Every morning Frank had made her tea. Every evening when he’d arrived home from work, he hugged her. He’d joke about her affection for incense sticks until he could make her laugh.
“What’s that smell?”he’d ask.
“Ylang-ylang,”Carolyn would answer.
“I’m trying to watch basketball here. Ylang-ylang and basketball don’t go together.”
“They do in this house, Frank Pierce.”
Zander could only imagine how devastating it must be for Carolyn to sit here beside him, listening to a detective half her age tell her that her husband had died of a heart attack. Of all people, Frank’s death would affect her the most.
“Does it say in the report what time he died?” Carolyn asked Kurt.
“The medical examiner estimated Frank’s time of death to be around five a.m.”
“Wait.” Carolyn’s features sharpened. “Five p.m. or five a.m?”
“Five a.m. on Saturday morning,” Kurt said.
“Then ... where was he?” she asked. “From the time he left work on Friday afternoon until the time of his death?”
Foreboding twisted Zander’s stomach.
“I wanted to ask you about that, actually,” Kurt said. “To see if you had any idea where Frank might have gone.”
Pain and confusion drifted in Carolyn’s eyes like fog. “No, I don’t have any idea at all. I’m sorry, I’m baffled. Frank and I—” Her voice broke. “We’d talked on Friday about having shrimp scampi and salad for dinner that night. I expected him home at the regular time. When he didn’t come home, I started calling him on his cell phone.”
“What time did you start calling?” Kurt asked.
“Around six forty-five. At midnight, I called 9-1-1.”
“Was Frank in the habit of staying out late from time to time?”
“No.”
“Had he ever stayed out all night before?”
“Never.”
“Does he typically answer his cell phone when you call?”
“He does, yes.”
“As you know, Shadow Mountain Road connects Merryweather to Shore Pine,” Kurt said. “His truck was pointing toward Shore Pine when we found it. Can you think why he would’ve been driving in that direction?”
Carolyn’s forehead wrinkled. “There’s a plumbing supply store there that Frank likes. Zander, can you think of anything?”
“Jim, his coworker and friend, lives in Shore Pine.”
“Yes, and our church is there.” She gave an anguished shrug. “I really don’t know. I can’t fathom why he would have been driving there at that time in the morning.”
Kurt leaned back in his chair. “Jim Davis called me. Is that the same one you mentioned?”
Zander and Carolyn nodded. Frank had worked construction at Chapman and Associates ever since he and Carolyn had moved to this part of Washington as newlyweds thirty-three years ago. Jim had joined the company shortly after Frank, and the two men were good friends.
“Jim said that Frank received a call on the jobsite around four thirty on Friday afternoon. After answering it, he walked away to continue the conversation. Jim couldn’t hear what was said, but he could see that Frank was upset. Shortly after, Frank left for the day. Do you know who might’ve called him?”
“No,” Carolyn answered.
