Page 28 of Forever Gone

Connor lowered his voice. “I’ll check with this Hinkel fellow.”

“Good. Verify the pizza delivery, their phones, and whether either device left the house. Check both men for criminal records as well.”

“I will.”

“Pull the Loyall callout Gerry mentioned. I want the responding officer’s report.”

Connor nodded. “What’s your take?”

“He reacted before we told him about the murder, but the storage break-in explains it. His grief seemed real. That doesn’t clear him. He wouldn’t be the first person to have killed his ex and still grieved them.”

“Glad you didn’t do that to me,” Connor said with a smile. “Even if you’d wanted to.”

Selena ignored that. “I’m going back to the field office. I’ll call Hannah Montgomery about the property and the keys.” Selena glanced back toward the closed interview-room door. “Then I want everything Loyall has on that storage-unit break-in. If it’s connected to Karen’s murder, this started before she ever reached the cabin.”

CHAPTER FIVE

Evening had drained most of the color from Eagleton by the time Selena returned to the old school.

The parking lot was empty. No contractor vans, no county vehicles, no sign that anyone had been inside since she left that morning. A single security light burned above the main entrance, weak against the broad brick front. Beyond the building, the town had begun settling for the night. Storefronts along the main road were dark, and the upper windows of nearby houses held squares of warm light.

Selena unlocked the glass doors and stepped into the lobby.

The door clicked shut behind her.

Dusk pressed against the tall windows, turning the corridor beyond the entrance into a long passage of gray tile and dark classroom doors. During the day, the old school merely appeared neglected. At this hour, its size became harder to ignore. The upper floors stood empty. Old pipes shifted inside the walls. Somewhere near the stairwell, a loose vent gave a faint metallic rattle.

Selena switched on the nearest bank of lights. Two fixtures responded. A third flickered once and remained dark.

She started toward the rear wing.

Her footsteps followed her along the corridor.

The second set came a fraction later.

Selena slowed.

The sound behind her slowed, too.

Her hand moved toward the weapon beneath her jacket as she turned.

Nothing occupied the hall. The entrance doors remained shut, and the dark display case beside them held only the reflection of the working lights.

Selena took another step.

The sound returned from the stairwell, softened and delayed.

An echo.

She released a breath and continued walking.

“Very professional, Selena,” she muttered.

The teachers’ lounge was darker than the corridor. Selena entered, switched on the ceiling light, and watched it pulse twice before deciding to work. She crossed to her desk and turned on an old student lamp she had found in a supply closet. Its green metal shade was dented near the rim, but it cast a steady circle across her notebook and the files from the sheriff’s department.

Three empty desks waited beyond it.

Selena hung her jacket over the back of the chair and sat. Karen Sloane’s name remained at the top of her notebook from the Gerry Tomes interview.