Page 54 of Cold as Hell

I should be there. But do Ineedto be there? Or can I trust Dalton to do this? I can, and I will.

He suggests videotaping the interview for me. He’ll have Anders bring Grant to the town hall, where Dalton will be waiting with a tablet set up to record video. I appreciate that so much I burst into tears, more proof that I desperately need a break.

I stay at home, jotting notes and making voice memos, curled up in my chair with Storm at my feet. When Dalton returns an hour later, he brings dinner… and the recording. He plays the video as we eat in the living room.

On the screen, Grant walks into the room and looks around. “Where’s the little woman? I thought that’s who I was talking to?”

Anders’s voice comes from the background. “I said Eric needed to speak to you about Lynn.”

“I figured you meant Casey did. Okay then.” He turns to Dalton, who must be off camera. “Since I haven’t seen my wife, I presume this is just to tell me she hasn’t turned up yet.”

“Actually, she has,” Dalton says. “Sit down.”

“Is that an order?”

Dalton had said it without any hint even of his typical brusqueness, and I note Grant’s reaction. On the defensive already? Or just being bristly, as usual?

“Please sit,” Dalton says. “I have bad news.”

I zoom the screen on Grant’s reaction. He goes still and then slowly focuses on Dalton.

“Bad news meaning you found her with Thierry after all?” Grant says.

“Your wife is dead.”

I hide my flinch at the bluntness of that, but I’m not sure I’d have made any other choice. Grant clearly wasn’t going to let Dalton ease into it.

I rewind ten seconds and zoom again to watch Grant’s face when he gets the news.

He just stares. Then he says, “What?”

“I’m sorry, Grant. Lynn is dead.”

“What the fuck does that mean?” Grant steps toward Dalton. “Is this a joke?”

“She’s—”

“This is a prank, right? No, it’s a punishment. You think I’m a dick for not caring that my wife is missing, so you’re telling me this to scare me. Shock treatment. Teach me to give a damn. Well, Idogive a damn. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be in this town.”

“Please sit—”

“I didn’t need to come here. She’s the one who got herself—” Grant bites off the words. “She’s the one who was in trouble. Ichoseto come with her, even after she found out I’d screwedaround and told me I didn’t need to come. She said I could stay and keep the house and everything. Ichoseto come with her. And if it seems like I’m being a dick, maybe that’s because I don’t know how else to handle this. She wants revenge because I screwed around, and she deserves that. Doesn’t mean I need to like it. And it doesn’t mean I deserve this shitty prank—”

“It’s not a prank, Grant.”

“What?”

Dalton’s voice drops as if he’s trying for even more empathy. “Lynn is dead. Casey and I found her body.”

“What?” Grant shakes his head sharply. “No, you’re trying to scare me straight. Scare me into caring. I didn’t report her missing, and now you want me to realize what could have gone wrong.”

“I’m not, Grant. I’m really not.”

Anders speaks up. I thought he’d left, but he must have lingered in case of trouble.

“Eric wouldn’t joke about this,” Anders says. “He wouldn’t say something like that to scare you. No one here would. Casey and Eric found Lynn’s body. She’s in the clinic now.”

Grant only stares for at least ten seconds. Then he says, “I don’t understand. He… He killed her?”