Page 129 of Taken Away

Then she spoke again, her voice quieter.

“I wish we’d fixed things.”

Burke looked up. “What things?”

“Thirty years’ worth.”

The answer hung in the room. Sad. Regretful. Human.

Nothing about the woman on the other end of the line fit the picture he’d expected.

When the call ended, Burke sat staring at the speakerphone.

Scout finally broke the silence.

“Well.”

Burke thought about the warmth in Anne's voice. The surprise. The regret. The easy way she'd offered every piece of information he asked for.

It wasn't what he'd expected from a killer.

Burke looked at the whiteboard.

Red. Walter. Developers. Anne.

He studied Anne Langford's name for a long moment.

"Baker," he said, "run this down. Credit cards, phone records, neighbors, the condo office. I want to know exactly where Anne Langford was the night Mabel died."

"Yes, sir."

Burke picked up the green marker.

Scout watched him. “You buy it?”

Burke drew a neat check beside Anne Langford's name.

"Yeah," he said. "I do."

"Verify it anyway."

The list of suspects was getting shorter.

The answers weren't.

THIRTY-ONE

Blackwood Estate Winery

Aubrey

Aubrey sat behind Mabel’s desk, surrounded by stacks of paperwork she barely understood.

Vendor contracts. Insurance policies. Employee files. Tax records.

Mabel’s life reduced to paper.

Outside the office windows, sunlight spilled across the vineyard rows, turning the leaves silver-green in the afternoon breeze.