“Are those . . .” Cam couldn’t finish, the reality, the horror, too much to bear on top of everything else the last few days.
Nic gripped him firmly as Jamie confirmed the morbid truth. “Graves.”
They waited on-site for the medical examiner and two teams of techs—BPD and FBI—to arrive, working in concert to find out just how many victims Harper had claimed. Nic counted the flags once more as they prepared to leave. Ten, and he expected the number to grow. More bodies to examine to determine if any of them were Erin. Before they left, they spoke with the ME, Cam giving him as much identifying information as he could about Erin at the time of her disappearance, including braces on her teeth, a childhood break to her pinky finger that had left it crooked, and the St. Andrew’s medallion with its inlaid topaz she always wore. They left with the ME’s promise to contact them as soon as they found anything or made any determination as to whether one of the graves might be Cam’s sister’s.
From there, they swung by the station where Matt was already questioning Reid again on Harper’s possible whereabouts. Reid claimed not to know any other places Harper might be. Claimed not to know Harper that much at all, including that he was a serial kidnapper and murderer. According to Reid, Harper had hopped around the South End garages for decades, had had a nasty divorce, and mostly kept to himself. He also occasionally ran jobs for Koehler, so that was why Reid had roped him into helping take Shannon to gain leverage on Murphy, an impressionable young cop from the same neighborhood who’d been under their thumb, and to win points with his boss. It was only supposed to be temporary. Harper had disappeared with Shannon after the garage fire, and Reid had thought Harper was just securing her elsewhere, maybe at the house in Lincoln, not disappearing with her for good. And certainly not adding her to the morbid collection in the backyard that Reid claimed to have no idea about.
It was well into the night by the time they made it back to Tufts Medical, and Nic had a feeling the night was far from over. They stopped to check on Shannon in the trauma unit, leaving Jamie in the hall as he tried to hack his way to some trail on Harper. He was no further when they rejoined him to head up to Edye’s room, and he stopped the search altogether, pocketing the phone, when they turned the corner onto the ICU ward. Good thing as walking-zombie Cam came to life at the sight outside his mother’s room. The entire family was gathered, together with a priest. It took both Nic’s and Jamie’s hands around his biceps to keep Cam from charging angrily forward. The crowd parted, and Bobby slipped away from the group.
“What’s going on?” Nic asked, as Cam demanded to know, “What the fuck is Father Patrick doing here?”
“Her blood pressure and temperature dropped a couple hours ago.”
“Why did no one call me?” Cam said. “We didn’t know?—”
“They’re giving her last rites, just in case.” There was no hope in Bobby’s voice that Nic could detect, and by the way Cam crumpled, he’d heard the absence of the same.
It took everything in Nic not to step forward. Not to wrap his arms around the man he loved and try to ease his suffering.
Loved.
He loved Cam, plain and simple, and that’s what people did for those they loved. What he’d done once before and held himself back almost three decades from doing again. Until Cameron Byrne had walked into his life and not given him an option. Fuck, why had he ever wanted to hide this? How he felt about Cam was real, and the ache in his chest was as real as the pain he’d felt after the fall that had ended his SEAL career.
Real and life-changing.
But he was held back, first by his own fear and now by a choice that wasn’t his own to make, one he had to respect.
He shot Jamie a pleading glance, desperate for someone to do the thing he couldn’t without potentially exposing more about their relationship to Cam’s family than Cam wanted out there. With a slight nod, Jamie moved to Cam’s side, drawing him into his long arms, and Nic wasn’t the least bit jealous.
Yes, he wanted to be that person, but right now, he was just grateful Jamie was here to do what he couldn’t.
What he could do though was check on the status at the scene. Maybe bring Cam and his family peace another way. He excused himself, stepping back around the corner and dialing Matt.
“Matt, this is Price,” he said when the agent picked up. “Have we heard anything back from the ME?”
“Just got off the phone with him. Based on his preliminary inspection, none of the remains match the hallmarks Cam provided for Erin, and he doesn’t think any of the graves date back far enough to be hers.”
“Fuck. We need to know something soon.”
“Cam’s mom?”
Nic braced his hand against the wall, leaning his forehead into it. “It’s not looking good.”
“We’ll keep processing. ME could be wrong. I’ll let you know if anything changes.”
“Wait,” Nic said, catching him before he hung up. “Any leads on Harper’s whereabouts?”
“Nothing yet. We’re going to let Reid stew for a couple hours, then question him again.”
“Okay.” Nic dropped his arm, looking up to find Jamie and Cam rounding the corner. “Keep us posted.” He ended the call and dropped the phone back in his pocket.
“What’d they find?” Cam asked.
“Doesn’t look like any are Erin.”
Cam looked gutted but not all that surprised. “She’s the first kill. She’s probably someplace special. I need to go.”
He was already turning for the elevator when Nic shot out a hand, grasping his wrist. “No, you need to be here with your family. I’ll go.”
