Page 46 of Deathtoll

The tower was no longer in use—abandoned.

Watered with blood.

Mordocai had died somewhere around here. A bullet from Murph Dolan had punched through his head.

Asael wrapped his cold anger around himself as he searched for the spot below where Mordocai had plummeted to an early death, but time had erased all trace of the murder.

He stood there and planned, no longer seeing the woods, but the people he’d met at Betty Gardner’s funeral the day before.Finally, he knew why his unfailing instincts had brought him among them.

Oh, Mordocai.

For the first time in years, Asael let himself feel. He barely noticed when it began to rain, when the background noise of birds and distant traffic changed to water splashing onto leaves.

He and Mordocai had had their ups and downs. What relationship didn’t? But overall, among all the others, Mordocai might have been the one.

Older, less skilled, but stubborn. That stubbornness had been at the root of most of their fights. And yet, it was the same stubbornness that had brought Mordocai to Broslin.

The gift.

Not some trivial mushroom memorabilia, after all, but a person.

Kate Bridges.

The thought filled Asael with more affection for his dead lover than he had ever felt for anyone living.

Mordocai had doggedly tracked down the bitch and found her. Had tried to take her out, no doubt, when the local busybody cop shot him. The news hadn’t used her name.Out-of-town stranger kidnaps local resident and is killed by police in successful rescue,the online paper Asael had read informed him.

At the time, Asael had told himself he didn’t care. He had plenty of other lovers. Assassins couldn’t afford to feel pain. He had chosen to be annoyed with Mordocai instead of grieving him, aggravated that Mordocai had been stupid enough to get killed.

Asael looked down.

Mordocai had drawn his last breath somewhere on the leaf-covered ground below.

Asael filled his lungs with air that smelled like rain and wet forest, and he made a decision.

He hadn’t come to Broslin with the intention to avenge Mordocai. But he hadn’t known then what he knew now. Mordocai had given hislifefor him.

And that changed everything.

Chapter Seventeen

Murph

Since Murph didn’t want to get on the captain’s bad side, he did not stop at the church to casually interrogate Pastor Garvey’s wife. But he did drive by after he’d dropped off a pickup load of Betty’s furniture at the local mission that helped people who’d served their sentences restart their lives. Pastor Garvey would have approved.

The Garveys lived in a house next to the small nondenominational church with their four kids. They drove near-identical Chevy Trailblazers, Bill’s white, Amanda’s black. Both stood in the driveway as Murph checked out the place, noting the CONGRATULATIONS! THE WELL IS FILLED sign in front of the church next door. The giant image of a stone well was painted all the way to the top with blue, a smaller sign stuck to the brim declaring: FOUR MILLION DOLLARS RAISED!

A vague memory stirred in his brain, the proud sign reminding him of something just out of reach. He tried to figure out what all the way to the police station, but in vain.

The cleanup crew at Betty’s house was done for the day, so he had time for other things. Like talking to Bing.

“Captain in?” he asked Robin at the front desk.

She looked up from her computer. “Captains don’t have to work weekends.”

“Since when? He used to be in here all the time.”

“And now he’s married with kids.” Robin smiled.