Brian Freeman - Goodbye to the Dead (Jonathan Stride Book 7)

Almost sure. She couldn’t swear to it.

‘I talked to Colin in mall security,’ Maggie said between generous bites of her hamburger. ‘I gave him Jay’s photos and the artist’s sketch, but he didn’t recognize the guy. Whoever he is, he’s not a regular visitor at the mall. Colin will pass the pics around to his team, in case somebody knows him or the guy comes back.’

Another long silence. Cindy smoothed her hair. She tried to catch Jonny’s eye, but he refused to look at her. She knew he was furious.

‘I pulled the CCTV footage, too,’ Maggie added. ‘You can’t see the guy’s face in most of the angles. When you catch a glimpse, he’s got a cap and sunglasses, so there’s nothing to help us. He’s smart.’

‘Why is he hiding?’ Cindy asked. ‘I mean, what’s he up to?’

There was no answer. Cindy went back to her coffee, which was growing cold.

Jonny got up and stood in front of the bulletin board. He stared at the man in the photos with smoky eyes. She knew her husband; he was mad, and he was focused. His black hair was messier than usual, because he rubbed it like a nervous tic when he was deep in thought.

‘So what is this really about?’ he said, mostly to himself. ‘Jay spots a guy with an assault rifle near Ely’s Peak. He takes a few pics and makes a police report. We get a couple more reports of gunfire in the same area, and the guy leaves targets behind like he’s playing soldier. And now my wife tries to be a hero, following an armed stranger who may or may not be the same guy.’

Cindy frowned. ‘I said I was sorry, Jonny.’

He didn’t look at her. Instead, he grabbed a copy of the sketch from the conference table and sat down. ‘So far, this adds up to nothing,’ he said.

‘It wasn’t nothing,’ Cindy snapped. ‘You weren’t there. You didn’t see him.’

Again, her husband acted as if she were invisible. Cindy felt her face get hot as her temper flared. She was quick to blow off steam when she got angry. ‘Are you ever going to look at me?’

Her voice was loud. Too loud. Jonny turned and stared at her, and she could feel his own anger, too. She expected him to lash out, but instead, he got up and left the conference room without speaking. His silence as he passed her had the chill of morning frost. Cindy continued to fume.

‘He’s mad because he’s scared,’ Maggie said.

Cindy tapped her foot nervously on the floor. Her anger mixed with embarrassment. ‘I know.’

Maggie finished a super-sized cup of Coke with a loud slurp. She tried and failed to cover a belch. ‘Sorry. Not to piss you off, but he’s right. What you did was pretty stupid.’

‘Don’t you think I know that?’ Cindy asked.

‘So why’d you do it?’

‘I don’t know. I thought I recognized this guy, and I just — I didn’t want him to walk away. I knew you were trying to find him.’

Maggie blew the black bangs out of her face. ‘From a police standpoint, Stride’s right. It does add up to nothing. Even so, I’d like to know who this man is. Something about him feels off.’

Cindy was pleased that Maggie shared her concerns. She liked Maggie. They were friends, but not really close friends. Maggie was hard rock, and Cindy was country, and that summed up the two of them. Jonny’s partner was almost ten years younger than she was, and ten years was a long time at their ages. Cindy worried about turning forty, and Maggie worried about turning thirty. Big difference.

There was the crush thing, too. Maggie was in love with Jonny. Love and hero worship were hard to separate when it came to cops. Jonny had mentored Maggie and coaxed her out of her shell, and she fed on it. Cindy trusted Jonny and didn’t think Maggie would ever act on her feelings, but it paid to be careful.

Like most wives, she had a keen appreciation of her husband’s strengths and weaknesses. When it came to women, Jonny felt the need to rescue them. He didn’t always understand the rush of emotions he provoked in return, and he wasn’t entirely immune to feelings of his own. There had been a case the previous year that had tested both of them. Jonny had become involved in protecting a woman named Michaela Mateo from an abusive ex-husband. Michaela was pretty and vulnerable — a dangerous combination for Jonny. Cindy could see easily enough that Michaela was attracted to her husband, and although she didn’t believe anything had happened between them, she knew that Jonny’s own feelings went deeper than he let on. When Michaela was killed, the loss cut him worse than anything she’d seen in his years with the police.

Thinking of Michaela Mateo also made her think of the woman’s young daughter. Catalina. Cat. Six years old when her parents died. Cindy had gone so far as to suggest to Jonny that they adopt the girl, because it had already become clear that her own dreams of having children weren’t likely to come true. Jonny had said no. It was too much. Too soon. It made her wonder whether, in his heart of hearts, he really wanted kids at all.

She looked up. Her husband was in the doorway of the conference room. He hadn’t said anything.

Maggie took the hint and got up and left them alone. He took a chair and put it beside her and straddled it backwards. Their arms brushed against each other. His dark eyes were distant.

‘What were you thinking?’ he said quietly.

‘I wasn’t,’ she admitted.

She knew he wanted to yell, but he didn’t. He reached for her shoulder and pulled her gently against him. She folded herself into his body and felt his strength. And his worry and relief, having her in his arms.

‘Don’t scare me like that,’ he said.

‘I’m sorry, but you realize that’s what I live with every day, don’t you?’ she murmured.

That caught him short, but he knew it was true. He didn’t let go.

‘This guy at the mall,’ she said. ‘He’s not nothing, Jonny.’

‘He hasn’t committed a crime,’ he reminded her.

‘That you know of.’

They were silent, and it could easily have disintegrated between them again. Him yelling. Her yelling. They both knew how to fight, but she didn’t want to. Not now. It wasn’t worth it.

‘Hey, I’ve been thinking,’ she said. ‘I got a flier from Bobbie at the travel agency. Last-minute cruise specials. How about we go to Alaska in June? We can do it cheap.’

Jonny separated himself from her and smiled. ‘A vacation? Me?’

‘Every couple of years, I get to drag you out of Duluth.’

‘I know, but why now?’

‘No reason,’ she said, which wasn’t really true. She felt strange. She felt shadows around her, and it made her want to combat them with happier things. ‘You know I’ve always wanted to do this.’

He looked as if he would protest, but this time, he gave in. ‘Okay.’

‘Really?’

‘Yeah. Book it. Sure.’

Cindy kissed him, and she didn’t believe in peck-on-the-cheek kisses. Their kisses were always hot and hard. She liked it that way. ‘Thanks, babe,’ she said. ‘That means a lot to me.’

He stood up and took her hand. ‘Come on, let’s go home.’

Cindy hesitated. ‘Janine was at the mall today, too. We were both at the clinic.’

‘You shouldn’t be talking to her.’

‘I know.’ Cindy stopped herself, but then she added: ‘She thinks you’re going to arrest her.’

Jonny didn’t comment. He shoved papers into a satchel. He didn’t say yes, and he didn’t say no, but she knew him well enough to realize that his silence was a yes. He was building a cage of evidence for her friend, and soon enough, he’d put her inside it.

Maybe that was the right thing to do. Cindy wasn’t naive. Janine was probably guilty of murder. Nothing else made sense. Even so, Cindy wanted to find another explanation. She wanted to believe that Janine was innocent.