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“From up here you look more like a flying monkey,” Kaye teased, making her laugh as she left us alone and disappeared between busy nurses and doctors.

“You know,” Kaye began with a smile, “I heard—”

“Yeah, yeah, mock me later, Mel. What couldn’t you say in front of her?” I was curious about their progress at Steep Rock at the same time as not wanting to hear a damn word about it. That wasn’t an option, though. It wouldn’t be like me not to be interested. It all made me feel like shit.

“It’s weird. I’ve never seen anything like it.” She placed her hands on her hips and waited until a nurse close by had passed us. “We got an anonymous call about a house out past Finley Hill. A place called Steep Rock. Nobody lives there on a permanent basis. Turns out the kidnappers had rented it. Can you believe that?”

“Didn’t they break into the Kreutz farm?”

“They did.”

“Why didn’t they leave the county?”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” she waved her hand to the side before placing it on her hip again.

That statement was so wrong I didn’t know what to say.

“Anyway. They were all dead when we got there, but that’s not even the weird part.”

I raised an eyebrow at that.

“That uptight FBI agent? You didn’t see much of him, I guess. Well, he was there, too. Dead.”

“A dead FBI agent? This place will be swarming with them soon then.”

“Don’t think so. We notified them. They’re sending someone, but didn’t seem all that interested.” That meant Evans had to stay hidden from whoever the Bureau sent.

“And,”Kaye pressed on before I could say anything. “The scene has been tampered with.”

“How?”

“Parts of it are cleaned thoroughly. So far, no prints or anything. I think Larkin brought someone with him. There’s even a bullet that’s missing from one of the bodies. Someone went to great trouble to make sure we can’t trace them.”

“Seems like it, yeah.” I was suddenly grateful neither I nor Evans had any visible marks on us while clothed. I had some scrapes on my right knuckles after the last week, but kept the cuff of my jacket over them.

“Whatever happened out there seems awfully shady. We’re still at it, though. Rick’s there now, I only came in to talk to Bill.”

“Well, I shouldn’t keep you.”

“Yeah,” she tried hard not to smile, “you should get back to—”

“Later, Mel.”

I heard her snicker behind me as she got on the elevator. I headed for McAllen’s room, trying not to think about what Kaye had told me. Trying not to feel relief because Gerard and his companions’ work seemed to pan out.

As for McAllen, I was lucky. As I was allowed in by a nurse and rounded the last corner, I saw both the Gomez clan and the McAllen offspring head down the hallway. Time for food, likely. With my mood as it was, I was glad not to have to deal with too many people. As I entered the room with a quick knock on the open door, I was greeted with smiles by both Rosita and her now awake husband. He looked awful, but still much better than the last time I’d seen him. Rosita looked exhausted but radiant. It must have been a relief to finally have him wake up.

“If you need a break, I can sit a while,” I told her and indicated the direction of the rest of her family with my head. “They haven’t gotten far.”

At her husband’s insistence, she got up to leave and find some food. “I heard they found the kidnapped woman dead,” she said to me as she reached the door.

I nodded as she placed a supporting hand on my shoulder.

“I’m so sorry, Nate.”

I walked over and sat in one of the chairs, facing the door. “Way to scare the crap out of people, Bill.”

He tried raising his shoulders but winced in pain instead. “If you had crapped your pants in that alley, that’s the first thing Mel would have said when she came in here earlier.”

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