Page 33 of Sharp Force

“Unless I find out something to convince me otherwise, I’m not ruling him a suicide,” I reply.

“There’s a lot to look into,” he says. “Including whether Reba might have had something going on outside the marriage. She’snice-looking and around all kinds of people at the hospital. It’s obvious she and Rowdy didn’t have much of a relationship anymore.”

“She intimated as much.”

I tell him about the box of expired condoms in a cabinet, and that Rowdy mostly lived in his office.

“Apparently they fought a lot,” Marino says.

“The police will dig into her personal life, as if she hasn’t been through enough,” I reply.

“Maybe she has a relationship on the side,” Marino goes on. “Rowdy shot his gun twice, and I’m betting he did that while he was on the pier. Maybe Reba has a boyfriend who decided to show up, maybe encouraging Rowdy to give her a divorce.”

“That’s a lot of maybes,” I reply. “And do we know if she wanted a divorce?”

“Got no idea. But Rick and Mick were worried aboutMom leaving. That’s what they said.”

Marino lightly taps the brakes, gradually coming to a stop as we reach King Street.

“I asked them a lot of questions about the night their dad disappeared,” he’s saying. “I got the impression that their parents were arguing before Rowdy went out the door with his fishing gear and cooler of beer.”

“Do we have any idea what they were arguing about?” I ask, the wipers thumping like a metronome.

A tow truck clanks by with chains on the tires.

“Sounds like she hated his fishing trips. Reba was asking him to stay home for once,” Marino explains. “His night fishing isn’t making much sense. I wonder what he was really up to. Especially since the pier he picked is used for trysts. Assuming Fabian knows what the hell he’s talking about.”

“He used to take dates there,” I reply. “I’d say he knows.”

“Making me wonder if Rowdy was a voyeur. Maybe he liked to watch.”

I pass along what Maggie told me about him looking at pornography on his phone.

“It’s clear he struggled with depression and liked having time to himself,” I explain. “If he hung out on the pier for voyeuristic reasons, to drink while looking at porn, that might be the explanation. In other words, he wasn’t there to fish.”

“I’d be depressed too if I couldn’t do anything physical anymore, including having sex and working out in the gym. Not to mention, Dorothy would bail on me for sure,” Marino says. “Rowdy’s moods will be used against him. I doubt Reba will see any insurance money anytime soon. Maybe never. Especially if you decide the case is undetermined.”

“That’s not happening. But I’ll have to pend the manner of death for a while,” I reply, the Ace Hardware store we churn past closed, not a car in the lot.

Usually, Christmas Eve would be hopping in Old Town, but restaurants, bars and other businesses are empty. Holiday markets and Santa’s Magical Corner are dark and barricaded, parades and music fests canceled because of the weather.

Lighted evergreen swags strung over the street swing in arctic gusts that have torn loose pine garlands from doorways and lampposts.

An inflatable gingerbread man yanks at his tether in front of the mattress store.

A Grinch has escaped someone’s yard and is supine by the roadside, shaking in the wind.

Illuminated spheres and starbursts sway perilously in trees as if the world is coming to a furious end.

Marino’s big truck cuts through side streets that need plowing, hardly anyone out. We creep past abandoned cars that have plunged into the ditch. Burned-out emergency flares are black streaks in the shadowy snow.

Thunder reverberates, wind pummeling as the storm rages. I continue checking messages, worried about Benton, about Lucy and my sister, about everyone. I’m unsettled as if something awful is about to happen.

Any progress?I send a text to Benton.

Not good,he answers quickly.

Since we last communicated, he’s not gotten any farther than Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. A tractor-trailer jackknifed and is blocking two lanes of traffic. Benton tells me he’s been sitting without moving for the past thirty-five minutes, his electric car battery running low.