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“Evening. Is this the home of Chuck Pierce?”
“It depends. Who are you?”
“I’m Agent Dark with the FBI. We need to speak to Chuck. Is he home?”
“No. He’s not. What do you want with him?”
“You’re his wife?” Ella asked.
“Yes. Soon to be ex-wife.”
A stressor, Ella thought. Relationship break-ups drove people to horrible things. Combined with his already-fragile state of mind, this could have been what tipped him over the edge.
“My apologies. Does Chuck live here?”
“Sometimes. What’s with the questions?”
“We can’t reveal too much, but Chuck is wanted for questioning in relation to a series of recent crimes. Do you know where we can find him?”
The woman peered out of the doorway and looked both ways down the street. “Is this a joke? Did Chuck send you?”
Ella sensed some resentment between the two ex-lovers. A tale as old as time. “I assure you it’s no joke.” Ella flashed her FBI badge.
“He pretty much lives at his shack now,” the woman said.
“His shack? Where’s that?”
“Out in the sticks. Pinefields, if you know it.”
Ella didn’t, but she was more interested in why this man lived in a shack in the middle of the woods. “Why does he live like that?” she asked.
The woman peered out again, having spotted Ripley lurking at the back. “Look, I’m gonna need some assurance here, alright?”
“Assurance? What kind?”
“Chuck was always a bit kooky. The past few months, he’s gone completely off the rails though. I need to know he won’t know it was me who told you this stuff. I want safety. Protection.”
Ripley edged closer to the conversation then sheathed her weapon. “Protection from your ex-husband?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“We can get some officers to watch your home. We can get you to a safe house. Does that work for you?”
“Cops. Outside here. By tonight?”
“Consider it done,” said Ripley.
“Alright, it’s a deal. Anyway, Chuck lost his job. Ever since, he’s just been a shell. Nothing inside of him. That job was the world to him. He spent the last few months of our relationship researching.”
“Researching what?” Ella asked, now starting to think that Chuck Pierce was almost certainly their man.
“Strange crap. Conspiracies. Old murders. I don’t know. Just nonsense. That’s why I had to kick him out. He always fancied himself as an intellectual but he really wasn’t.”
It sounded good. The more Ella learned about Chuck, the more he completed the puzzle.
“And he now lives alone? Have you seen him since last Thursday?”
The woman gazed off into the night. “No,” she finally said. “He sometimes comes back on weekends but I haven’t seen him at all. What do you want with him, anyway?”
