“Okay,” she said, slamming his hand to the table, immediately bringing it back to the start position. “Officers…,” she nodded.
It was hard not to sprint to the car. Jared’s reaction was at the forefront of my mind. “Stupid! That was so….!” I wheeled around, stopping Claire in her tracks. “Stupid!”
Claire kissed my nose. “No, it was fun. Let’s go.”
Chapter Fifteen
The Truth in Sixty Seconds
Jared shut the curtains, allowing me to relax a bit. The morning sun hurt my eyes, and the ache in my head throbbed every time my heart beat. I turned another page of my textbook, trying to catch up to classmates that hadn’t missed the last two days.
I pressed my fingers against the skin between my eyebrows. “The computer guy didn’t know what he was talking about,” I said. “I said simple. This laptop is impossible.”
Jared rubbed my back. “Not impossible. You just have to adapt to change.”
I slammed my book shut. “That’s all I do, Jared: Adapt to change. The only thing that is constant is the fact that everything keeps changing.”
Jared smiled, kissing my shoulder. “I’ll leave you alone to finish your paper, and then we’re going to get out of the house for a while.”
“Thanks,” I grumbled, opening my book again.
My eyes passed over the words, but nothing sunk in. Wedding plans, Kit Anderson's children, Ryan being in danger, dead birds and the whereabouts of the book danced around in my mind. Each thought lingered only for a few seconds and then I flipped to the next one like the channels of late-night television. When I caught myself wandering from the topic of my paper, I would force my focus back to reality. Each time that happened, I grew more frustrated.
Two hours and six pages later, I pulled on my boots and met Jared outside. The crisp air surrounded me as I walked down the drive, and I buttoned my coat to ward off the cold.
The Escalade was left running so I wouldn't have to shiver while the cab warmed to a tolerable temperature. Jared helped me inside with a smile, kissing my red nose before shutting the door, and then we made a new set of tracks down the street. The sky had dropped another six inches of snow on the ground, but only after a few hours of sleet had laid down a solid bed for the snow to stick to.
Jared had no trouble navigating through the ice and powder, but red and blue lights lit the inside of the cab, and the Escalade came to a stop next to a nine foot snow drift.
“Can’t he just call?” Jared said, gripping the steering wheel.
Ryan knocked on the window, and Jared lowered it. Ryan began to speak, but Jared let his finger off the button, stopping the window half-way. Ryan waited patiently, and then Jared lowered the window again. When it was at chin level, Ryan addressed me, but Jared, once again, let his finger off the button.
“Funny,” Ryan said. “Where’s Claire? I haven’t heard from her today.”
“It’s possible she’s not going to pick up the phone every time you call, Ryan,” Jared said, amused.
Ryan's eyes focused on me. “Have you seen her?”
“Not today. If she’s not answering, then she must be busy.”
Jared sighed. “If you pull me over every time you can’t get Claire on the phone, we’re going to be seeing a lot of each other.”
“I just…,” he shook his head, “I just came across some information I wanted to share with her. About the investigation.”
“Like what?” Jared asked, annoyed, but curious.
Ryan narrowed his eyes. “Walter Grahm was the man that tried to rob Nina outside the pub. Ronnie Studebaker, whose friends called him ‘Stu’, was the man that stabbed me. Robert Benson was with them. They were never caught, or charged.”
“Yeah. So?” Jared said, impatient.
“They were all detectives of the Providence Police Department. Now they’re dead. Grahm was killed while answering a robbery call, Benson stopped breathing in his sleep, and Stu went missing. His body has never been found. I can’t account for the fourth man involved in the attack.”
“Do you have a point, Ryan?” Jared said.
“Commissioner Johnson and six members of state government, in addition to seven police officers have come to untimely deaths in the last eighteen months, including Kit Anderson. Grahm was killed the same night twenty-three deaths were reported in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. All GSW’s.”
Jared laughed once. “You’re not telling me anything I don’t know, Ryan.”
“Exactly. How do you know this information unless you are responsible for forty-one deaths?”
“Whoa! You are way off, Ryan,” I said, shocked at his conclusion.
Ryan leaned into the window. “You know what I think? I think the cops were dirty, and that they and those dead officials are part of some sort of crime ring, and Nina got mixed up in it somehow. There’s no way you could have killed twenty-three people at the same time in two different states, so I think they lied about what happened. You with me so far?”