Page 260 of Secrets Hidden In The Glass

“Why don’t you go have a late lunch?”

Mac winced. “I’m not real hungry—can’t get those images of Bob and Lucky out of my head.”

Nate wasn’t sure when he would be able to close his eyes without seeing them too. “We’ve all had one hell of a shock. I’m betting Molly’s made chicken noodle soup today. Go get yourself a bowl and sip on it.”

Mac stood. “That’s probably not a half-bad idea.”

“There’s no need to rush back.”

“Thanks.” Mac left, closing Nate inside.

He took Mac’s abandoned seat and got straight to work, grabbing the folder of statements Shawn had collected in the wee hours of the morning. Leafing through the pathetically short stack, he found James Larsen’s account of what had transpired, Bob’s closest neighbor and the only person who heard anything. A good three or four hundred yards of forest separated the Larsen and Tillerson properties, but James’s statement had been full of good details. Nate picked up the phone and dialed James’s cell phone number written in barely legible chicken scratch.

“Hello?”

“James, it’s Nate Carter.”

“Nate. My God.”

He sat back, crossing his ankles. “How are you doing?”

“I don’t know. I’m still trying to believe that Captain Bob’s gone.”

He shook his head, sliding his fingers through his hair. “It’s a shame. We’re going to miss Bob and Lucky a lot.”

“I just—I wish—I should have driven over there.”

“You couldn’t have known he was in trouble. None of us did. I talked to Bob just a few hours before this happened. Everything seemed fine.” Which was one of the things that troubled him most. “I’m hoping you might be able to tell me what happened.”

“I gave Shawn my statement.”

“Yeah, I have it right here, but I wanted to ask you myself—see if a few hours might’ve helped you remember any new details.”

“I don’t think so.”

“You heard something around two thirty?” Nate prompted anyway.

“I didn’t realize I did at first. I think the first gunshot woke me up, but it didn’t register that the sound I heard was Bob… I didn’t know anything was wrong.”

“Of course you didn’t.”

“I, um, I decided to get up and pee.”

“Diane didn’t hear anything?”

“No. Not the first one. I woke her up when I got out of bed.”

“So you used the bathroom?”

“Yeah. I realized I was hungry—went downstairs and got a banana, ate it, then came back up. Diane got a little pissed—said I was loud and if I woke up the kids, I was putting them back to bed. I was getting under the covers when we both heard the next shot. I told Diane I thought I’d heard another a few minutes before.”

“About how far apart were they?”

“Uh, probably about eight minutes or so. Then we heard the third a couple minutes after that.”

Nate scanned the statement again, finding that James’s memories of the incident were exactly the same, even several hours later.

“The shots seemed like they came from Captain’s Bob direction, so we decided I’d better call it in,” James continued. “I wanted to go see if everything was okay, but Diane wouldn’t let me with all of the trouble that’s been going on. I might have been able to save him, Nate.”