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No bride. No wife. Not ever. She cleared a sudden hoarseness from her throat. “He told me he wasn’t married.”
“No, but he has a sister and niece in Seattle.”
Seattle, from where his rent was paid. “How old is the niece?”
“Twelve.”
Remembering how he’d been with Lisa, she thought he could probably easily win the affection of a twelve-year-old niece. And his sister? “Are he and his sister close?”
Connell grimaced. “Like you wouldn’t believe. In fact, just over twenty-four hours ago, I was in her house, trying to pry, cajole, wring information from her. She claimed not to know where he was.”
“Perhaps she didn’t.”
The agent shrugged, indicating it was no longer an issue. Bannock had been found. Or as good as.
“What else can you tell me about him, Dr. Charbonneau?” he asked.
He has a thunderbolt tattoo just above his groin. When I traced the design with my tongue, he warned me of consequences. I didn’t heed his warning.
“He keeps his promises,” she said softly. “He reads a lot. He repairs things.” She looked at Jeff. “He glued the stem of my sunglasses back together. He also builds things.” She described the bookshelves, the unfinished shed.
Connell said, “He holds a degree in constructional engineering.”
Beside her, Jeff had begun to fidget. “This is all thoroughly captivating, Mr. Connell. But does it have a point? What does any of this have to do with what Bannock did to Emory?”
Connell jumped on that. “You’re assuming that he knocked your wife unconscious and carried her away.”
“Aren’t you?”
“I would be very surprised,” the agent replied. “Shocked, actually.”
That took Jeff aback. Emory as well. She looked over at Knight, whose hand had been arrested in midair between the bag of popcorn and his open mouth.
Connell remained focused on her. “Is that what you believe happened to you that day on the trail?”
“When I woke up in his cabin, not knowing where I was or how I got there, my initial reaction was to be afraid of him. And for the first two days, I remained wary and cautious. I even made a couple of futile attempts to leave.”
“He stopped you?”
“Circumstances did. The weather. Then the situation with Lisa.”
“Okay. You were saying?”
“Over time, I came to believe that he hadn’t harmed me and didn’t intend to.”
“Truly, Dr. Charbonneau, I believe you were safe the entire time you were with him,” Connell said. “It would have been totally out of character for him to see a woman alone, or anyone with whom he didn’t have a quarrel, and attack them. He’s not a sexual predator either. That’s not what he’s about.”
“Then what is he about?” Knight asked.
“Punishment. I suppose some would term it vengeance, but it’s less personal than that.”
“I believe the Floyd brothers would take personally what he did to them,” Jeff said.
“Actually punishment fits,” Knight said. “The deputy who interviewed Lisa speculated that her brothers had been messing with her and that’s how she got pregnant.”
They all looked to Emory, who said nothing. But her pained expression must have given her away.
Jack Connell sighed as he dragged his hand down his face. “That would light Bannock’s fuse, all right. But his grudge against the Floyds goes back farther than the abuse inflicted on their sister.”
