She drove through town, past St. Catherine’s Church, the oldest church in town, with it’s white spire and rustic cemetery.

“Listen, Mia.” Beck shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “About this morning. I’m really sorry for what I said to you on the phone. It was inexcusable. It’s none of my business what you do on your time or on anyone else’s.”

“It’s okay. I know how worried you are about Lisa. And it isn’t as if I hadn’t set myself up for that sort of reaction.” She tried to smile. “Ironic that I’d spent the night guzzling club soda instead of my usual beverage of choice. Which, given the way the night turned out, was probably a pretty good thing.”

“What do you mean?”

“My cousin Connor came home last night. He was making us dinner when he realized some sensor he’d set in the basement windows had gone off. Guys got ears like a Doberman. I never heard a thing.”

“You mean the security alarm went off?”

She nodded. “When we went downstairs to look, we found that someone had been cutting away the glass in one of the basement windows.”

“Someone tried to break into your house?”

“Connor’s house. We’re not sure what they were after.” She bit her bottom lip. “He thinks it couldn’t have been him, because he says no one knew he was back in the country.”

“Which leaves you.”

She could feel his eyes on her.

“Why would someone be after you?”

“I don’t know that anyone was.” She kept her voice steady and her eyes straight ahead. “It could have been just a random burglary.”

“Do you believe that?”

“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “Connor doesn’t.”

“So that’s why you were late.”

She nodded.

“Jesus, I feel like a real jerk,” he said. “Giving you so much shit about not answering my calls…”

“Hey, it’s okay. Given the circumstances, you were entitled to be a little testy.”

“‘A little testy’ is very kind.” He touched her shoulder. “Why didn’t you call me?” he asked softly.

“Everything just happened so fast. One minute, Connor and I were in the kitchen, getting dinner ready, the next minute, he’s flying down the steps with his gun in his hand. Before I knew it, the troops started arriving. Besides, there wasn’t anything you could have done from here.”

“You had some backup?”

“Our boss sent five or six agents out to process the scene. There were some prints near the basement window where the prowler had been kneeling, I guess while he was cutting away the glass. Then they found some tire prints down the road, which they casted and are trying to match.”

“I’d be interested in knowing what kind of tires they were. They’re going to try to match them to a vehicle, right?”

“They’ll try. Sometimes tires are too generic to get a good match, but other times you get lucky. We had a case last year where we caught a kidnapper by tracing the tires he’d just bought for his van. The treads were so deep, we knew they had to be relatively new, and there were only three places in the area that sold that particular type of tire. We had the guy in less than a day.”

“What happened to the victim?”

“It was already too late for her,” she said simply.

“Take the next left.”

She turned onto a one-lane gravel road that led into a wooded area beyond which she could see the river.

“I have an APB out on Lisa’s vehicle, and I’ve notified the other local agencies and the state. But I want to call in your people to help find her.”

“Done.” She picked up her phone from the console and tapped in some numbers.

While the phone was ringing, they entered a clearing. A long clapboard building, its paint faded and peeled down to the grayed wood, stood off to their right. The St. Dennis cruiser was parked alongside the building, and Mia pulled up next to it. Beck got out and met Hal halfway between the two vehicles.

“Put me through to John if he’s in, please,” Mia said when Mancini’s secretary answered the call. “And if he isn’t there, please find him.”

24

Beck pushed open the door of the old building and stepped inside onto ancient chipped linoleum that at one time might have been red. Beneath his feet the floor sagged noticeably, and the stale humid air smelled of wood that had long since gone to rot. A wasp flew repeatedly at a dross-covered window and somewhere down the dark corridor in front of Beck, something scurried along the ground.

Mia finished her call and went into the building a minute or two later. She raised her sunglasses to the top of her head so that her eyes could adjust to the light. From up ahead, she could hear footsteps-Beck’s and Hal’s-and when she came to a large square room, she stood still to place the others. Off to the right, her senses told her, and she followed, treading carefully on the weak floor.

“Jesus God in Heaven!” Hal seemed to choke with pain.

“Oh, God no.”

“Beck!” Mia called to him as she ran, following their voices.

“Sweet Holy Mother of God.” Hal was transfixed before the figure that lay sheathed in shiny transparency on the bed.

“Is it…” Mia stepped closer. “Oh…oh, no…”

A stone-faced Beck turned his back on the abomination on the bed and opened his phone. “Garland, find out where Todd Singer is. It looks like we found Lisa. And get Dr. Reilly on the line…”

Mia stood with her hands in the pockets of her cutoff jeans, watching the scene unfold. News had spread quickly through the community-complements perhaps of an overly excitable EMT-and before anyone realized what was happening, the anguished husband had arrived and attempted to rush inside the building.

“Where’s Lisa? Where is my wife?” Todd had cried, and it had taken both Hal and two newly arrived officers from Cameron to subdue him.

Mia remained apart, studying the scene, taking it in, mulling it over, even as Hal accompanied a distraught Todd Singer to the ambulance where he was given oxygen. When Beck finally emerged, after having secured the crime scene, Mia walked over to him.

“Beck, I’m so sorry. I can’t even begin to imagine what you’re going through right now.” She put a hand on his arm, and he pressed his own hand over hers.

“Thanks.” His eyes were murderously dark and haunted. “When I find this bastard…when I get my hands on him…”

“Look, I understand how upset you are, I know you were friends. I want to get this guy, too. But I need to talk to you.” Her hand still on his arm, she led him close to her car. When they were out of hearing range, she said, “Beck, this doesn’t feel right.”

“What do you mean, doesn’t feel right?”

“He just took her yesterday, and she’s dead already? That’s not his thing. For him, this is all about the power, all about humiliation. Why would he kill her right away, before he’d made her suffer?”

Beck met her eyes momentarily, then looked away when the ME’s van pulled up.

“Maybe she fought him off, he got pissed…”

“He likes it when they fight back. He wants that. Because he knows that it doesn’t matter, in the end, he’s going to win.” She lowered her voice. “There’s something really wrong with this scene.”

“Who else would it be?”

“Oh, I think it was him, all right. But why bring her here? It obviously isn’t the place where he brought the others. We know he must have a place where he takes them…keeps them. Tortures them. We’ve been all through this building. There’s nothing here. So why did he bring her here?”

“What are you thinking?”

“I think he killed Lisa to get her out of the way. I’m pretty sure we’re going to find she wasn’t suffocated the way the others were. I think she was probably dead when he wrapped her up.”

“We won’t know for certain until Viv is done with the body.” Beck’s eyes clouded as he watched the ME’s assistant bring out the gurney holding the body, encased in a dark blue bag.