against hope they would find her in time.

The medical examiner told Mark that Lainie had been dead for hours; she’d been assaulted and had internal injuries and had died almost immediately after being put in the cheap coffin in the dirt. While the earth had leaked through, her lungs were clear of having inhaled dirt. She had suffocated before the dirt had sifted into the coffin.

“Hey! You all right?”

Startled, he turned around.

Colleen had been true to her word. She was already up, showered, and dressed, ready to head out for the day.

And the coffee had brewed.

“I’m going to have you bring Dierdre to the office,” he told her.

“And you think she’ll just come with me? Gary will be there, her folks will be there, and I doubt they’ll let her go anywhere alone.”

“That’s fine. Bring Gary. When you get in, I’ll have Vince Monroe there already. We’ll get them split up. Ragnar can talk to Gary and pretend we desperately need his help.”

“What about Brant Pickering. Have you heard anything? Does anyone have eyes on him yet?”

He shook his head. “Law enforcement is still looking.”

“Okay. This could mean we need a lot of coffee!”

They filled travel containers with coffee and headed for the door. Mark called Red.

The dog and the cat were once again curled together on the sofa.

“Red!”

Red jumped up obediently. Jensen followed him to the door.

“Jensen, you can’t come! You’re not a service cat. But Red will be back.”

She looked at Mark and smiled when she said it.

“Red will be back,” he assured Jensen.

As they walked to the car, he said, “I have never seen anything like that. The two of them act as if they’re puppies from the same litter.”

“Jensen is accustomed to dogs.”

“Right. Your sister and brother have dogs.”

“Yep. So, it’s okay if Gary insists on coming in with Dierdre?”

“It will be fine. I’ve talked to Angela. We’re keeping them in separate conference rooms. I want to see Dierdre and Vince together. I want to get them talking about when they were dating, who else might have been around when they were together, if they saw or met anyone who might have been watching them, interested in them, and so on.”

“And you want to see Dierdre with Vince,” Colleen said.

“Exactly.” He shook his head. “It’s not my concern either, but it just angers me a man judges another man on his stock portfolio.”

“Right. But remember—”

“We can’t bring our opinions into it, and I don’t really have the right to judge Rory Ayers.”

“Hey, but we’re all human,” she said cheerfully. “You do get to dislike him!”

He smiled.

“From what I understand, you had the talent to be really rich and famous. Kudos to you that you chose a more altruistic path,” she told him sincerely.

“Hey, football players get beat to pieces. I don’t even have any broken bones.”

“Right. If you’d been a quarterback, you might have gotten sacked. Now, people may just shoot at you.”

He shrugged and glanced her way. “You’re here, aren’t you?”

“Yes. But I don’t think I could have been a rich and famous football hero anyway.”

“There are all kinds of heroes.”

As they neared the office, Colleen said, “Hey, don’t park. I’ll keep going and drive out to the Ayerses’ place. By the time I get there, it won’t be too early.”

“All right. I’ll pull over and we can switch.”

“What if she says it’s stupid for her to come in, that she’s told her story over and over?”

“We haven’t done a cognitive interview. She was in the hospital when we spoke with her. Tell her we’ll do a cognitive interview—which we will, after I see her with Vince.”

“Okay.”

He pulled the car over and stepped out, calling to Red as he did. The dog obediently followed.

As Colleen came around the car, she made a face at him and said, “I’m impressed. You’re letting me go get Dierdre all by myself!”

“Of course.”

“You’re not even sending Red.”

“Nope.”

“Is that because I’m competent, intelligent, and have a gun and know how to use it?”

“Of course. There’s that and the Ayerses’ house is being watched by cops and agents.”

She laughed, shaking her head, and said, “I’ll be back soon.”