"I did. They came from a previous rental and the owner of the White Stone Deli."
"Did he ever talk about his relationship with Tabitha Smith?"
"Who?"
"Anyone else he ever mention? Friends? Family?"
"No. He was private. We had a few beers together. He always wanted me to come out to this Three Pillar Community, but I'm not into that religious stuff." He sighed. The anger left his face slowly, draining out like water through a crack, leaving something rawer underneath. "You know, there was a time Fiona and I were tight. Back when her mother was with us. You would have passed us on the street and figured us for a close family. We went to events. Vacationed. All the things families do. Then it all unraveled after her mother left. She was the glue that held us together. I just..." He trailed off and picked at the hospital blanket. "I tried. I really did. But at some point you stop trying, because every attempt to reach them feels like touchinga hot burner. It just hurts." He looked up. "You know what I mean?"
Noah did. He thought about Ethan. How different he was from Mia. How differently both of them had been affected by the loss of their mother. He'd watched them unravel in their own ways over the past year. Mia had turned to her interest in law to keep herself focused, stable, on track. Ethan was something else entirely. Despite spending time with him over the past few months, Noah could see how every day was a quiet war. It had only been in the last few weeks that he'd noticed a shift, a lightness that appeared whenever Ethan talked about Fiona. She was a year above him. They'd met at a café in town where Ethan worked weekends. Noah thought about the look on Ethan's face when he found out Fiona was missing. The way he turned his bike and rode off without a word. Even the conversation last night, or the attempt at one. Ethan had told him he was too tired and gone to bed early. The bedroom light stayed on for another two hours.
"Look," Mark said, pulling Noah back. "If Derek is behind my girl's disappearance. If he knows whether she's still alive, or any of those people over at Three Pillars do, you'll let me know. Won't you?"
"You'll be the first," Noah said.
The cafeteriaat FCI Ray Brook was loud the way all prison cafeterias were loud, a constant low roar of voices and trays and the scrape of plastic utensils against plastic plates that never quite went away no matter how many times you heard it. Guards stood at intervals along the walls with their arms crossed, watching the rows of tables.
Carter Lyle ate alone. He sat at the end of a long table with his tray in front of him, his back to the wall, his eyes moving. The bruise on his ribs had turned yellow at the edges and the cut where the mop handle had torn the skin was scabbed over but still tender when he shifted. He'd been looking over his shoulder since the washroom. Checking corners. Listening for footsteps that didn't belong. Sleep came in fragments now, twenty minutes at a time, never deeper than a doze.
A tray slid onto the table across from him. Carter looked up.
Daniel Roberts sat down. Ex-police chief. Current inmate. His hair had gone gray since the trial and he'd lost weight, but his eyes were the same, steady and calculating and permanently amused by something only he found funny.
"You look a little worse for the wear since I last saw you. Heard you got jumped in the washrooms the other day. Escaped by the skin of your teeth."
Carter glanced around the cafeteria. The nearest inmates were three seats down, focused on their trays. "Haven't slept much."
"I wouldn't either if I knew someone was trying to kill me."
"What do you know?"
"I know when a prison guard takes a walk, somebody above him gave him good reason." Roberts scooped food into his mouth and chewed slowly, in no rush. "Seems someone is intent on you dying before the state gets to do it. Must mean you've got somebody nervous. My bet is it's related to the Sutherland family."
"How so?"
"Weren't they the ones you pointed at for setting you up? The Kara Ellison case?"
"They are."
"Rumor has it Ray Sutherland is about to make police chief of High Peaks. Now, if I was a betting man, my money would bethat his brother Noah showing up here has caused a bit of a stir." Roberts tore a piece of bread and put it in his mouth. "You see, Noah and I go back. He's the reason I'm in here. One thing about that man. He is like a dog on a bone. Once he gets his teeth into something, he doesn't let go."
Carter studied him. "And?"
"Now, whether or not he's come across evidence that brings your sentence into question, that's to be seen. But if he has, chances are Ray will make sure you're dead long before the execution date to prevent any blowback that could put his career at risk."
“Is that what you think?”
"Oh, I know." Roberts leaned forward. "The Sutherlands are all about reputation. Hugh would go to his grave to make sure his legacy stays clean. There are no lengths that family won't go to for their own. My advice?" He pushed back from the table and stood, picking up his tray. "Watch your back."
He walked away through the rows of tables without looking back. Carter sat with his food going cold in front of him and the noise of the cafeteria pressing in from every direction. He thought about the empty chair in the washroom corridor. The guard who wasn't there. The man who came at him with a broken mop handle and the blank expression on his face.
He pushed his tray aside. He wasn't hungry anymore.
Noah arrivedat High Peaks Police Department mid-morning. The office was busy, phones ringing, officers moving between desks with files and coffee. The case board had grown again overnight, new photographs, new lines of connection, the web spreading wider with every shift.
Ray was in the briefing area with Callie and McKenzie when Noah walked in. He took a seat and gave them the update.
"Hailey Benton hasn't identified Derek Hollis. We'll speak with her again later today. We know the driver was male, that's confirmed. I'm not sure if the drugs in her system have affected her memory, but she saw the guy."
