Then Kara, voice barely audible: “Do you think they’re even looking for us?”
“Yes,” Matt said, firm now, because he had to believe it. “They know. Our team knows. They’re looking. And if they don’t find us tonight—we findthemat dawn. We won’t spend another night in this damn tomb.”
Slowly, her sobs faded. She hugged him tightly, shaking, clinging like the world would fall away if she let go.
Matt was just as scared. He could feel it creeping in with every hour—the weakness, the doubt. But they had one thing left.
Each other.
And until morning, that had to be enough.
18
Catherine shut the door to the sheriff’s conference room before answering the call from Garrett Reid’s brother.
“Thank you for getting back to me,” she said.
“I talked to my dad,” Vince Reid replied. “He said Garrett’s a suspect in a homicide?”
“Yes. Multiple homicides.”
“Shit,” Vince muttered. “Don’t call my parents again. They’re retired, they’re heartbroken, and they don’t deserve to be dragged into this.”
“I hope I won’t need to. But we have to understand Garrett in order to stop him from hurting anyone else.”
“I haven’t spoken to him in over five years.”
“What was he like growing up?”
“I’m ten years older. Frank’s less than two years younger than me—we’re close. Garrett came along years later. Cute kid, good at baseball. Our parents were always at his games, bought him the best gear. He was a star player—until he hit tougherleagues and realized other kids were just as good, or better. He quit. Could’ve been great, if he practiced and accepted that there were other good players. But he hated being second to anyone.”
Catherine made the note. It was a very interesting point, and she considered how that might play into his psychology with a partner.
“He was smart,” Vince continued. “Straight A’s. Got into UCLA. Our parents saved for college, paid his tuition and housing. He never visited them, rarely even returned their calls. Six months after he graduated, they found out he’d taken out loans in my mom’s name. Tricked her. She thought she was signing something else. He pocketed the money they gave him and stuck them with nearly a hundred grand in debt. They’re still paying it off. When I confronted him, he said they didn’t need the money because they didn’t have a mortgage.”
A narcissist,Catherine thought.No remorse. No conscience.
Possible. But she still needed more information, because sociopaths were complex. They didn’t always fall neatly into known patterns of behavior.
“What did he study?” she asked.
“Mechanical engineering, at least at the beginning. Like I said, Garrett is very smart. But he hates work. He works hard at avoiding work, so halfway through his second year he switched to English lit with a minor in math, because he already had most of the math requirements done. Said all he had to do was read a book and parrot the professor.”
“And he graduated?”
“Yeah. With honors,” Vince snorted.
“Why did you stop speaking to him?”
Vince hesitated. “Does that matter?”
“It might.”
“When the loan scam came out, he walked out of our parents’ house and moved in with my mom’s best friend. She wasrecently divorced. Twice his age. I’m sure he used her for money, then moved on. It destroyed my mom’s friendship—who sleeps with someone their son’s age?”
He exhaled hard.
“Then he tried to seduce my wife. Came over when I was working a thirty-six-hour shift. Bella had just had our first daughter. She’d left her career, felt isolated and overwhelmed. Garrett charmed his way in. Played the loving family member. She wanted to believe he could change, make our parents proud again.” He paused.
