Page 59 of Code Violation

“Squirrels. A curious wind. I don’t know.”

“Nothing was taken that you know of?” Dear asked.

“No, and I’m glad of that, of course. But it was weird. My laptop was inside, and a box of recording equipment. Admittedly, the laptop was kind of out of the way, leaning up against the wall underneath the table. But the recording equipment was in plain sight. Easy to take. And it’s pretty high-end stuff.”

“That’s odd. So why didn’t you report it?” Lani asked.

Nero was starting to regret his choice to wait on reporting the break-in. “Everyone in town was at the fire, including you both. I thought I’d do it later. And then, with everything else that happened, it slipped my mind. You don’t think I was responsible for cutting the brake lines of Forrest’s truck, do you?”

What Nero knew about cars was almost nothing.

“No, not unless you have some kind of death wish we should know about,” the chief responded. “What were you two up to today?”

“We”—he glanced at Forrest, not sure how much he should say—“had some questions for Rufus Ferguson. Plus, the librarian I talked to a couple days ago sent me an email saying he might have some information I’d be interested in. Rufus wasn’t around and neither was the librarian, so we ended up doing nothing anyway.”

“What’s up with Rufus?” Lani directed the question to her brother.

“He was shaken by the news yesterday,” Forrest told them. “He even gave Magnus and Wanda the brush-off. We stopped by his house today, but he wasn’t there. His car is though. Magnus is there now and is going to call if he hears from him. According to Wanda and Magnus, some of his hiking stuff is missing.”

“Huh.” Eyebrows very similar to Forrest’s drew together in concern. “What were you really doing, Forrest?”

Lani Cooper had a well-honed bullshit meter. Nero glanced at Forrest, who shook his head ever so slightly. By unspoken agreement, neither of them were admitting to the two officers of the law that they’d decided to look into Ned Barker’s murder themselves. No doubt both of them would shoot down the idea of a possible connection between Ernst Cooper’s death and Ned Barker’s twenty years later.

Forrest spoke. “Like Nero told you already, we wanted to see if Rufus could answer some questions for us, and Nero also wanted to go to the library. We started with the library, but after striking out there, we headed over to Rufus’s. But he wasn’t home, so we checked in at the pub. Where else would he be?”

They all nodded at that, even Nero. Where indeed would Rufus Ferguson be if he wasn’t with Wanda, at home, or at the pub?

“Magnus hasn’t seen or talked to him today and neither has Wanda. Magnus tried calling, but there wasn’t an answer. We went back over to Rufus’s place with Wanda because she has a key. Checked all the rooms, inside and out, including the basement. We were worried that he’d fallen or something. He’s definitely not there, but maybe he just went on a hike. Uh, then Nero wanted to stop at the library again to see if that Fernsby guy ever showed up, but he hadn’t. You know the rest.”

“And on the way home, your brakes failed. I’m impressed you’re both in one piece,” Dear commented.

“Gotta love an old Ford,” Forrest said with a tinge of sadness to his voice.

“Murphy called us a bit ago,” Lani said, looking at both of them in turn. “The brake lines were cut, easy enough to do in an old truck like yours. That thing leaks so many damn fluids, you probably would never have noticed something out of order. All Murphy had to do was take a look underneath.”

Forrest looked like he wanted to protest, but the fact that someone with malicious intent had done their best to hurt or even kill them seemed to stun him.

“Forrest, quit beating around the bush. What were you and Nero Vik so urgently needing to talk to Rufus about that you actually left the house for, what, the fifth time in three days?” Lani demanded.

Nero had been wondering when Lani would get around to asking that question; it was inconvenient that she was observant. Nero directed a do-you-want-me-to-keep-talking glance at Forrest, who nodded. Lani might not question Nero as deeply as she would her brother.

Might not.

“Right. Um, so, uh, Forrest found some diaries of your grandfather’s,” Nero babbled. “He was reading through them while I was doing more research on the history of Cooper Springs. I thought maybe there could be some interesting stuff in Ernst Cooper’s writings.” Not exactly a lie. “We came up with some questions that the diaries don’t appear to answer. They are more day-to-day accounts,” he explained.

“I was called to the school by Principal Harrison again. Worries about my ability to reach adulthood. Stuff like that,” Forrest added.

Lani nodded her agreement. “It’s probably a long list of Forrest’s infractions, one after the other. You did like to put Grandpa through the wringer. Continue, Mr. Vik.”

Nero smirked; he knew Lani was being formal because the visit had become official, but no one ever called him Mr. Vik.

“Please, call me Nero.” He inhaled a deep breath and blew it back out. “Right. We decided to come into town and talk to Rufus in person. Like Forrest said, we stopped at the library first. The librarian I’d talked to before wasn’t in. Which was a little odd because he’d sent an email saying he’d be there. After that, we went right over to Rufus’s house and knocked. He didn’t answer so we went to the pub, figuring that’s where he was. Skipping forward because you’ve heard all this, Forrest was driving us back because I left my car here, and about halfway here, the brakes failed. Forrest did a great job of making sure we didn’t die. We ended up in Forrest’s neighbor’s front yard and earned ourselves headaches but no concussions.”

“What were you and Russel Fernsby talking about?” asked Chief Dear, his laser gaze burning through Nero. So that’s what the R stood for. “Seems odd he’d email and then not be there. Maybe we need to check on him too.” Dear pinched the bridge of his nose. Nero got the feeling Cooper Springs was maybe a harder place to keep safe than one would think. “If it were legal, I’d put this entire community under house arrest until whatever the hell is going on sorts itself out.”

“The possibility of getting access to the library’s archives. As you and the entire town know by now,” replied Nero, “I’m here because I’m planning a podcast about the missing girls from the 1980s whose remains were identified publicly yesterday—by you, Chief. Also, I wanted to add a bit about the history of Cooper Springs. Who all lived here at that time, who’s here now, their lives, et cetera. Additionally, I’m looking for evidence that my cousin could have been brought here after he was abducted twenty-five years ago.”

“Keep going,” Dear encouraged.

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