Page 38 of Manner of Death
“It could be a taunt for us.” Nan lifted the end of her thick black braid to her mouth and tapped her lower lip. “But let’s be honest here, the first murder alone could have been written off as bad luck if we hadn’t gotten an assist from the M.E. there. If this is about us and the killer, then they’re guilty of overthinking it.”
“Good point.” He stared at the board a while longer. A gunshot. A toxin from a plant. Pending cause of death for the last victim. None of them were the most obvious cause of death when you looked at the scene the first time, but if it really were about the victim… “Upworth was diabetic, wasn’t he?”
“Umm…” Nan checked the notes real quick. “Yeah. Type two; he was on synthetic insulin.”
“And Johnson had an allergy to shellfish.”
“Yep. Said it right there on his medical bracelet.”
“So there were relatively low-key ways of killing both of them without resorting to the lengths that the murderer did if they knew anything about the victims in advance.”
“Definitely.” Nan nodded slowly. “Which lends a little more credence to the idea that these particular people weren’t special to the killer. They might have been convenient, but they’re a message meant for someone else. But who?”
Sawyer shook his head. “I don’t know.” But he sensed that they were closing in on something big. “What about—” His phone buzzed with an incoming message.
I swear to God if this is Jessica…
He wasn’t in the right mental space to deal with his sister right now without screaming. He checked, then did a little double-take when he saw it was from Molly.
Please call me as soon as you can.
He called immediately. “Molly? What’s wrong?”
“Sawyer.” Despite the ever-present fatigue in her voice, she sounded all right. Honestly, she sounded pretty annoyed, if he was honest. “You haven’t seen Kurt, have you?”
“No. He’s been put on administrative leave until…” Until your cancer runs its course. “Until he’s ready to come back to work.”
“Well, he’s definitely not ready to come back to work, honey, but he’s not home right now either.” She sighed. Somewhere in the background, another person was ranting about “irresponsible son of a bitch douchebag piece of—” “I think he went to the bar. Murphey’s. Out on Midland Road. Do you know it?”
“Yeah.” Kurt had taken Sawyer there a few times before Sawyer had made it clear that he didn’t want to drink over their lunch break. Murphey’s bar was the sort of place where, if you weren’t drinking with the food, you basically couldn’t get it down. “Why did he leave the house?”
“Because he’s a stupid shithead!”
“Nadine!” Molly chided, then spoke over Kurt’s sister to say, “I think he’s feeling a bit…surrounded, here. Lots of people, none of the privacy we’re used to—it would be a lot for anybody.”
“—ought to get his big-boy britches on and realize it’s not all about him right now! Our daddy would tan his damn hide if he could see how—”
“I’ll go get him,” Sawyer interjected, “and tell him you want him to come home. I’ll drive him too, if he’s too drunk to do it himself.”
“He probably will be.” Molly sighed again. “I’m so sorry to have to ask for this, honey. I know you’ve got a lot to work on with that case of yours.”
“It’s fine.” It really wasn’t, but Molly had enough on her back right now—she didn’t need Sawyer causing problems for her too. “I’ll take care of it. You rest. Maybe ask Nadine to, ah, settle down a bit.”
“I will. Thanks so much, Sawyer.” She ended the call, and Sawyer put his phone away and turned to see Nan with one eyebrow up.
“Kurt’s on a bender?”
“He’s in a tough spot right now.”
She shook her head. “I get it. Better he fuck around like that when he’s not supposed to be working too, but that’s a hard thing to put on Molly. It’s not like she’s asking to die of cancer.”
“It’s been just the two of them for almost forty years.” That was one of the first things Sawyer had learned about Kurt—the woman in the frame on his desk was his Molly, wife and high-school sweetheart. She was an elementary school nurse with a heart-shaped face and a huge smile. In every picture Sawyer ever saw of her, she was smiling. They’d never had children—Sawyer didn’t know the details and it was none of his business anyway, but he had the feeling they’d tried—and had been an inseparable pair since they’d married at eighteen. “And now he’s got to deal with sharing his space and saying goodbye to the woman he loves. That’s shitty.”
“It is,” Nan agreed. “But that’s life. It’s a bunch of shit moments punctuated with occasional joy, and you didn’t hear that from me because Maria would knife me, but it’s true. I change diapers for twins, I know better than most. C’mon.” She grabbed her purse off the desk. “I’ll ride with you, then drive him home. You can do some more interviews, then…” She grinned. “Go see your sexy doctor.”
“Nan…” Despite himself, Sawyer smiled. “He’s not my anything right now.”
“Yeah, but you want him to be.”