“Shot him through the floor.”
Brier’s lips went tight. “Yeah, right through the floor.”
“Are they still here?”
Brier said nothing.
Stack said, “If I’m dead, and I’m still in the house, can I somehow see them?”
“What, like a ghost?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“You want to haunt your own house?”
“I want to see why they came here. What they were after.”
Brier leaned forward on the chair, the legs tipping slightly. “This investigation is over for you, Terry.”
“Fogel’s still out there,” Stack muttered.
“Out where?”
“Chasing a lead. Someplace called Charter outside Chadds Ford.”
Brier didn’t seem surprised by this. “Tell me about Charter.”
Stack tried to reach for the notepad he had left near the door, the one with his notes on Charter, but his arms and legs wouldn’t work. “Why can’t I move?”
“Dead people don’t move.”
“You’re moving, though,” Stack pointed out. “My head, neck, eyes, can move. Only my arms and legs are stuck. Why?”
Brier shrugged. “God works in mysterious ways when you’re alive, but he pulls out all the stops after death. Shit gets crazy.” He leaned back in his chair. “How did you learn about Charter?”
Stack told him about the note Fogel had found in Thatch’s hotel room, the connections he made to several past employees. “The white vans showed up right after I started making those calls,” he said. “They’ve got to be from Charter. It’s all connected.”
Brier slammed a hand down on the desk.
Stack jumped.
Brier grinned. “Sorry, buddy, you seemed to be losing focus. Needed to bring you back.” He glanced around the room. “So everything you’ve learned over the years, all the data on this case, it’s all here in this room?”
“Most of it,” Stack said. “Fogel has the official records at Pittsburgh PD for some. The rest is here.”
Brier thought about this for a moment.
Stack frowned. “You don’t remember that? You kept the files going after I retired. Kept the investigation going. Fogel hasyourfiles.”
“Things get fuzzy after you die,” Brier said again.
“I still remember. Is that because I just died?”
Brier said nothing to this. He leaned back in his chair, then forward again, rocking on the back legs. “What do you know about David Pickford?”
“Who?”
“David Pickford.”
