Time of Death

‘We’re kind of talking a whole lot of nothing here.’

‘That about covers it,’ said Ren. ‘How are you doing?’

‘Crap.’

‘Is there anything we’re not factoring in? Like, has someone got it in for us?’

‘What?’ said Matt. ‘Are you serious?’

‘Well, Beau didn’t have anything to do with Louis going missing, so someone is obviously trying to frame him.’

‘No, I get that. But I don’t think that means they want to hurt us, like, deliberately.’

‘Oh, please Like this would have no impact on the rest of us?’

‘Maybe whoever it is just does not care,’ said Matt. ‘Do you think it could be the person who took Louis?’

‘No,’ said Ren. ‘That would be way too risky. You’d sit it out. Especially if you’d gotten away with it for this long.’

‘True.’

‘Imagine if no one took Louis,’ said Ren. ‘Like he had an accident, wandered off somewhere, fell down a hole or something.’

There was silence at the other end.

‘OK,’ said Ren. ‘I know.’

‘And just one small thing – I do know where you were coming from, because my angel wife has that healing presence, but she is not the one to be helping Mom right now. Basically she is having a “How can we bring a child into this horrible world?” moment and the closer she is to anything like a child going missing or a dead brother or a traumatized mother, the more freaked out she’ll get…’

‘Oh my God, I am so sorry,’ said Ren. ‘I didn’t think of it that way at all. How didn’t I, more to the point? I just thought, Who always knows the right thing to do in times like this? And then I thought of you guys. And I figured you would be working.’

‘Hey, don’t worry about it…but if you so much as suggest that again? Bitch, I will cut you…’

Ren laughed. ‘I feel really dumb. I just…Mom adores Lauren. She’s the daughter she never had…’

Matt laughed. ‘Anyway, don’t worry about it. It’s not a big deal.’

‘Please tell Lauren I’m sorry.’

‘Oh, Lauren has no idea I’m calling you. I’m her emotional spokesperson at the moment. She didn’t say a thing. She was almost on her way to Mom’s. I just knew that, when she came back, she’d be haunted in the eye.’

‘Nice save, then.’

‘I’m sure I won’t give a crap about her for the second child.’

‘Thanks for making me laugh.’

‘Hey, how are you doing…about Helen?’

‘Awful. The irony is that she spent almost two years trying to squeeze an emotion out of me. She finally achieves that. Then she’s gone.’

‘That kind of progress can’t be reversed that quickly,’ said Matt. ‘You’ll find another therapist. It will be like the movie Always. Helen will be watching over you while you find someone to take her place.’

‘Oh, God, that movie…’ said Ren.

‘Step away from the video store.’

Glenn Buddy knocked on the open office door and stuck his head in as Ren was hanging up.

‘Hello, there,’ she said.

‘Hey,’ said Glenn. ‘I spoke with Colin Grabien.’

Am I supposed to know why?

‘And he was right about the transaction database.’

What?

‘So, yes,’ said Glenn, ‘the security guy hadn’t looked at it.’

The security guy at the warehouse! ‘OK,’ said Ren. ‘That’s great.’

‘Someone did hack the system – that’s how your name showed up as having accessed the premises.’

‘OK…so…someone was deliberately trying to place me at a crime scene?’

Glenn shrugged. ‘Do you know why anyone would do that?’

‘I have absolutely no idea.’

‘Whoever it was, they did a very good job. Colin was able to see that they had been there, but after that, they left not a trace.’

‘That’s all very odd,’ said Ren.

‘Anyway, I’m sorry for having to ask you about all that.’

‘No problem, Glenn. What else could you do?’

‘Thank you.’

‘So,’ said Ren. ‘How’s it all going?’

‘Well one development,’ said Glenn. ‘When we looked at Wheeler’s office the day the body was found, there were notes on her desk. They looked like they were notes for a book.’

‘What?’

Glenn nodded. ‘It had “Untitled” on the top, but it was obviously a collection of case studies from her practice.’

‘On what subject?’

‘The notes were rough. Patient A this, that…’ He looked at Ren. ‘You didn’t know anything about it?’

‘No. She didn’t mention anything.’

‘Well, it’s good news for us, because it means we can access the patient files.’

Whoa. ‘I can’t imagine it will be that easy. Even if the notes were in plain view. You’d have a hard time convincing the DA…’

‘It’s done and dusted,’ said Glenn. ‘It’s a very real possibility that Helen was killed by a patient.’

‘But is there anything that made you think there was a killer in those notes?’ She gestured for him to sit down.

Glenn shrugged. ‘Who knows?’ He sat down.

‘Well, what did they say?’

‘Patient A: male, thirty-one—’

‘Loner, gun fanatic?’

‘I wish,’ said Glenn. ‘No – male, thirty-one, married, electronic engineer, schizophrenic, aural delusions, substance abuse problems, failed rehab times three…Patient B: female, thirty-seven, single, psychotic episodes —’

‘There’s our killer,’ said Ren. ‘Crazy woman.’

Glenn shrugged. ‘Psychotic episodes, bipolar, leo, Rx Zyprexa…’ He scanned down the page. ‘Patient C: male, forty-two, married, undertaker, history of depression, alcoholic, physically/verbally abusive to spouse—’

Ren pointed to the page he had in front of him. ‘What’s that leo thing in patient B? I doubt Helen was doing star signs…’

‘I said LEO. Law Enforcement Officer.’

Thirty-seven, single, psychotic episodes, bipolar, law-enforcement officer, Rx Zyprexa…

Ren’s stomach turned.

Glenn was still smiling at her, but Ren could barely respond.

‘So,’ said Glenn. ‘There you have it.’

‘How will it work from here?’

‘A taint team will access the files—’