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“One day in the future perhaps.”
Her pen hovered on the page as if she wanted to take down a date.
Chad gestured to the kettle, then the window. “It’s freezing out there.”
Not a subtle change of conversation, but Chad sighed when Keeley busied herself to make their drinks and dropped the subject of a couple’s session withFrank.
“Have you and your sergeant had a chance to patch things up?”
“Yeah, we’re good. She was worried about me, I know, but that’s … not something I’m used to.”
“No one likes to be mollycoddled when they don’t want it.”
“I’m no longer on suspension. I go back to work on Monday, not that I was evernot at work.” He tapped the side of his head. “It’s hard to turn this off.”
“I saw the news,” Keeley said, handing Chad his coffee. “That poor boy.”
“Shawn is out of the hospital. Him and his mum are being helped by specially trained officers.”
“Good. That’s good. But I was referring to the other boy, Tate.”
Chad swallowed. “He killed three people.”
Keeley’s cheeks reddened. “I wasn’t suggesting he was more of a victim than they were. It’s just. He really must’ve felt he had no one to talk to if he reached out to Vincent Whitehall. It almost feels like it could’ve been avoided if Tate had somebody,anybody, else. All this, all those deaths might not have happened.”
“Vincent saw a weakness in him and exploited it for his own gain. Vincent made him feel chosen, made him feel special, then ripped it away from him.” Chad sipped his drink before whispering. “I feel sorry for him, too.”
“Glad I’m not the only one.”
“I keep dreaming about him.”
“Tate?”
Chad nodded. “I see him in the car. I expect him to move, jump, open his eyes, shout, scream, cry … like it’s a scene from a horror movie, but he doesn’t do anything.”
Keeley looked away pondering, but her focus snapped back as he admitted to his coffee,
“Death looked peaceful on him.”
“Peaceful?”
He nodded. “It’s rare in my profession.”
And outside of it.
“And life didn’t look peaceful on him?” Keeley asked softly.
“No. It didn’t. He looked … tortured.”
****
“Hey, boy wonder.”
Chad glared at Ally standing in the car park. “Boy wonder? Really?”
“I was going to call you Crazy-Case, but that probably wouldn’t go down well here.”
“Ally, it wouldn’t go down well anywhere. Are you stalking me now?”
