“We’ll check your husband’s phone records, of course. It ought to be easy enough to find out if anyone did call him while you two were out in the woods, and if so, who.”

  “Okay. If that’s the case, you don’t really need to bother me. Actually, if you want my opinion, you should be out looking for Matthias. In case you haven’t noticed, it’s getting dark! We can’t afford to lose any more time. You seem to forget that he’s only a child, and he’s out there on his own somewhere.”

  He wasn’t exactly a child, Darian thought. Technically, he was an emancipated young adult. If it wasn’t for Argo’s investigation, they’d have no real legal right to apprehend him and bring him back to Birchwood if he didn’t want to be there. But he bit his tongue and let Argo take the lead.

  “Kim, no one has forgotten about Matthias. I’ve delegated that task to some perfectly capable people who are doing everything they can. However, Vaughan’s death is a distraction I can’t ignore.”

  “We should be printing flyers with Matthias’s picture to them and passing them out. He can’t have gone far. He doesn’t understand how young and vulnerable he is. I’m so worried about him. We need to find him and help before it’s too late!”

  The words tumbled out in a tangled rush. Kim was still feeling the effect of the alcohol, Darian could tell. For the time being, she had no filter. Maybe this was his chance to get the answers to some sensitive questions.

  “Kim,” he said as gently as he could, “I can’t help but notice you’re more concerned about Matthias than you are your own husband. Is there any particular reason for that?”

  Kim lowered her head, bringing her hands together and crushing the tissue between them. She sucked in a deep, shuddering breath. Darian and Argo tensed, both expecting a flood of tears and some old-fashioned, earsplitting wailing. Kim didn’t cry, though.

  “I’m going to be blunt,” she said after a while. “It’s not really a secret. Even some of the boys know, so it’ll be all over town soon enough. I was planning to divorce him. I’m sorry he lost his life, but not in the way you would think. I don’t feel I’ve lost the man I loved. The truth is, I lost that long ago. We were at a stage where we were only going through the motions.”

  “All right,” Argo said, nodding. He tapped his pen tip on his notebook but didn’t write anything down. “No one’s judging you. It happens. Could you tell us a little more about why things went south?”

  “Vaughan and I just didn’t see eye to eye on things. All I’ve ever wanted to do was be there for the kids. No one helped me when I was their age. I want to be the person I needed back then and never found. I thought Vaughan understood that. He didn’t. He didn’t care about anyone but himself. All that mattered to him were his own needs. He brainwashed me into going along with it. He made me do things I never would do on my own.” Her voice caught and she gulped back a sob. “Darian knows.”

  Argo’s brows lifted, just a fraction of an inch, but enough to make Darian grimace. He mouthed the word “later” when Kim lowered her head again.

  “Can you take me home now?” Kim asked, swallowing hard. Her shoulders trembled as though she was barely holding herself together. “I need to lie down for a while. Or am I under arrest for some reason?”

  “You’re not under arrest. I would like to talk with you in more depth at the station, though.”

  “Fine. I’ll contact a lawyer and get back to you. It won’t be tonight, though.”

  Argo put his notebook in his pocket. “Okay, then. Step out, and I’ll have someone drive you to your house. I’ll be in touch again soon. You’re welcome to retain counsel if you feel it’s necessary. Meanwhile, I’m going to ask you not to leave town.”

  “Leave town?” Kim snapped as she shoved open the SUV’s door. “In case you’ve forgotten, I have a life and a job I care about right here. And now I have a husband to bury, too. Where exactly do you think I’d go?”

  Argo didn’t answer, but Darian was sure he saw him mouth the words, “Same place as Matthias, maybe?”

  A short time later, with the unsavory tasks of securing the crime scene and transporting Vaughan to the morgue behind them, Argo and Darian faced each other over coffee in his office.

  Argo sighed and looked at his watch. “Five more hours and it’ll be Sunday. Looks like we’re on track to lose out on another weekend. We just can’t seem to get our schedules in sync.”

  “That’s okay. It’s not like you had any control over what happened out there. I understand your work is important.”

  “You always tell me that, and I definitely appreciate it. But yours is, too. Don’t think I don’t realize that.”

  Darian smiled. It meant a lot for Argo to say that, with two missing people and a suspicious death hanging over his head. “My hours are a little more flexible. Well, until the people at the school get into trouble, which they do a lot.”

  “They sure do.” Argo picked up his cup and swirled around the last of his coffee. “Okay. You knew this question was coming after that little exchange in my car. Tell me what Kim meant when she said you knew who Vaughan really wanted to pair up with for the search.”

  “Uh…I’m sure you’ve guessed. It was me. Vaughan kind of came onto me while we were picking up our maps.”

  “Oh, yeah? Interesting.”

  “I didn’t even consider taking him seriously! Not for a second! You believe me, right?”

  “Yep. Of course I do. Was it the first time Vaughan tried anything like that?”

  “Yes. Well, no. Not exactly. Thing is…Kim propositioned me, too, on behalf of both of them. Wait, I take that back. She propositioned the two of us. You and me.”

  Argo had just taken a gulp of coffee. He nearly spit it out all over his desk. “What? Are you kidding me?”

  “Not kidding.” Briefly, Darian recounted the mortifying incident during the pizza party. “At the time, I thought the whole bizarre idea was hers. Now, considering what she told us at the restaurant, I’m wondering if she was only experimenting with swinging to please him. It’s obvious that things were terrible between them.”

  Argo nodded, rubbing his jaw in though. “This does open up some new avenues of inquiry. Darian, I have to ask you this. Did you notice anything improper between Vaughan and the students during their little pizza and music shindig?”

  “No! Definitely not. In fact, Vaughan seemed not to want the students hanging around. He told me the party, not to mention the music jam, was all Kim’s idea. They obviously argued about it. He thought she spent too much time with the kids and she thought he wasn’t supportive of her job.”

  “This is certainly interesting. Unnerving, too. I’m beginning to think I missed a lot about those two. I’m not sure why. Maybe because they were your colleagues, and you seemed to trust them.”

  “I don’t know about that. I got the sense you weren’t comfortable with them from the beginning. You were polite to them, but they didn’t really fool you.” Darian fidgeted. “Argo, there’s something else. Vaughan didn’t want me to say anything, but since he’s dead...”

  Argo’s forehead crinkled. “Go.”

  “Kim was in some trouble at her last job. Nothing too serious, but you should know about it.”

  After Darian described Kim’s rampage with a pen in the professor’s office, Argo shook his head in amazement.

  “Damn it. I wish I’d known all this while she was in the car. A little pressure and she would have told us all her darkest secrets. It’s not your fault, though. I didn’t ask her to come in for a formal interview, given that she was still in shock, but I’ll do that as soon as possible.”

  “I’m sorry if I made your job harder.”

  “Nope. I’ll take the blame on my own shoulders. I didn’t make time to talk to you. You asked me to and I brushed you off. My mistake. It probably won’t be the last one, but we live and we learn. I’m the one who should apologize to you.”

  A tapping on the office door interrupted their conversation. Cutler leaned in. “We’ve found Vaughan’s car. It was still parked up at Birchwood. I confirmed that Kim got a ride to Jake’s with the other people in her grid team. I have their names and numbers if you want to follow up yourself.”

  “Thanks. I’ll do that. Meanwhile, tow the car and search it. Every inch.”

  “Will do.” Cutler hesitated. “One other thing. We finished typing up Krell’s statement, and he’s getting antsy waiting for you.”

  Argo smirked. “Good. I like him that way. Makes it easier for me to get answers from him. Send him in. You can stay if you’re willing to, Darian. He seems to trust you.”

  Darian wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. But it made sense. Krell perceived him as Chet’s friend. “I’ll stay,” he agreed.

  Cutler left again, and presently Krell stomped in. “Honestly, Sheriff, I understand these things take time, but I really have to protest at how you’re dragging this investigation out. Now we’ve discovered another body in the same spot. Obviously that ledge is dangerous. Are you going to block off access? And more to the point, what are you doing to find Chet? He deserves a decent burial as much as this other poor sap.”

  “The rescue and recovery team is still looking for his body. They have their own methods, which involve tracking the current and moving downstream in calculated increments. As soon as they have any information, we’ll release it to the public.”

  “So you’re assuming he’s dead. What if he clawed himself out of the water and is lying in the woods injured somewhere? We can’t afford to drag our feet on this!”

  “Mr. Krell, I’m doing everything I can to find out what happened. You’ll have to trust us. Me.”

  “Every day, that gets harder to do, I’m sorry to say.”

  “You’re entitled to your opinion. And now, since you’ve finished your written statements, I have some follow-up questions for you. Tell me again how you happened to spot Vaughan’s body.”

  “I already told you. I was scouring the area for clues about Chet, since you don’t seem to be doing much. I wanted to see where he went off the road. I thought I might see something no one else had noticed. I realize it doesn’t make logical sense. But in matters of grief, we’re not always logical, are we?”

  “Are you sure you just happened to stop by there alone? Could you have driven Vaughan Benedict there?”

  “What?” Krell sputtered. “The dead man? Why would I?”

  “He wouldn’t have been dead when you first set out for the river. His car is still parked at Birchwood. Maybe you two met during the search. Could you have struck up a conversation? Could you have asked him to meet you afterward, to help you hunt for Chet?”

  “Nope. Never met the man.”

  “All right,” Argo said. “If you say so.”

  He didn’t sound convinced. But then again, Krell didn’t sound entirely convincing, either. At least not as far as Darian was concerned.

  Chapter 12

  At ten minutes past midnight, Darian finally convinced Argo to take a break and start fresh in the morning.

  “Matthias has hunkered down for the night, wherever he is. Your night shift will keep their eyes and ears open. You’ll be more useful to them if you’re at your best tomorrow.”

  Argo massaged his forehead in frustration. The search for Matthias had dragged on into the night, but had ultimately gone nowhere. “Okay, make a deal with you. I’ll go home and hit the mattress for a few hours if you come home with me.”

  “That’s probably the easiest ‘yes’ you’ll ever get in this lifetime,” Darian answered.

  In the SUV, Argo continued turning the case over in his mind. “Not a single sighting anywhere in town or around the campus. I don’t know where else to look. All I can figure is he made his way out to the side of the highway and hitched a ride.”

  “Entirely possible. We know he’s street smart—literally, in this instance.”

  “We’ve notified other nearby jurisdictions. It might take longer than we thought. But he’ll turn up. Maybe then we’ll be able to get some answers about Chet, too.”

  “I keep thinking about what Krell said—that he might be laying low somewhere. Seems hard to believe he could stay out of sight this long, but I guess stranger things have happened.”

  “He’s not crumpled up in the woods, injured,” Argo insisted. “The rescue and recovery squad would have found him by now. Nope, I’m leaning toward my original impression—that he wasn’t in that car when it went over the edge.”

  Darian nodded in thought. The idea seemed farfetched at the time, but the more he thought about it, the more plausible the prospect became. Two missing people and a dead body. How did it all fit together?

  They staggered through Argo’s front door in a state of exhaustion.

  “Ironic we’re heading directly for the bedroom, but not for the right reason,” Argo said. “I should be making an effort to show you how much I missed you these past few days.” He kicked off his boot s and stretched out, offering an embrace. Darian paused only long enough to pull off his own shoes and jacket before he rolled into it. “It’s not that I don’t want to. I just feel like each arm weighs a hundred pounds. Even putting them around you is difficult.”

  “I get it, believe me. You need some sleep,” Darian said.

  “Seems like we just had this conversation. And as I recall, we were about to start a serious discussion last time, right before I drifted off.”

  “That’s how I remember it, too. As for this big talk about…what was it supposed to be about, exactly?”

  “I don’t want to get into it right now. Not enough time to hash things out. But I’m sure you know what I’m getting at. Lately the two of us seem to bump along together like oarless rowboats drifting in a fog. That can’t be much fun for you. I know it’s frustrating as hell for me.”

  Darian scowled. Surely Argo couldn’t be thinking about initiating another breakup. They’d already been through that once, and they’d both been too miserable to keep the separation going, work and even a few ethical conflicts notwithstanding. Instinctively he slid his fingers over his Claddagh ring, as if to make sure it was still there. It was. And Argo never even joked about asking for it back.

  No, it had to be something else he wanted to discuss. A couple of possibilities fluttered through his mind, but he was too tired and stressed out to follow those threads. Argo was right…better to revisit the issue when they both had more energy.

  Moments after he heard Argo’s breathing shift to the deep, heavy rhythm he’d come to recognize, Darian dropped off to sleep, too.

  In the morning, Argo fired up his countertop grill and churned out an impressive pile of fluffy golden waffles. He served them with some of the real maple syrup Darian’s moms had raved about during their otherwise ill-fated Christmas visit to Florida.

  Argo must have been thinking the same thing when he picked up the jug and drizzled some over his place. “I suppose your moms heard about the latest developments at Birchwood. I’m surprised they haven’t flown up here to snatch you home, or at least hire an armed guard to patrol your yard.”

  “They’ve probably considered both, but they assume you have the armed guard part covered. But yeah, they did call yesterday and I didn’t exactly deny anything. I kept my description of the day’s events vague, telling them a student had run away from campus. That wasn’t exactly a lie. We hadn’t found Vaughan at the time.”

  “You’re almost as bad as a cop these days. Say just enough to let the other person assume what you want them to.”

  “Well, I’m learning from the best.”

  Argo grumbled and spent some time eating. Darian wondered if he might bring up their interrupted conversation from the night before, but he didn’t. In all honesty, Darian was kind of relieved. Enjoying breakfast together at least created a temporary illusion of normalcy. All too soon, they’d be back in the thick of their three pressing cases.

  Eventually Argo brought it up. “So I’ve been pondering our next steps. Chet kind of slipped to the back burner, but I plan to go back to the beginning and start fresh. Maybe something different will jump out at me this time. As far as Matthias, we’ll continue on the way we’re going. I have to think the tip line and posting his picture will pay off at some point. And finally, when it comes to Vaughan, we’ll have to wait for the medical examiner to rule on his death before we consider it anything but a tragic accident. Could be he was rubbernecking a crash site, lost his footing, and went over the edge.”

  “Hit his head on the rocks?” Darian asked between bites of waffle. Argo made them so thick that he could never eat more than two, which was a shame given how tasty they were. “Came to rest with his face in the stream?”

  “Yep. Like those people you hear about who fall off cliffs taking selfies while they walk backwards.”

  “Could be. We know Vaughan was curious about what happened to Chet. He and Kim drove past the site while we there, remember? I could buy him coming back in daylight to check it out in more detail. The search for Matthias got him thinking about it all over again.”

  Argo nodded. “It happens.”

  “Still, what about the phone call Kim says he got? He claimed he was going to see someone about a gig. I doubt he was planning to stage a concert on the shore. Was that just a lie to get away from her?”

  “That would be my guess. Then again, maybe he was going to meet someone for some other reason. Given what he said to you earlier, I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this.”

  “Some kind of rendezvous,” Darian said.

  “Could be. Doesn’t change the fact that he could have stopped off at the river before or after and took a tumble down the rocks.” Argo polished off his second waffle and speared a third from the platter with his fork. He began chopping it up in brusque, even strokes.