He sat on one of the chairs that had a steel frame and a vinyl-covered seat. A relic of the ’50s or ’60s, she believed.
While the drip coffee maker hissed and gurgled, she sat facing him. “What’s up?”
“Well, there’s my brother. I get he was murdered, but what’s taking so long?”
“All I can say is that it shouldn’t be much longer. I don’t know the timetable. I’m not sure anyone in the office does, but I’ll ask.”
“Thanks.” He pushed the chair back so he could cross his legs, ankle on knee. “I have another question. I’d like to see where my brother was living. Have you people released it yet?”
“Hoping to find some information?”
“It’s possible.”
God, she didn’t want to say this, but she was going to have to because there’d be no other way. “It may have been. But... Duke? Are you sure you want to see it? Nothing’s been cleaned up. You should hire someone...”
He shook his head. “I’ve seen worse.”
She frowned. Her heart skipped unhappily. “You may have seen worse, Duke, but worse wasn’t your brother.”
THE WORDS HIT Duke hard. He felt his own head jerk a little in shock. He was getting warned about something far worse than he’d imagined. Shot? He’d seen plenty of gunshot victims. She had to know that, so what was she warning him about?
And she was right. Before this, it hadn’t been his brother.
“What aren’t you telling me?” he asked quietly. “What are you concealing?”
He watched her look away briefly. Then slowly her gaze returned to him. “It was ugly. I can’t provide any details until we get the full report, but there’s a reason we didn’t give it to our local coroner. Can we just leave it at that for now?”
Black rage filled him, a rage so black that for a little while he didn’t see Cat or the room around him. His hands clenched as if he could wrap them around someone’s throat. God, he wanted to. Badly.
He closed his eyes, forcing the fury down into an internal box he’d had to use many times. It contained all the seething dark things inside him, the only place he could store them.
“I see.”
“Do you?” she asked.
“Unfortunately, I do.”
She compressed her lips, then opened them to speak. “Most people don’t go back to where a tragedy like this happened. They stay away until cleaners come in to deal with it. There are some things people don’t want seared into their minds.”
“I get it.” He certainly did. “But I’ve seen it all, I think.”
“You probably have. But not when it’s your brother.” She spoke emphatically.
The anger threatened to escape his control once again, but it wouldn’t be fair to level it at this woman. She was doing her job as best she could. As for Larry...it was true, he didn’t want to see it, but he didn’t know how he could avoid it.
He drew a long breath, then said, “You don’t want me to see it because you’re afraid of what I might conclude. What I might see with experienced eyes.”
A spark flared in her blue eyes. “Eyes experienced with a battlefield, not with a crime. You might draw the wrong notions about things. I’ve seen a lot, too, Duke, and I wouldn’t reach conclusions until we get the forensics report.”
As his anger settled back into the dark box, he admitted she had a point. He didn’t have to like it, but she had one.
“What about Larry’s contacts?” he asked. “I assume you know who they are. That you pulled every bit of information out of his place that you thought might be useful. You can tell me about that.”
Her blue eyes sharpened as they studied him, making him feel almost like a bug under a microscope. Then she rose, pulled a couple of mugs out of the cupboard and poured coffee. “You like it black?”
“Yes.”
He was still waiting, wondering if she was going to stonewall him. He watched her return with the mugs and sit down. He reached for his and cradled it in both hands. Hot. It was hot, and his fingers were not.
Eventually she spoke. “I’m going to give you one name. He’ll tell you what he chooses. He’s not a suspect, because he was out of town during the time frame of the murder.”
He forgot everything else. “Who?”
“Ben Williams. Larry’s boyfriend.”
CAT WATCHED SHOCK hit him again. She leaned forward at once, a new conviction growing.
“You know him?”
“I don’t know.” He shook his head and put his mug down on the table. “I served with a Ben Williams. He left the Army a couple of months or so before...”
He stopped.
“Before what?”
“It’s not relevant. Thing is, I introduced a Ben Williams to Larry one night about four years ago when we were all at a bar. They hit it off. Then Ben resigned his commission sometime later and I never saw him or heard about him again. It can’t be the same man.”
“Maybe not. I wouldn’t know. I do know Ben moved here more than two years ago.”
“That could be him. But why here?”
“I seem to remember he grew up here.” She was trying to digest the possible ramifications if this was the same man. “Larry and Ben were quiet about their connection, though. I don’t think many people even guessed they were an item. Ben never went to the card games, and I’m not aware of the two of them hanging out in public.”
“Then how’d you find out?”
“Because Larry told me in passing, then asked me to sit on it. I’m not sure if it was one beer too many or if he just needed to tell someone. I had to share it when Larry died, obviously.”
“Of course.”
She could sense him thinking and she was doing the same. If Ben was the same guy Duke knew, and Ben and Larry had known each other long ago... Well, what did it mean?
She
