Call your sister-in-law.”
“Right. I will.”
“You want to get coffee? How long till you’re ready?”
“I have to make the call and get a shower. An hour?”
“You’re on your own then, Jack.”
“Okay, a half hour. You’ve already been up?”
“No.”
“Well, don’t you have to take a shower?”
“I don’t take an hour to get ready, even on a day off.”
“Okay, okay. A half hour.”
As I got up I found the torn condom package on the floor. I picked it up and committed the brand to memory since it obviously was the one she preferred, then threw it in the bathroom trash can.
I was almost hoping Riley wouldn’t be home because I didn’t know exactly how to ask her to let people dig up her husband’s body or how she would react. But I knew that at five till nine on a Sunday morning there wasn’t much chance that she would be anywhere else. As far as I knew, her only appearances in church in recent years were at Sean’s funeral and her wedding before that.
She answered on the second ring with a voice that seemed more cheerful than I’d heard in the last month. At first I wasn’t even sure it was her.
“Riles?”
“Jack, where are you? I was worried.”
“I’m in Phoenix. Why are you worried?”
“Well, you know, I didn’t know what was going on.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t call. Everything’s okay. I’m with the FBI. I can’t say a lot but they are looking into Sean’s death. His and some others.”
I looked out the window and saw the lines of a mountain on the horizon. The tourist pamphlet that came with the room said it was called Camelback Mountain and the name fit. I didn’t know if I was saying too much. But it wasn’t like Riley was going to go sell the story to the National Enquirer.
“Uh, something’s come up on the case. They think there might’ve been some evidence missed on Sean . . . Uh, they want to . . . Riley, they need to take him out of the ground to look at him again.”
There was no response. I waited a long time.
“Riley?”
“Jack, why?”
“It will help the case. The investigation.”
“But what do they want? Are . . . are they going to cut him open again?”
She said the last part in a desperate whisper and I realized how I had bungled the job of telling her.
“Oh, no. Not at all. Uh, all they want to do is look at his hands. Nothing else. You have to give them permission. Otherwise, they have to go through courts and it’s a long mess.”
“His hands? Why Jack?”
“It’s a long story. I’m not really supposed to tell you but I’ll tell you this. They think the guy . . . whoever did this, he tried to hypnotize Sean. They want to look at his hands to see if there are pinpricks, you know. That’s the test somebody might have given to see if Sean was really hypnotized.”
There was more silence.
“There was something else,” I said. “Did Sean have a cough or a cold? You know, back on the day it happened.”
“Yes,” she said after a moment’s hesitation. “He was sick and I told him not to go in that day. I was sick, too, and I told him to stay home with me. Jack, you know what?”
“What?”
“I must’ve felt sick because I was pregnant. I found out Wednesday.”
It caught me off guard. I hesitated.
“Oh, Riley,” I finally said. “That’s wonderful. Did you tell the folks?”
“Yes, they know. They’re very happy. It’s like a miracle child because I didn’t know and we hadn’t really been trying.”
“It’s great news.”
I didn’t know how to get back to the other conversation we had been having. Finally, I just bull-rushed her to the point.
“I’ve got to go now, Riles. What can I tell them?”
Rachel was in the lobby when I stepped out of the elevator. She had both her computer bag and her overnighter with her.
“You checked out?” I asked, not understanding.
“FBI rules of the road. Never leave anything in the room because you never know when you’ll have to fly. We get a break today, I’m not going to have time to come back and pack my things.”
I nodded. It was too late for me to pack and I had almost nothing to pack anyway.
“Did you call her?”
“Yes. She said fine. She said do it. For what it’s worth, she also said he was sick. The cough syrup was his. And I figured out why Sean was killed in