“Oh, so you knew them?”
“Warren a little.Few drinks at Roy’s over the years.We’d talk cars sometimes.He had opinions about everything, most of them too loud.But he wasn’t bad company once he settled.”Robert paused, and Selena heard the soft creak of a chair.“Victor I knew pretty well here and there.I helped him with that old Chevy of his a number of times.”
“What old Chevy?”
“Seventy-one C10.Blue.Beautiful truck when it felt like behaving.Victor had more enthusiasm than mechanical sense, but he loved the thing.Used to bring it by the house when it coughed wrong.”
Selena saw Victor’s photograph on the board in her mind.Dead in an armchair.A man reduced to evidence while the county remembered him through trucks, soccer games, grain contracts, and missed anniversaries.
“I didn’t know that,” she said.
“You wouldn’t.You’ve been gone a long time.”
The words were gentle.That made them harder to take.
A voice sounded in the background, sharper and female.
Robert moved away from the phone.“That’s Diane.Hold on.”
A muffled scrape followed.Robert’s hand covered the phone badly enough that Selena heard almost everything.
“Diane, Lena’s on the phone.You want to speak with her?”
A pause.Then Diane’s voice came through with painful clarity.
“When she shows her face, then we can talk.”
Selena’s throat tightened.
Robert came back on.His tone had brightened too much.“Eh, your sister’s busy Selena, but you two should catch up soon.”
“Sure,” Selena said.
Across the lot, Connor’s SUV turned in and parked beside Arnold’s cruiser.
Selena watched him climb out.Uniform on.Hat in place.He moved with the stiff control of a man who had not slept well and had decided nobody would get to mention it.When he saw her through the windshield, he tipped his hat.
The gesture was polite.Distant enough to sting.
“Dad, I’ve got to go,” she said.“I’ll drop by when I can, okay?”
“I’m looking forward to it, honey.”
“I am, too.”
The line ended.
For a few seconds, Selena kept the phone in her hand.Guilt sat heavily in her chest, but guilt would not identify the person who had killed Warren Holt and Victor Schmidt.Her father had waited this long.He could wait a few more hours.
That sounded ugly even in her own head.
Connor walked into the department without looking back.
“Good,” Selena muttered.“At least he turned up this time.”
She got out and crossed the lot.
Inside, the reception area already had the restless feel of a place trying to outrun a bad day.Phones rang.A printer stuttered behind the desk.Cheryl looked up as Selena entered, one hand holding a pen above an open logbook.
