The moment he took out his cell phone, Riley’s own phone rang.She saw that the call was from Bill. She almost answered right then and there,but she quickly decided she’d better find some place where she could talk toBill more privately. She stepped out of the conference room into the emptyhallway.
Bill’s voice sounded agitated when she took the call.
“Riley, talk to me. I’m going crazy here. Meredith is keeping meat the BAU, and I’m supposed to be doing research, but I don’t know where tostart. Tell me what’s going on.”
Riley briefly filled Bill in. She went into a fair amount ofdetail as she retold Sheriff Wightman’s account of all that had happened sinceAllison Hillis’s disappearance, including the contents of the two messages. Shealso told him about the condition of the body.
“Frozen, huh?” Bill said. “It sounds like maybe I should trackdown large freezer units—the kind that get used in restaurants and grocerystores and such. Maybe someone in that area has bought something like thatrecently. I can check out local sales and purchases.”
Riley agreed. It sounded like a long shot, but at least it was aplace for Bill to get started.
“Anything else?” Bill said.
Riley thought for a moment. Something about those messages hadbeen nagging at her.
She said, “Try to find out if there’s any significance to thewords ‘goat song.’ Maybe it’s just part of the Goatman’s urban legend. But I’vegot a feeling there’s more to it than that.”
“I’ll get on it,” Bill said.
Then a silence fell between them.
This is where we’re supposed to end the call, she thought.But it seemed as though neither of them was quite ready to do that.
Finally Bill said what both of them were thinking.
“This is weird.”
Riley smiled.
“Yeah, it really is,” she said.
Bill said, “I really don’t like being benched like this when you’reout on a new case.”
“I know, Bill,” Riley said. “And I don’t like working withoutyou. But we may have to get used to quite a few changes now that …”
Her voice faded as she wondered, Now that what?
Things would surely be very different right now if Meredith hadn’tcalled to interrupt her lunch date with Bill. Right now their wholerelationship seemed to be made up of unanswered questions.
“We’ve got a lot to talk about,” Riley said. “But now’s not thetime.”
“I understand,” Bill said. “Maybe later this evening.”
“That would be good,” Riley said.
Another silence fell.
This is getting to be ridiculous, Riley thought.
Finally she said, “We’ll talk soon.”
“Right,” Bill said.
Then they ended the call. Riley stood staring at the phone for amoment, wishing Bill was here right now.
When she walked back into the conference room, she found AnnMarie chattering away while Sheriff Wightman listened. Riley quickly realizedthat Ann Marie was regaling the sheriff with stories about mortuary work.Sheriff Wightman seemed to be utterly fascinated.
Riley guessed that he was less intrigued by the storiesthemselves than by the pretty young woman who was telling them.
“We need to get going,” Riley said to the pair.
The conversation ended, and Riley and her two colleagues headedout of the building.
Riley kept glancing at Ann Marie as the three of them walkedtoward their vehicles.
Everybody likes her, she thought again.
And she likes being likeable.
Riley had never thought of likeability as being a particularlyuseful trait in law enforcement.
She didn’t think this partnership was going to work out verywell.
CHAPTER SEVEN
The rookie agent’s reaction to their surroundings told Rileysomething new about her young partner.
“Oh, what a nice neighborhood!” Ann Marie cooed. “It looks a lotlike where I grew up!”
Riley was driving their car behind Sheriff Wightman’s, followinghim into the area called Aurora Groves. Everything here looked expensive, likethe rest of Winneway. It wasn’t a gated community, but it was well-planned withcurving streets designed to keep traffic low. There were ponds and meadows andgardens amidst the enormous lawns.
If Ann Marie was from a neighborhood like this, it indicatedsomething specific to Riley.
Her family’s kind of rich.
Of course, Riley wasn’t really surprised. Ann Marie had struckher as well-off pretty much from the start.
As Riley continued to follow the sheriff, Ann Marie took out hercell phone and searched for information about the neighborhood, eagerly sharingher findings.
“Aurora Groves is a lot newer than the rest of Winneway. Look,you can see that some of the houses are still for sale. You can buy some ofthese places for just a little over five hundred thousand, even though othersare closer to a million.”
Ann Marie nodded with approval.
“This isn’t the richest area around here. But I like houses likethese a lot better than real mansions. Mansions always make me feel lonely. I’mglad I grew up in a more modest area like this.”
More modest? Riley thought.
The area certainly didn’t look “modest” to her. The houses werefar too big for her taste, and she didn’t even find them very attractive.
Many of the houses they’d seen in the rest of Winneway had beenauthentic and historical, even if they were cluttered by anachronistic featureslike swimming pools. These houses were pseudo-traditional, and Riley didn’tlike them. But apparently Ann Marie felt right at home in these surroundings.
At least she knows how to do online research, Riley toldherself.
Not that what Ann Marie was finding out seemed particularlyrelevant to Riley right now.
When Sheriff Wightman pulled over and stopped in front of onehome. Riley parked behind him. Like other houses on the street, this one had abroad porch, narrow shutters beside the wide windows, and lots of gables. Rileyand Ann Marie followed the sheriff to the front door. When they rang thedoorbell, they were met by a well-dressed, conventionally good-looking manabout Riley’s age.
Sheriff Wightman introduced him as Allison’s uncle, WalkerDanson.
The sheriff quickly added, “State Senator Walker Danson.”
Wightman added the title as if he were speaking of royalty.
Danson shook hands with Riley and Ann Marie.
“I’m Lauren’s brother,” he said. “Her husband, Brady, is inLondon, so I’ve been here all morning, keeping her company. She’s very shakenby this new development. I hope you’re not going to upset her further.”
He said it as if it were a command and not a request. Riley, ofcourse, didn’t reply. She doubted very much that this meeting was going
