"Didn't you say the woman who owns Mason's house has a farm near the old fairgrounds?" I ask. "It's another connection. I don't know what it means. It might not mean anything. But it's a connection."
I take out my phone.
“Who are you calling?” Dean asks.
“Detective White,” I tell him. “I want to see if he can get me a meeting with Xavier Renton.”
Two days later, I walk into the police station and meet Detective White in the lobby.
“You said I was going to be able to meet with Xavier Renton,” I say. “Why did you have me meet you here?”
“There are some things I need to talk to you about,” he says. “Please come with me.”
“Does this have to do with the blonde woman in the picture?” I ask as we walk down the hallway toward the conference room.
“No,” he shakes his head. “We still haven't been able to locate her.”
“I'm not surprised,” I say. “She didn't come forward for Greg's case. I can't imagine she would for this one, either. What is it?”
We get into the conference room, and he closes the door behind us.
“The medical examiner did an initial review of the body found burned by the side of the road,” he says.
“An initial review?” I raise an eyebrow. “What about the autopsy? This is a situation where consent isn't needed. The death is a result of a crime.”
“I'm well aware of the laws regarding autopsies,” he says. “The issue isn't consent. The autopsy will be performed later this week. That's not why I called you here.”
“Alright,” I say.
“During the initial review of the body, the medical examiner uncovered some inconsistencies.”
“Inconsistencies? What does that mean?” I ask.
“There are some details about the body that aren't lining up precisely with what we would expect from Mason Goldman's body. Now, that could be simply because of the extent of damage from the fire. That is possible. But they were significant enough for the medical examiner to make notes about it. I thought I should tell you."
"Does this mean you don't know if that body is actually Mason Goldman?" I ask.
"It means there are inconsistencies," he repeats. He is trying to be careful what he says, so he can't be tied to it later, but the point is coming across clearly. "I can't stress enough that this information needs to be kept confidential. You can tell Dean, but no one else."
"Have you spoken with his wife?"
"Yes. The hospital won't discharge her back to her house because there isn't anyone there to help take care of her as she continues to recover. So, for now, she's still confined to the hospital. But we did get her notification that a body that was tentatively identified as her husband was found,” he says.
“How did she react to that?”
He stares at me. "About as well as you can imagine a wife who has just heard that her husband of one year was brutally murdered."
“So, she didn't seem surprised?”
"Of course, she was surprised," he says. "What are you getting at, Emma?"
“I mean surprised like a wife whose husband has come to see her in the hospital in the time since his body was supposedly found,” I say. “Did you ask about the last time she’d heard from him?”
“Mason was allegedly at the hospital the day she was admitted for her surgery. She didn't want him to see her in so much pain and going through all the issues with the anesthesia, so she asked him not to come again until it was time to pick her up. Newlywed self-consciousness and whatnot. She's been kept mostly sedated since the procedures, so she hasn't had her phone on.”
“Is that all?” I ask.
“Yes,” he says. “Unless you've uncovered something else.”
I start to tell him about Millie but stop myself. What Dean and I witnessed was strange, but it didn't really mean anything. We don't even know who the man was or what they were talking about. The last thing we need is for the detective and his officers to go back into the bank and raise the alarm even more. For now, I'm keeping that information to myself.
“Not yet,” I say. “But, I'm hoping I find out something today.”
“I do have to warn you,” he says. “Xavier Renton is not your average person. You told me you looked up his story and know what happened. It's important for you to go into the meeting with him knowing it's not going to be just a normal conversation. Take it from somebody who tried to do an interview with the man. He's incoherent. You think you know what he's saying, but in two seconds he's going to flip, and you realize you had no idea. He's not going to be any help. I don't even know how they considered him capable of standing trial.”
“Because the law doesn't see normal, Detective. Just because he thinks differently than you do doesn't necessarily mean there's anything wrong with Xavier Renton. From what I understand, he was examined by three separate doctors. All of them considered him perfectly fit for trial. I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and think that was compassion and not just that you would want him tossed away into a padded cell somewhere and forgotten about,” I say.
“Of course, not. I'm just saying, don't get your hopes up about getting any useful information from him. He's been in prison for a long time, and his interactions with Lakyn were minimal. You're probably not going to get anything from him.”
“I appreciate the warning,” I tell him. “But my partner already gave me all these warnings.”
“Your partner?” he asks.
“Life, not law enforcement,” I say. “Sam Johnson. He's the sheriff of Sherwood.”
Noah nods slowly, then gestures to the door. "If you're ready, I'll take you to the jail."
Chapter Thirty-Three
The jail where Xavier Renton is being held is less than an hour away. It occurs to me this is probably why Lakyn got involved with his
