Page 169 of Forever Dead

Price’s photographs arrived a few minutes later: the fragment beneath the couch, a close-up after collection, and the wound image she had requested before leaving the farmhouse. That last copy had been cropped and rotated to remove anything identifying the location on Nora’s body. She wanted an assessment of the cut itself.

Gerald Foss had already examined the earlier material. He could compare the stitching and explain what Blethan’s description suggested about the skills involved.

She found his number in the previous consultation notes and rested her thumb beside it.

A call would be quicker.

But she wanted him to study the photographs with her there, to point out what mattered and answer questions as they occurred to her. Their first visit had yielded more than a conversation over the telephone could have.

Meg had said no interviews.

Selena told herself a second consultation was different, though she doubted Meg would agree.

She selected the copies Chuck had authorized for investigative use and put the notebook away. Foss’s address was on the same page as his telephone number. She folded it once and slipped it into her jacket pocket.

Outside the briefing room, a phone began ringing at Cheryl’s desk.

Selena took the cane and stood carefully this time.

She was not going after a suspect.

She was going to ask a doctor a question.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

By the time Selena left Elmsview, the first porch lights were coming on.

The sun had dropped behind the western hills, leaving a narrow band of orange beneath the cloud. Families were already moving along the sidewalks. Children in capes, plastic masks and painted faces hurried between houses while parents followed with flashlights and bags of their own. A little girl dressed as a witch stood on the courthouse steps beside three glowing pumpkins, waiting impatiently while her father adjusted the point of her hat.

For a few blocks, Selena let herself watch.

This was what Robert had wanted. Porch lights. Doorbells. Children arguing over candy. Something ordinary after weeks in which almost nothing had felt ordinary.

Then she passed a patrol car parked at the intersection leading toward Meekie’s.

The comfort disappeared.

Eleanor Marsh had been murdered less than a week before Halloween. Patricia Vanes had been lured to the Tully farmhouse and killed. Nora Ellison had died within sight of a corn maze filled with families. Connor had gone after the man responsible and ended the night on an operating table.

Selena tightened her grip on the steering wheel.

The video from the maze had changed things. Anyone who had seen it might recognize the stitched mask, but the killer could take it off. Nobody had identified the man underneath.

Ahead, a father stopped his children at the curb while a patrol car passed. Other families continued toward the houses with porch lights on. Some people would stay home tonight. Others would decide the danger belonged somewhere else.

If the timing mattered to the killer, Halloween still offered crowded streets and strangers approaching open doors. Selena could not assume last night had been his final performance.

The thought stayed with her as she drove out of Elmsview and toward Eagleton.

Traffic thinned. Costumed children gave way to isolated houses and long stretches of road where the last daylight had almost disappeared. Selena checked the time on the dashboard.

She could pull over and call Chuck now.

He would ask where she was going, and she would have to explain why the consultation needed to happen in person. She had already sent him her notes. He could arrange a call with Foss himself.

Selena drove past a gravel turnout.

She wanted to ask the questions herself, while the evidence was fresh and Foss could show her what he meant. That was the reason she had left the station. It was also the reason she had avoided asking.