Reyes gripped the life vest, disbelieving, and met the boy’s eyes.
“You know,” the kid told him now, “come to think of it, it might have been a woman that morning instead of a manatee.”
REYES CARRIED THEvest back to his car and sat for a long while, sun beaming through his windshield, staring at the tiny stain smaller than a dime. He had to take it to the station, clip the fabric for testing, but he was too stunned to move. Had his sister been right when she claimed the woman had just run away? Did Mr. Davenport suspect as much? Reyes glanced out at the bridge, hazy in the distance. Could she survive that jump? Did she intend to?
His eyes focused on the unmistakable stain against the cool wintergreen color of the vest, certainty washing over him.
He couldn’t imagine that kind of courage, what it took to stand up there and risk it all. But after witnessing what happened to his mother and his sister, he could imagine that level of desperation.
When he finally found the wherewithal to start the car, it wasn’t the station he drove to. It was to the man, Henry.
He pulled into the drive, catching Mr. Davenport home on hislunch break, blocking his rental car as he was attempting to leave. A Toyota Corolla, Reyes noted with a smile, utterly ordinary.
Reyes climbed out of the patrol car, leaving the door open, and strode toward Henry, who was tossing a briefcase into the passenger seat of his own vehicle.
“What are you doing here?” Henry barked at him, a contemptuous curl to his upper lip. “Are you going to impound this one, too?”
Reyes resisted the urge to gloat. “No, sir. Though we appreciate your cooperation in the matter.”
Henry practically snarled. “Well, I’m done cooperating, I assure you. You can speak to my attorney if you have any further questions.”
“Just one,” Reyes told him. “It won’t take long.” Before Henry could protest, he pulled the life vest, bagged in clear plastic, from where he’d been holding it behind his back. “Have you seen this item before?”
The effect was immediate. Henry’s body went rigid, his chin drew back like a snake ready to strike. His eyes, so pale already the irises were barely visible, turned white with rage, the pupils retracting into themselves. He stepped forward once, a man entranced, then twice. “May I?” he asked cordially, as if he wanted a closer look at a prize jewel.
Reyes shrugged and handed the vest to him.
Henry took it in his hands, fingers tensing around the sculpted plastic foam, and turned it over as if it was a thing of beauty, perhaps the most admirable thing he had ever beheld. “Where did you find this?” he asked quietly, voice rapt with awe.
“The Charleston Harbor Marina,” Reyes told him. “Are you familiar with it?”
Like Reyes had, Henry zeroed in on the small stain near the bottom. His thumb rubbed over it ruefully, as if it might be a magic lamp and grant him the wish of his wife’s return from a watery grave. “I know of it, yes.”
“Do you have a boat there, Mr. Davenport?”
Henry looked at him, truly seeing him for the first time. “No.”
Reyes nodded. “Perhaps you or your wife frequented the marina? Is she friends with someone who keeps a boat there?”
He clutched the life vest, unwilling to part with it. “No.”
“You mean, not to your knowledge?” Reyes clarified.
“I meanno,” Henry said plainly.
Reyes took a breath. “Mr. Davenport, is this your wife’s life vest? Because if it is, this could mean she survived her fall. Do you understand? She could still be alive.”
Henry looked down one last time, his expression nostalgic, before holding it out for him to take. “No, Officer,” he said, shifting to the all-business persona Reyes was already so familiar with. “I’ve never seen it before in my life.”
REYES PINCHED THEbridge of his nose as Will examined the life vest. “That color is unmistakable,” Will told him with a sigh. “We’ll see what the lab has to say, but if you ask me, this belonged to our girl. I mean, what are the odds? This vest is found within plain view of the bridge the very day she jumpedwitha stain that matches those poisonous berries?”
Reyes shook his head. “I just don’t understand it. Why would she take that risk—the jump, the berries? Either could have killed her. I’ve heard of people faking their own deaths before, but not like this. Not by actually committing lethal acts. We saw her vomit on that CCTV footage. She ingested those berries without question. And we saw her jump. We have the hoodie from Davenport’s car and the man on tape. What did we see if not a man forcing his wife over that bridge? Would they have a reason to be in on it together?”
Will shrugged. “You never know with these types. Insurance money, maybe? Who can say. The bottom line is, until we get results back on this vest, all we have is the evidence against the husband. I know this changes things. If she’s alive, it can’t be a homicide. But we need to take him into custody until we know for sure. The arrest warrant still stands.”
He paced before Will’s cubicle, hitching his pants up, a nervous gesture. He blew a long and steady exhale up into the air, stalling.
“Emil,” Will insisted.
