Page 75 of Two Marlboros

My neurons were still shipwrecked in the depths of confusion over those point-blank questions. I could think of nothing, and his look of impatient anticipation did not improve the situation. My eyes fell on the insert with the scandalous photo and a few neurons managed to find their way home.

“This photo was published in Rumors magazine, depicting William Clide and a guy with a tattoo that appears to surround a birthmark on his right hand, which may be the one Michael Cossner also has.”

“So?”

“So, we would like to question the leader of Wit Matrix, Clide, to see if he knows anything.”

Church sighed again and raised an eyebrow, a gesture that made me break into cold sweats.

“Based on what? Of this picture?”

He pulled it out of the insert and slapped it on the table, causing me to barely flinch.

“It could be Michael,” I replied, with the volume of my voice having diminished from word to word.

“And what are you waiting for to question him? Have you requested their phone records?”

I didn’t have the courage to say no, but it wasn’t necessary. Church rolled his eyes, annoyed.

“Is this the way you work? I want you to request Clide and Cossner’s phone records now.”

I merely nodded; Ashton tried to explain instead.

“We have not yet obtained the number of Clide and-”

“You find it, the number! Do I have to remind you that there is a robbery and a disappearance involved? You are wasting your time! If it had been a serial killer, you would have had two or three more people killed!”

I lowered my eyes, but not my head. After all, Ashton and I were two rookies sent off to the dogs by an incompetent boss. An unnatural silence fell between us, and I hoped in my heart that the lecture was over, but it wasn’t.

“What if Clide doesn’t know anything about Cossner? What if he does know something and doesn’t want to reveal it? Have you already prepared a strategy for that eventuality?”

A “no” came out of both in a hushed voice.

“By Monday at the latest, I want the printouts and for you to tell me how you plan to proceed, also based on the information we can get.”

Ashton and I nodded, with neither of us breathing a word. Church stood up, shrugged off his pants - perhaps to give us time to see how expensive they were - and walked to the shelf to the left of his desk. From a folder he pulled out a book, and the moment he deposited it on the table, I knew what it was. It hada burgundy red leather cover and bore, in gold letters, the words “Faculty of Architecture.”

“This is the yearbook you asked for, Scottfield.”

I grabbed it ravenously, but the moment I flipped through the first page, I felt like a tremor of fear. Inside those pages might have been the truth about the robber, and it was certainly related to Nathan.

“We’re looking for an acquaintance of Hayworth, right? Probably one of the ones you met at the college party.”

I answered in the affirmative.

I looked carefully at the photos of all the boys in that yearbook, searching for the man with the cold eyes. All the boys seemed to have blue or brown eyes, or at least that was what stood out from those pictures little larger than a passport photo. From the way Nathan had described them, they must have been very distinctive eyes - he had said “icy.”

I turned the pages again, until I stumbled upon someone with green eyes; my heart missed a beat, but disappointment set in as I realized that that someone was just Nathan. He had the same look as always, but the features were a little more youthful.

“Find anything, Scottfield?”

I recoiled from my thoughts and flamed out. “Yes, sorry. I’ll keep looking.”

I kept running my eyes over the photos, but realized I was looking superficially. I tried to regain my professionalism and look at those pictures with the attention they deserved. I was now three-quarters of the way through and felt Church’s gaze on me, and my body felt like a hotbed of heat, ready to turn to sweat and leak from every pore of my skin.

I turned the next page with the feeling that I had gotten it all wrong and had the wrong hunch, when my eyes were caught by a pair of what I might have called glacial green eyes.

I read the name listed under the photo: Ryan Stephen Goldwin.

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