Page 53 of A Deeper Darkness
“Susan. Trust me. He knew you loved him. It’s kind of hard to miss.”
Susan gulped a choking laugh, the hysteria of loss. She pulled away from Sam.
“Thank you,” she managed. “That helps.”
“Good. Take a look at this for me, would you?” She showed her the page on the calendar with the notation. “Do you know what that means?”
She traced her fingers across the letters as if forging a connection to the dead.
“No. I have no idea. It looks like a doodle more than anything. That’s weird.”
“Yeah, it is. I’m going to look at the journal a little more. I think we need to get the ones from his last deployment, though. Can you manage yourself, or do you need help?”
“I’ll do it. I need…well.”
Sam understood. Susan would have to open a part of her soul that was already cloudy and worn to go through more of Donovan’s things. If she broke down again, she’d rather do it privately.
“I’ll be here,” Sam said, then went back to the desk. She fingered the journal, thinking.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Washington, D.C.
Detective Darren Fletcher
Fletcher and Hart had taken over one of the conference rooms and spread out the papers pertaining to the case so they could sort through all the angles and see what they were missing.
Fletcher told Hart the story about the phone call, to which the younger man whistled silently.
“I can’t believe you called Felicia for help. That took balls, man. What did she say?”
“To go fuck myself. What do you think?”
Hart stood with his hands on his hips. He looked like a disapproving schoolmarm.
“Fletch, you actually sound surprised. You call your ex-wife, a woman you haven’t spoken to outside of custodial legalities for four years, and ask her to help you break the law?”
“Jesus, man, keep your voice down. There’s nothing illegal about it. It’s a shortcut, that’s all.”
“And now you’ve alerted a civilian that you’re wanting to look into the private records of several troops. DOD will chew you up and spit you out before you can laugh at them. Nothing illegal, my ass.”
Fletcher stopped stacking papers and sat back in the chair. “Lonnie, get off my back. It was just a thought. I was trying to move things forward. I don’t see you grinding out any brilliant solutions.”
“Well, gee, sorry, Batman. I thought we were working on this together.”
“We are, Boy Wonder.” Fletcher sighed deeply. “I was just trying to play a hunch.”
“He does that, you know.” A female voice startled them both. Fletcher turned and couldn’t believe his eyes. A gorgeous blonde stood in the conference room doorway, legs up to her chin, and obviously pregnant.
His ex-wife.
“Felicia. I thought… What are you doing here? You’re… That’s…”
Hart shot him a look, went to the door and gave Felicia a hug. “Come on in. Don’t mind him, his ass is taking a vacation day, and the rest of him doesn’t know how to speak.”
Felicia laughed. “Some things never change. How are you, Lonnie?”
“Better than I deserve.”
