The next door on the right was another bedroom. It too was the same as the first one. One remaining door on the left. Unlike with the other rooms, this door was shut. The closed door put Ben on alert. He glanced at Brenda, and she stepped behind him.
He opened the door and had a look. The beam of light bumped over something on the floor. Ben moved in closer. A blanket was spread over a lump there. The shape of the lump suggested it was likely a body.
Brenda gasped, and before he could stop her, she had propelled herself around him and pulled back the blanket.
Male.
Scott Devers.
Evidently Dirk Lanier had been right.
Brenda stood over her dead husband’s body, her hands pressed to her mouth.
Ben moved to her side and ushered her into the hall. He leaned her against the wall. “Stay here. I’ll have a closer look and call Shelton.”
Ben entered the bedroom once more and used the flashlight app to get a better look. He felt for a pulse although it was clear the man was dead. His body wasn’t as cold as he’d expected so he examined his fingers and hands. No indication of rigor mortis just yet. He couldn’t have been dead very long. Maybe an hour, two tops.
Next he surveyed the body for injury. There was blood on the front of his shirt. But he had not been stabbed like Cummings. He’d been shot, twice. Once in the abdomen, and the secondshot, likely the kill shot, had entered the chest very close to the heart.
Moving quickly, he checked the pockets of his jeans as best he could without moving the body. He hoped to find a cell phone, but it was not there. He scanned the room. No weapon. No phone.
Ben looked in the closet then, but the room was clear save for the body in the middle of the floor.
He walked back into the hall where Brenda waited. “He hasn’t been dead long. An hour or two maybe.”
Brenda squeezed her eyes shut. “He and Cummings…” She shook her head. “They were both found in properties belonging to Mallory. If she would think nothing of killing two people…”
“You and Mallory have a deal. She isn’t going to risk hurting Janey until she has what she needs.”
“Hope not.” Brenda hugged herself more tightly.
Ben wanted to hold her and comfort her, but there wasn’t time just now. They couldn’t be sure when Mallory would make contact again. “I have to call Shelton. We should probably wait outside until he arrives.”
Brenda followed him to the front door. Ben unlocked it and they walked out. He made the call and tucked the phone back into his pocket.
Now they waited.
Brenda leaned against the front door. He glanced at her, wished he knew the right thing to say to alleviate her worry.
“I know this is hard,” he confessed. “Is there anything I can do?”
She shook her head. “The only thing we can do is wait for word from Mallory.”
They waited a minute or two more in silence. Then the distant sound of sirens and traffic filled the darkness.
“You know,” she said, “I keep thinking I’ll wake up and find that this has all been a dream. But when I open my eyes each morning it just keeps going.”
Ben put his arm around her and pulled her close. He kissed the top of her head.
Headlights bobbed in the distance. Another set and then another followed that.
“Looks like Shelton and his crew have arrived.” He dropped his arm to his side, not wanting to give Shelton something else to pick at.
The detective squealed to a stop at the curb and was out of his car before it stopped rocking.
“This is getting to be a pattern,” he announced as he approached, his shuffle weary.
Ben had warned him when he called that there was no electricity so they would need auxiliary lighting. “Maybe we’re just really good at finding the missing pieces of this case.”
