Page 49 of Line of Sight

The door opened, and Riley breezed in, bringing with him the delicious aromas of coffee, cinnamon, and sugar. “Have I missed anything? You didn’t solve all the cases while I was gone, did you?”

Dan folded his arms. “There’s one question we need to answer.”

“Only one?” Riley asked as he handed Dan a cup of coffee.

Dan pointed to the timeline. “There’s a gap. No murders from 1997 until 2013. So either we’ve missed some, or….”

“Or?” Gary joined him. “Got any ideas on that?”

“Not at the moment. For some reason we know nothing about, he stopped killing.”

Did you grow tired of murder? And then you got bored and decided to start again?

Did you develop a conscience?Yeah, Dan couldn’t see that one.

Riley snorted. “Maybe he was in prison. That’s a possibility, right?”

“Or he went overseas,” Gary suggested.

“For sixteen years? That’s one hell of a vacation.” Dan couldn’t shake the feeling that if they could discover what lay behind the gap, they might learn something vital.

What were you doing for sixteen years?

Chapter Thirty-Four

March 1, 2000

I STAREDat my father in disbelief.He has to be kidding. This is a joke.

Then I dismissed the thought. Father didn’t possess a sense of humor.

“Why would you want me to go to Canada?”

Father drummed the desk with his fingers. “You’re in no position to argue. You have to agree you’ve had it easy all your life. I gave you a good job in the company, and you’re hardly ever there.”

It was on the tip of my tongue to fire back at him that it wasn’t as if I needed the money, right? Why suffer the boredom of a job when I had everything I needed?

He steepled his fingers. “You’re twenty-seven. It’s time you learned about responsibility. So… you’re going to Toronto. You’ll run the new company.”

Toronto. Even the idea made me shiver.What the fuck am I supposed to do in Toronto?

I leaned forward. “For how long?” I had to pin him down, get a clear picture of what this form of torture entailed.

“Let’s play that by ear. A few years, to start with.”

I gaped. I’d expected a couple of months, tops.

“Years? What’s a few? Two? Three? Four?”

Father shrugged. “Maybe longer.”

I prided myself on keeping my cool in all circumstances, but right then I lost it.

“Why can’t you be honest enough to come right out and tell me therealreason you’re sending me there?”

He blinked. Blinked again. “And what might that be?”

I could have told him in a heartbeat.