A Visible Darkness - By Jonathon King Page 0,74

the trip worthwhile the traveling acts would book p-places like this.”

I looked around. On this night the ethnic mix looked pretty broad. But I could tell from the body language, haircuts and conversation that most of them were the same color: blue. I had spent a lot of nights in the same kind of bars in Philly.

Richards came back and slid in next to me.

“The chief says Robshaw has a lead on a hacker in Miami. Guy got busted a couple of years ago on a case where some CEO type had dipped into the corporate piggy bank to buy some expensive artwork, then later reported it stolen and tried to collect the insurance. He hired the hacker to do some eraser work on the company computers.

“Hacker flipped on the CEO but still had to do some time. They’re trying to track an address on him now.”

I turned to get a look at Hammonds but he had already disappeared, a full glass of beer left untouched on the bar where he’d been standing.

When I looked back at Richards she held my eyes.

“He’s also opening investigations on our elderly women. He’s sending crime scene teams back out to their homes with explicit instructions to check the metal jalousie tabs for any stress bends.”

Billy leaned in.

“I m-might help you w-with the insurance connection. You can get the file on this hacker?”

“I told him that and he said you’re free to call Robshaw and coordinate with him,” Richards said.

Billy flexed his fingers and his eyes started to dart. I’d seen him get cranked before with the possibility of a challenge.

“If you w-will excuse me, f-folks,” he said moving to get up. “I must go b-before they start p-playing Jimmy Buffett.

“I will be up,” he said to me. “Just call.”

A fresh beer had appeared and I filled half of my glass. Richards finished the wine.

“You stink, Freeman,” she finally said.

There was a pull at the corner of her mouth.

“You are correct,” I answered. I had been wearing the same clothes for two days, slept and sweated in them.

“How about a shower and a couple hours sleep?”

“Deal,” I said, putting money on the table and following her out the door.

32

I followed her to her house and was sitting on the same steps in her backyard, watching the light from the pool dance in the tree leaves and holding a warm cup of coffee. The night was windless and still.

I closed my eyes for the fourth time in ten minutes and chastised myself for letting my head drift back to Philadelphia. Time after time I had questioned why I’d followed my father’s path into this kind of work, knowing that something would happen to make it all feel like a bad mistake. When Richards came back out onto the patio, I realized my fingers had gone to the scar on my neck, and I dropped my hand.

“Your turn,” she said, sitting down beside me, wrapping a long robe around her knees.

Her feet were bare and the smell of fresh soap and the assumption that she was naked under the robe started my blood moving, and I shifted my weight uncomfortably.

“Stay to your right down the hall, first door,” she said, and her eyes looked dark and oddly expressionless in the aqua light.

I passed her my half-full cup and got up saying, “I hope you left some hot water.”

She had left most of the house dark. A light over the stove in the open kitchen illuminated some hanging pots and reflected off the ceramic-tiled countertop. There was a small light glowing red on the instant coffee maker. I thought of my own crude pot in the shack, and I was jealous.

Down the hall the bathroom light left a patch on the wooden floor. I tried to steal a look into the far bedroom door but it was too dark.

The bathroom was standard except for the modern, glassed-in shower that Richards and her husband must have installed in the old house. She’d left a fresh towel and a dark blue T-shirt, size XL, folded up on a wicker clothes basket. On top of the shirt was a can of shaving gel and a man’s razor. I hurried through the shower and scraped off my stubble while I stood in the spray.

When I came back outside she was still sitting, her chin on her knees, staring into the pool water. But when she heard my steps she got up and met me halfway across the patio and stepped into