And looking at Hix, I thought maybe I should have.
“Talk to me,” I urged gently.
“She looks like hell. She’s lost, I don’t know, least twenty, thirty pounds. Eyes sunk in. Hair a mess.” Finally, his head turned my way. “She needs answers. She needs closure.”
“I’m sure,” I murmured.
“That gun was registered. It was also reported stolen.”
I said nothing because he’d never talked about any case to me, not in any depth, and definitely not Nat’s, so I was surprised.
“Guy in Kansas reported it stolen the day he came home and found someone broke into his house, this being months before our guy showed in Grant County and did Nat.”
“Okay,” I said quietly to that when he didn’t go on for a long time.
“Crazy shit, guy breaks into his house and what does he steal?”
When it was clear he was actually asking a question, I shook my head but answered, “His gun, obviously.”
“His gun, all the leftover meatloaf and potato salad in his fridge, and far’s the guy can remember, three candy bars.”
“That’s very weird,” I murmured.
“Owner of the gun was cleanin’ it. Left it out on the kitchen table.”
“Not smart,” I muttered.
“Nope.”
“So if he was cleaning it, was it loaded? Or did your guy buy bullets somewhere?”
“He reports it wasn’t loaded and he also reports his ammo was untouched, though that was in a locked cabinet where the gun should have been. Cops saw no indication the guy went anywhere but the kitchen, got in breakin’ a window on the kitchen door to do it. So the guy broke in because he was hungry. Ate ’til he was full. Grabbed some snacks and the gun on the table and took off, leaving the Tupperware in the sink. Where the guy got the bullets, we don’t know. Anywhere he could get them between here and there, we checked and no one remembers seeing him.”
“Did anyone in this place in Kansas see him?”
“That gun turned out to be our murder weapon, the boys in Kansas asked around and even though it had been months, this guy is memorable, so yeah. Our drifter was seen by three people. A kid leavin’ after his shift at a fast food restaurant, a man out walkin’ his dog and a mom in the neighborhood where the robbery took place, goin’ out to her car to pick her kid up from preschool.”
“So you’ve got him there.”
“Yep. Though they saw him around at the time of the robbery, no one had ever seen him before or after. So we got proof our drifter is a serious drifter, makin’ his way from middle-Kansas, hundreds of miles to here. What we don’t got is any understanding of the origins of where this guy started drifting. Outside Kansas and Grant County, no one has seen him. But now we got pictures and bulletins out to every homeless shelter in forty-eight states should this guy go lookin’ for another meal or whatever else he might need, and we got everything to nail him. We just don’t have him.”
“Did they get prints in Kansas?”
Hix shook his head. “Like the truck here, wiped clean. Gracious guest. Put his Tupperware in the sink and wiped down his prints.”
Damn.
I reached out and wrapped my hand around his forearm. “Even if you had him, you couldn’t heal what’s hurting in Faith.”
“You’re right and you’re wrong, baby. Victims of this kind of thing benefit from a case being closed. An understanding of what happened. Knowing justice was served. It isn’t a miracle cure. That wound will remain open a long time and the scar will never fade. But it helps.”
I nodded because I figured that was right. He would definitely know.
Hix looked back to the street. “I need to get this done for Faith.”
“You’re doing everything you can do.”
He gave me his attention again. “I know that. First thing I do every morning is open that case file and sift through it, hoping something will jump out at me, a new idea, a thread of a lead. Nothing ever does. But that doesn’t change the fact I need to find this guy and at least put that to rest for Faith Calloway and her kids.”
I leaned his way and offered what I could, as weak as it was, it was all I had.
“She hasn’t been in. I’ll call her. If she needs it, I’ll go to her place, do her hair, have a chat, see where she is. Talk to Lou, some of the other ladies, start looking after her better. I didn’t push things because I don’t know what she’s going through and I thought she’d need some time. Maybe it’s time for us to start pushing things, help her pick up the tatters of life after Nat and find a way to carry on.”
“Think that’s a good idea, Greta.”
I nodded. “I’ll call her tomorrow.”
He twisted his arm in a way he could catch my hand and he did just that, trapping it under his on the arm of his chair with the back of my hand up so he could run his fingers along he insides of mine.
He did this and he watched himself do it.
I let him and I let him do it in silence for some time, watching the preoccupation on his handsome face, knowing the thoughts behind that were troubled and frustrated, and thinking that the people of McCook County lucked out that someone who cared this much ran for their sheriff.
Finally, I spoke.
“I don’t know what you need from me, Hix, but whatever it is, I’m here. I’ll listen. I’ll get you bourbon and sit with you. A beer. Make you some dinner. All you need to do is tell me.”
His eyes drifted up to my face. “You’re doin’ it, sweetheart.”
I gave him a small smile.
He looked to the street, still touching my hand.
I scooched my hip against the side of the chair, leaned into him and dropped my head to rest on his shoulder.
We both sat in the cold, one of the final days we’d have before it chased us inside, and studied my street, letting its peace envelope us.
Hix’s voice was less tight, not less exhausted, when he murmured, “Bourbon and a warmup would be good about now, babe.”
I nodded my head still on his shoulder, lifted it up and set my book aside. I grabbed my blanket and cup of tea, got up and threw the blanket over my arm so I could take Hix’s hand.
He walked me into my house.
I threw the blanket over the back of the couch and he threw his jacket over it.
I got him some bourbon.
And we snuggled in my couch over mindless TV and warmed up before we went to bed, Hix took his time making love to me, and we fell asleep.
I entered the auditorium feeling anxious.
It was the night of Mamie’s recital.