Page 56 of Line of Sight

The silence that followed told him his theory might not be so far-fetched after all.

“Then why not confront him?” Riley countered.

Dan shrugged. “Sure, she could do that. Or she could simply remove him from the equation. Mark dies. She continues with the project, onlynowit’s all hers. She credits him as having contributed, and no one bats an eyelid.”

Gary expelled a long breath. “That’s plausible. It assumes the companies would say nothing when she published, however.”

“Why would they?” Dan remonstrated. “She didn’t claim it all as her own work, did she? Maybe they put two and two together, worked out what Mark was up to, and didn’t say anything, because hell, the guy had just been murdered. If they said anything, it would only cause pain for his family.”

Riley grinned. “Okay, I’m really liking these ideas. What about Heather Kelly?”

“Ask me when we start looking into her case in depth,” Gary told him. “But I’ll make a prediction.” His eyes gleamed. “I’ll bet you a month’s supply of coffee and cinnamon rolls that when Jeff Murphy’s murder was taking place, all four of them were together.”

Riley’s face lit up, but then he pouted. “Yeah, I’m not gonna take that bet.”

“We know there’s a fifth person somewhere in all this,” Dan observed. “They organized the concert tickets. They organized the camping trip too. I think connecting them to the wedding is a bit of a stretch, however.”

Gary widened his eyes. “Unless it was the other way around.”

“What do you mean?”

“If he knew these guys, then he’d have known about the wedding. The date. He could’ve arranged to kill Heather when he knew they’d all have alibis. Come on, weddings are organized months, evenyearsin advance.”

“Wait a minute.” Riley stared at him. “You’re saying Unknown Guy is our killer?Hearranged to kill Heather?”

Dan held up his hands. “Hey, it’s just a theory. But if all four of them have alibis….” He gestured to the whiteboard. “Someonekilled all these people.”

“But how doeshebenefit?” Riley demanded. “Why is he doing this?”

Dan said nothing for a moment, not wanting to give voice to the idea that bloomed into something horrific.

“Dan?”

He gazed at Riley. “Maybe heisgetting something.”

“Like what? Payment?”

“We could look at bank records,” Gary suggested. “See if any of these four made large withdrawals around the times of the murders.”

Dan shook his head once more. “No. This guy doesn’t do it for the money.”

“Then what does he do it for?”

He looked Gary in the eye.

“He does it because he likes it.”

Chapter Forty

Saturday, September 22, 2012

I HADN’Tintended going to the class reunion. Hours of mingling with people I didn’t remember, the effort required to appear as if I was interested in their boring-as-fuck conversations and reminiscences….

Then I reconsidered. The others would be there, two of whom had already taken advantage of my offer. Watching their reactions when I arrived promised to be entertaining.

Maybe the evening wouldn’t be a total waste of time after all.

Several people nodded or smiled at me, and I politely returned them as I snaked my way through the crowd, heading for one of the bars that had been set up at opposite ends of the room.