Gigi, and I had never given a lot of thought to what it must be like for Stone. Not until now. Many siblings I’d come across were not close, but I loved my brother and was thankful that was not the case with us. I needed to make certain the warmth remained.
“Yes,” I admitted, “those are indeed the facts in evidence.”
“Well, Graeme,” he said, sounding quite pleased, “I can hardly wait to meet this man, and I know I can speak for Gigi when I say she feels the same.”
“I do,” Gigi revealed, and I knew I was on speaker. “Now tell us about this plan your omega came up with. I want to help in any way I can.”
“Excellent,” I stated, and then outlined everything for them as Remy lay there in the bed, listening to every word of the plan to try and make amends for some of the horrors he’d committed.
9
Avery
No one was hungry after listening to Remy Talmadge recount his evening, and even my talk with Graeme didn’t help my mood for long. It had been hard to let him go; I wanted to keep him talking, his voice warming the cold pit in my stomach. Amazing that not even twenty-four hours after meeting the man, I could yearn for something as simple as sitting with him. I could almost feel my wolf pacing inside, wanting his mate, whimpering, whining, becoming more and more agitated with each passing hour. I’d be crazed by the time the evening rolled around if I couldn’t figure out how to placate the animal inside.
It turned out grief was the answer.
At eight in the morning, Wade and I went to the Lowells to deliver the death notification for Imogen. It was horrible. Her mother screamed, turned into her husband’s arms and sobbed. Mr. Lowell appeared shattered.
He clung to his wife, his eyes telegraphing a deep well of pain and horror. “Where is she? When can we see her?” he asked me. “We need to make arrangements for…”
I glanced at his wife, saw her face was still buried in her husband’s chest, and shook my head. Mr. Lowell took a breath.
All we could do now was promise to find her killer.
“Please, when they call to let you know her body is being released, have her sent directly to the funeral home.” His gaze met mine. “Perhaps have your wife go lay down before she collapses.” I suggested gently.
He called for his housekeeper, who rushed in, and when his wife was halfway across the room, I stepped in close to him, my mouth near his ear. “Make certain it’s a closed casket,” I whispered. “Please. Neither you nor your wife need that to be the last image you have of your child.”
He nodded quickly.
Back in my Jeep, Wade and I both sat there for a while outside the Lowell mansion, neither of us speaking, before I drove us back to the station. Hours later we were in the briefing room with Ness and Peck, staring at whiteboards, facts and details and timelines laid out on them, three of us sitting in a row while Wade paced, the only one of us still capable of being upright.
The camera had, in fact, been taken. Our forensics team determined the house was a perfect storm of smudged prints, trace evidence pointing to everything and nothing, and, surprisingly, not a drop of fluid found anywhere that would suggest sex. Even Remy Talmadge’s bed was pristine. All of it, every square foot of the house, was a wash. The word of the day was inconclusive.
“Who do we think took the camera?”
“Maybe the person who killed Highmore,” Ness offered, his head resting on his arms folded on the table. “Maybe not. Who the fuck knows?”
This was the day we were having. No answers, just more questions. Sitting there listening to him, I recalled a time before I valued his words and opinions.
The first time I’d met Craig Ness, I’d thought, with his blond hair and blue eyes, square-cut jaw, ruddy, wind-chapped complexion, and the “aw-shucks” grin, that he just got off a train from Iowa or Idaho or someplace where they ate a lot of potatoes and corn. I thought he was a hick and couldn’t be all that bright, especially since he was built like a linebacker. Big and dumb was my initial conclusion. It was stupid and judgmental, and when he solved a cold case his second week on the job, I found out that while big