Page 24 of Line of Sight (Second Sight #4)

Evening

“WHAT ARE you reading?”

Dan glanced up from his book. “ Strangers on a Train .”

Gary brought the cups over and placed them on the coffee table. “And are you reading it to get a sense of Brad or of the killer?”

“This isn’t Brad’s copy. I hit the bookstore on the way home while you were shopping at the store.

” He smiled. “Actually? I’m reading because I’ve never read it before.

” Gary flopped onto the couch next to him, and Dan leaned against him.

“I like her style, I must admit. The way she depicts Bruno…. You know from the moment you meet him that there’s something about this guy that doesn’t add up.

” He marked his page with a bookmark and closed it.

Gary pointed to the pile of books on the table. “Are those next?”

Dan had bought copies of The Silence of the Lambs , The Bone Collector , SWF Seeks Same , and American Psycho .

“Yeah. Not my usual taste in books, but this is research, right?” He sighed.

“I keep thinking about what Brad wrote in that book. I don’t know what SMC means, but I do know he found it repellent. I also have an idea why.”

“Go on.”

Dan tried to frame his feelings into some coherent pattern.

“Brad loved reading. He loved mysteries and thrillers. Now, we know our killer used murder scenes from thrillers for… I suppose inspiration is the closest I can get to it. So maybe Brad saw Scott’s murder for what it was—a murder lifted from the pages of one of his favorite genres—and this unsettled him.

No, offended him. That someone could take something he loved to read and twist it into this appalling act.

” Dan reached for his cup. “Maybe there’s more to it than that.

Maybe the motive for the killing appalled him too.

” He held up his hand. “I know, there are no apparent motives, but you’re a detective.

Does this feel like a set of random murders?

People killed for no reason whatsoever?”

Gary didn’t say anything for a moment. Dan liked that about his partner. He didn’t say the first thing that came into his head—he thought about it, ruminated on it, before committing to words out loud.

“No, it doesn’t,” Gary said at last. “For him to come up with these scenarios? That took time. Research. Surveillance, even. And for Barry to choose those four names means there has to be something that connects them to the victims. Maybe you’re right.

Maybe Brad knew why the killer was doing this, and it reviled him. ”

“One thing I don’t understand. Scott McCarthy died January thirteenth, 1995. Brad was unsettled from February onwards. He died April sixteenth, three months after Scott’s murder. If Brad knew it was murder—let’s say he discovered it in February—why didn’t he report it to the police?”

“I don’t know. There had to be a reason. Brad wasn’t the kind of person who’d help conceal a murderer. I know he wasn’t.” Gary’s voice rang out, and Dan could hear the notes of both conviction and frustration.

Dan put his cup down and grasped Gary’s hand. “We may never know why. That’s one secret Brad took with him to his grave.”

“Unless the killer knows.”

“Then we’d better make sure we get the chance to ask him.”

Dan had a growing list of questions. Top of the list was easy.

Just how many people have you killed that the police don’t even know about?