Their drinks arrive, and Jonathan sips his Coke. Not surprisingly, Grande has ordered a club soda with her salad. Always keeping up the perfection like so many of the young girls Jonathan runs into on the job, and just like his own daughter, wasting their youth away, trying to reach what is impossible. Always in such a hurry. It’s a shame. Jonathan was guilty of the very same thing in his young days, starting out at the beginning of his twenties—always rushing along, always going somewhere. Now, he is at the end of the rope, at least as far as the FBI is concerned. There is no more for him there. He’s had the career he wanted, but then what? Was it worth it? He lost his marriage in the process and the relationship with his daughter that he wanted. He is trying to fix it now, but it’s hard to do in retrospect. He wants to explain all that to young Grande, but he knows she will not listen. He wouldn’t have when he was her age.
“So, I take it you’re still suspicious about our witness?” he asks as the food arrives, and they dig in.
That’s another thing that is different when you’re at the end of your fifties from the beginning of your twenties—the ability to appreciate something as simple as a good meal. These days, it is worth looking forward to in ways it never was before. Jonathan used to eat whatever was within reach, eating from snack machines, or old leftovers he had forgotten in the fridge as he came home late. When he was still married, his wife would leave a plate out for him that he could heat once he got back. He never properly appreciated the gesture and wishes now he had done that. Nothing beats a good homecooked meal. Jonathan rarely gets that anymore.
“I don’t know about her,” Grande says, crunching her salad. “There’s something that rubs me the wrong way.”
“Well, it is only her side of the story we’re getting, so it will, of course, be quite biased,” Jonathan says and pours ketchup on his plate then dips a fry in it. The fries aren’t half bad. He’s had better, but he’s also had worse.
“You know why we called you down here, right? Because she said she had information about a serial killer.”
Jonathan nods.
“I didn’t know she was just trying to incriminate her own husband,” Grande continues.
“You don’t think he did it?” Jonathan asks.
Grande scoffs. “It’s all a little blurry, isn’t it? She suspects he has killed these two people because her friend tells her they might have been killed. To me, it sounds like they committed suicide; that’s all.”
“The friend is, after all, a forensic investigator,” Jonathan says, dipping another fry in ketchup. “I think she’s telling us all this to paint a picture and to let us know all she has been through. I, for one, think she’s one tough cookie...”
“But isn’t this forensic guy also interested in splitting her and her husband up?” Grande says. “He’s obviously in love with her.”
“There are other ways,” Jonathan says with a grin. “To get a woman. I don’t see why he’d go to these lengths.”
“But come on. The investigators don’t even believe her at all.”
“Because he makes it look like suicide?” Jonathan says.
“I say she’s full of it,” Grande says. “She’s obviously crazy-paranoid.”
Jonathan chuckles. “The cynicism of youth. Her daughter was shot. The man is definitely ill.”
“That’s true,” she says, drinking pensively. “I still don’t think he killed those two from his unit. Do you think he did it?”
Jonathan chews and swallows, taking his time. “I don’t think I know enough to make any assumptions. And maybe whether or not he did it isn’t the point. Maybe it’s what they’ve been through. What she has been through. The fear she’s been enduring, and now her daughter getting shot. It’s a lot.”
Grande is tapping her nails impatiently on the table. “I just wish she’d get to the point, you know? We have a dead body and still don’t know exactly what happened.”
Jonathan finishes his drink and food, then leans back, satisfied.
“You both done with these?” Joanne says and grabs their plates as they nod. She’s wearing red lipstick today, and it makes her look good, Jonathan thinks. “I’ll bring you your checks, then.”
“I think she’s getting there,” Jonathan says as he pays and leaves a fifty-dollar tip, wishing he could see Joanne’s face when she gets it. But he prefers to be gone by then since he doesn’t want her to feel awkward or feel like she needs to thank him. She’s doing a great job, and he wants to reward her; that’s all. And maybe see one of her smiles next time he comes in. He’d really like that.
They get up, grab their phones, and leave. The bell on the door rings as they walk outside into the cold mountain air. He takes a deep breath, then sighs, looking at Grande.
“I also have a feeling we’ll be quite surprised at the conclusion once we get there. We think we have it all figured out by now, but I bet we don’t even have a clue.”
Part III
Chapter 29
When they get out of their cars and walk into the hospital, full from a rock-solid lunch, Detective Grande gets a call. She picks it up.
“Talk to me.”
Jonathan lifts his eyebrows at this. No hello or any other greeting. Just talk to me. Right from the get-go. They walk into the elevator, and Jonathan presses the button. Grande is very quiet as they travel up to the third floor, and the doors open. All he hears from her are small grunts of confirmation to let the person on the other end know she’s still listening.
They walk down the hallway, and Jonathan greets a couple of nurses he recognizes from earlier. They smile warmly, and he compliments one on her hair, another on her necklace, a third on her smile. Grande walks by all of them, barely noticing anyone, phone pressed against her ear.
As he is about to open the door to Laurie’s room, she grabs him by the shoulder and stops him. He turns to look at her. She has hung up and is putting the phone away. He smiles, happy to have her attention.
“When we get in there, let me do the talking to start. There has been a new development.”
Jonathan sends her another smile. “Oh, you mean because they found another body?”
She stares at him, startled.
“How did you know?”
He shrugs. “Call it a hunch. I had a feeling we might find more than one.”
She gives him a strange look, then opens the door and bursts inside. Laurie’s face lights up when she sees them like she has been expecting them. Jonathan likes her. She seems like the type of woman he might date if he was fifteen years younger and not still hung up on his ex-wife. Laurie has that quality about her of being just a genuinely good girl, one that might get herself in trouble, but always does everything out of a good and decent heart. The kind of woman who’d do anything to protect her children.
Grande doesn’t seem to see what he sees, and she stands by her bedside, looking angry. Jonathan sneaks inside and sits down, waiting to see what Grande wants to do next.
“Laurie,” she says, making her voice deeper than usual.
Laurie’s smile freezes. She can tell something is wrong. She bends her head slightly. “They found him, didn’t they?”