At last, he rises, drags his pants on, sits beside me. “Can I ask you something?”
I nod, curling to one side.
“You said the Strangler left that feather. Do you think he takes something, too? Lots of killers keep mementos from their murders.”
“No. To keep something of theirs is to give them power over him. He would never allow it.”
Regis scowls, thinking. “If power is what drives him, then why women? Wouldn’t killing a man make him feel even more powerful?”
I brush the hair back from my face with my fingers and look up, thinking of Henry’s mother. “Because it was a woman who made him feel small in the first place.”
27Life Vest
Reyes wasn’t sure what he was looking for. He combed the docks, searching. He’d been on his way to get Will, arrest warrant for Henry Davenport in hand, when he made an abrupt change in course, swinging back toward the shoreline, his sister’s words buzzing in his ear like a gnat:The only way to get an asshole like that off your back is if they think you’re dead.What if she was right and by some miracle Piers Davenport was still alive? It was absurd, and yet he couldn’t let it go. He didn’t know what he expected to find, if anything. And maybe that was why he’d really come, to prove Lucia’s words weren’t true, however much he might hope they were.
They’d been over the shore multiple times along the river. There was still no sign of a body, and his eyes scanned the watery horizon knowing she had to be out there somewhere, at the bottom of the Atlantic, like an old ship. But the marina kept calling him, with its crowded nearby resort and unparalleled view of the bridge. All those pretty boats undulating in their slips on the water. Maybe this wouldn’t be a wasted trip. If someone had seen something, maybe they could confirm the husband’s presence on the bridge with her. Maybe they could even identify him. Didn’t yachters usually keep binoculars on board? It was a long shot, but he wasn’t opposed to searching a few haystacks for the occasional prize needle.
A young man sauntered over, his polarized sunglasses obscuring his eyes. “Can I help you?”
Reyes gave him a friendly smile, flashed his badge and ID card.“I’m looking into a missing persons case,” he told the boy. “We think she might be a jumper.” His eyes went to the bridge spanning the water and the boy’s head followed.
Reyes held out the cell phone with the image of Henry and his wife on the home screen. “Do you recall ever seeing this woman?”
The boy removed his sunglasses, staring at it. “No,” he said, but he hesitated, and it gave Reyes hope.
“You sure? It would have been a couple of weeks ago. August fifteenth to be exact. Early morning hours, around dawn.” He held the phone up for one more look. “Were you here that morning?”
“I’m not usually scheduled that early, but I was helping a guy prep his boat to take it out. It was quiet, though. The water was like glass. I saw a manatee.”
Reyes squinted. “A manatee?”
The young man ran his fingers through his hair. “Well, that’s what Tom—Mr. Young—called it. But it was so fast, who really knows what it was.”
“Sure,” Reyes agreed with a slow nod. “And how would I get a hold of this Tom Young? If I wanted to ask him a few questions?”
Suddenly, the boy looked scared. “We’re not in any trouble, are we?”
Reyes inwardly kicked himself. He should have brought Will along. “Not at all. We’re just asking anyone in the vicinity who may have witnessed something. Really, even the smallest detail that seems unrelated can make a difference, so…”
The boy nodded. “Oh, okay. Well, in that case. I’ll give you his number, but you’ll have to follow me to the dock office.”
“No problem,” Reyes said. “Lead the way.”
As they neared the bright red roof and clean taupe siding of the dock office, the boy added, “We did find something that day you might be interested in. I mean, it’s probably nothing. But you said, any small detail.”
Reyes raised his brows, a striking sensation running along the length of his back. “Oh?”
The boy flashed him a smile. “It’s just a life vest, but it was leftsitting on one of the docks last month and no one has claimed it. I can look up the exact date inside.”
He opened the office door, and they stepped in. At the desk, he quickly jotted the name and number of the man he’d mentioned and passed it over.
Reyes smiled. “Mind if I take a look at that life vest?”
“Sure.” The kid brightened. Reaching into a lost and found cabinet, he pulled it out. “It’s a woman’s fit, that’s for sure.”
Reyes reached for it slowly. It was covered in a pale green nylon across the front with black buckles. But it was the familiar purple-red stain near a bottom corner that had his hand trembling ever so slightly.
“It’s a shame, too,” the boy said with a twist of his mouth. “Looks brand-new.”
