“Come on,” Maguire pleaded. “I’ll go nuts if I don’t get out of here and do something. Shit, there’s got to be some errand I can help you with. Just give me a chance, okay? If I do a good job, then give me something else. Come on, man, what do you have to lose?”
“I’m not sure I’m taking any cases after this one,” Shannon said.
“Really?” Maguire said. Then smiling broadly, he added, “At least this would be a start. And with you out of the business I’ll have less competition.”
Shannon relented. “Do you have a camera?”
“Sure do, boss. Top of the line digital.”
“Okay. Good. Wait here, I’ll be right back.”
Shannon left the condo, went back to his car, found the Vishna Yoga brochure and brought it back to Maguire. “They have a class today from one-thirty to three,” Shannon said, reading the schedule on the back of the brochure. “What I’d like you to do is to get there twenty minutes before, find an inconspicuous spot and take pictures of everyone going into the yoga studio. When the class is over, take pictures of everyone leaving. Give it at least thirty minutes for the class to clear out.”
“Sure, I can do that.” More color had come back to Maguire’s face. “But what’s the point of taking pictures of them coming and going?”
“In case you miss someone the first time around.” Shannon felt a sharp twinge where his missing fingers should’ve been. He reached down towards the pain, stopped himself. His reason for wanting Maguire there was to make sure that if Susan went back to the yoga studio someone would be keeping an eye out. He went on, “It will also let me know whether everyone who goes in there leaves, at least by the front door. This is serious business. If you see anything suspicious call me and the police. If anyone approaches you, go into the nearest store, call the police and wait until they show up.” He described the two Russians to Maguire. “If you see anyone resembling those two call me immediately.”
“Will do. What’s the connection with this yoga studio and my, uh, neighbors?”
“None. This is a different matter.”
Maguire’s round face deflated like a flat tire as he absorbed the news. “Ah, jeeze,” he moaned. “I was kind of hoping to work on the murder case.” He showed a guilty smile. “It would look good on my resume if I do become a PI. Also, they were my neighbors. I feel like I should be doing something for them, you know?”
“Why don’t you do this first, and we’ll talk about more assignments later, okay?”
Maguire nodded, accepting his disappointment in stride. “No problem. And rest assured, I’ll have all the pictures printed out and ready for you later today.” He drained his coffee, then poured himself another cup. He was smiling, but still looked a bit deflated. “How’s the murder case looking?”
“At the moment, bleak.”
“Well, maybe when you get me working on it things will turn around,” he offered cheerfully.
“Maybe.” Shannon poured the rest of his coffee down the sink, and clapped Maguire on the shoulder on his way past him. “I’ll give you a call later this afternoon, but let’s plan on meeting back here at four.”
After making sure Maguire had both his cell phone number and the police’s added to his speed dial, Shannon went back to the adjoining condo, unlocked the padlock and entered the dead students’ bedroom. There he found a baseball cap that he remembered Taylor Carver wearing in one of the newspaper photos. He also pocketed Linda Gibson’s high school ring.
Chapter 13
Les Hasherford was a tall, thin man with a sallow complexion and eyes that bugged out slightly. He could’ve been in his early forties, but could also just as easily have been twenty years older than that. It was hard to tell given his ash gray hair that fit his skull like a helmet, and his smooth, hairless face that seemed more wax than flesh. When he offered his hand, it was cold and damp and gave Shannon the impression that he was shaking hands with a corpse. Hasherford turned and moved slowly, leading the way into his cottage-style house. The interior was probably no bigger than Shannon’s apartment, but it was clean and orderly and had a nice feel to it with its antique pine floor boards and wood beam ceiling. The room Hasherford took him to had a fireplace with a hand-cut flagstone mantel and several paintings of lush green English gardens mounted on the walls. Hasherford lowered himself into a red leather recliner. Shannon took a rocking chair beside him.
Hasherford sat for a moment catching his breath. In a soft halting voice he told Shannon that Susan was a wonderful woman. “Three days ago I was having to use an oxygen tank and a walker. Really, quite a miracle what she has done for me.” Then, smiling more to himself than at Shannon, he added, “Taken from one foot in the grave so to speak.”
“Susan told me how you can feel as if you’re in two worlds at the same time.”
“Quite true.” He nodded solemnly. “It’s as if sometimes I’m in a fog where the worlds for the living and dead intertwine.” He stopped to catch his breath again, went on, “But I’ve been feeling less like that since Susan gave me my remedy. Do you have those articles of clothing?”
Shannon handed him the baseball cap and class ring he had taken from the dead students’ condo. Hasherford rested the ring on the arm of his chair, then closed his eyes and held the baseball cap to his chest. After a while he gave up. “I’m not getting anything with this,” he said. He went through he same routine with the ring before opening his eyes and shaking his head. “Nothing at all.”
“Yeah, well, I knew this was a long shot, but thanks for giving it a try.”
Hasherford nodded. “I’ve never tried anything like this before,” he said, his breath sounding more asthmatic than it had earlier. “To be honest, I never wanted to know whether I could do this. It takes so much out of me locating the children that I do that I never wanted to add this additional burden. But this is discomforting. Until I took the remedy, when I would close my eyes I would usually drift towards the other world. That hasn’t been happening as much. Something has changed.”
“Maybe you might find it happening later. Can I leave the baseball cap and ring with you? If you find yourself drifting towards that other world again, could you give it another try?”
“Yes, certainly. If I succeed in locating either of them, what would you like me to ask?”
“The name of the person or persons who murdered them.”
His lips parted into a smile revealing grayish colored teeth. “But of course.”
The phone rang. His smile faded quickly as he picked it up. He sat still, listening, and before hanging up told the other party that he would be there as quickly as he could.
“I must leave,” he told Shannon. With what appeared to be a great deal of effort he pushed himself out of the recliner and grimaced as he straightened his back. “A six-year old boy is missing in Colorado Springs. I need to get there as quickly as I can.”
Shannon hesitated for a moment thinking about what he still needed to do that day, then felt ashamed and asked whether Hasherford needed help getting to the Springs.
“Once I get to my car I’ll be fine,” he said. “But maybe you could give me a hand to there?”
Shannon took hold of Hasherford’s left elbow and provided support as they made their way out of the house. “I hope I can still help that boy and his parents,” Hasherford said in a breathless whisper that was meant more for himself than for Shannon. “I just don’t know anymore.”
Once he got seated behind the wheel of a badly dented pickup truck, he nodded to Shannon and drove off. Shannon waited until the truck was out of sight before moving. From where he was standing he had a full view of Golden Gate Canyon, and stood silently looking out at the aspens lining its mountain ranges. Even though it was only the last week of July, the trees had already started to turn gold. After several minutes of meditating on that sight, the noises buzzing through his mind had quieted. He got into his car and headed back to Boulder.
Maguire called to tell him that he took pictures of fourteen different people entering Vishna Yoga.
“All women,” he said. “All very nice looking too. I actually know one of them if you can believe it. I don’t think she saw me, though.” He laughed nervously. “Christ, you would’ve been impressed with how I handled this. What I
