Page 80 of Deathtoll

Murph spent the night guarding Kate’s house from the outside, circling her block over and over. When the sun came up and the new shift started to arrive to watch her, he went home to catch a couple of hours sleep, then he showered, caffeinated, and drove to Linda Gonzales’s house bleary-eyed. He hoped Linda was home from her visit with her daughter early.

Nobody answered the doorbell.

While Murph waited, he called the captain. “Any news on Emma?”

“Would have called you if we had anything.” Bing sounded as if Murph had woken him from a deep sleep. “We’ll keep looking. Got into Betty Gardner’s house?”

“Waiting for Linda to come home.”

“Let me know if you find anything.”

Murph promised, then ended the call because a blue minivan was rolling up the driveway.

“Oh, you don’t need a key, hon,” Linda told him once he presented his request. “Open house today. Realtor is probably over there already, setting up. She said she’d go early, see if she could do something to put the place in the best light. I think they usually bake cookies to make a house smell nice, don’t they?”

Murph had no idea. “Things are moving fast,” he commented. “That’s good, I suppose. Closure.”

Linda pressed her lips together. She blinked, then shook her head, struggling for words.

“You must miss her.”

“We had a lot in common. I could talk about anything with Betty. She read a lot, listened to NPR, watched PBS. She used to be a teacher. She had an opinion on everything. Read romances, like I do. We used to swap books.” Linda teared up.

“I don’t read a lot of romance novels,” Murph told her, “but if you need help with anything else, you let me know.”

“You’re a good man.” Linda patted his arm. “Tell Kate I said hi and thank her for me for all her help. You snap that girl up and marry her.”

“Working on it,” Murph said, then he went on his way.

Mike sat in a cruiser outside Kate’s house, with bags under his eyes, looking decidedly worse for wear.

“Not a mouse stirring last night,” he said when Murph walked up to him.

Murph looked up the walkway, toward Kate’s front door.

“You gonna talk to her this time? Or just shoot more pining glances?”

“Give my greetings to your amazing girlfriend.”

“Not funny. It’s not a sin to be single. My moment will come. It will be love at first sight. We will marry immediately and live happily ever after.”

“Hey, Linda Gonzales is looking for someone to swap romance novels with.” Then, since Mike started to roll up his window, Murph quickly added, “Why are you still here?”

“Harper had to wait for the liquor delivery at Finnegan’s to sign for it. His parents are out of town. The truck broke down, so everyone’s running late. But he just called to let me know he’ll be here in ten minutes.”

“Thank you for keeping an eye on Kate.”

Mike nodded, somewhat mollified, before he closed the window all the way. That he hadn’t cracked a single joke spoke to how exhausted he was.

Murph walked over to Betty’s house, knocked on the front door, and was let in.

The Realtor was a pretty young woman, wearing a rose-hue business suit. He didn’t know her. Then again, he didn’t knoweveryonein Broslin. New people moved in all the time. The town had a blue-ribbon school district, and it was an all-around great place to live.

“Mila.” She offered her hand and a welcoming smile. “Come on in. Interested in the house?”

“Hi. Murph Dolan. Interested, but not in buying. I’m working with the local police on a case as a civilian consultant. Do you think I could quickly walk through the place?”

Her smile fell. She glanced past him, through the window, at Mike’s police cruiser by the curb. She sighed. “This is going to be terrible for business today.”