The call came a little after nine and dragged Saint from broken sleep.
She’d spent the afternoon and much of the evening at the Nix house, dealing with the coroner, writing up her report, and fending off the couple of neighbors who stood at the foot of the driveway distraught. There were pieces she could not begin to figure out, questions that remained in a free float, reached for and let go.
She sat upright when she heard Himes’s voice.
“Joseph Macauley escaped from prison this morning.”
For a moment she sat there disheveled, took in the bright walls of her room, the slick dread that slowly dawned.
“He locked a library worker in a storeroom this morning, stole his hat and keys and then vanished.”
“What the fuck do you mean he vanished?”
Himes’s voice held steady, though he was clearly eating. “Guards have it that no one left through the doors.”
She found her shirt. “Guards have it? Where’s the fucking cameras?”
“Main power was out. Generator gives what’s strictly necessary. Still got no ventilation, and they’ve got quite a scene there. Big fight broke out this morning. Geriatric named Tug riled them up and then it was mayhem.”
She buttoned her shirt with one hand. “He can’t have gotten far. I mean, they count them, right?”
“They do. But as I said, the fight broke out and he just…they got the place locked down, blocked the roads. I’m sending Peterson and Lina—”
“I’ll do what I can.”
“I know that.”
“He’ll be okay.”
“I’m not sure that’s the concern.”
“He’s not a threat,” Saint said.
Silence awhile. “He killed a man.”
“He’s not a threat.”
“Do I need to send someone to you?” he said, posing the question like he was asking himself. “His daughter is in your care.”
“He’s not stupid enough to come back home.”
“But still, do I?”
“You’re questioning me. I was the one who shot him, who brought him in for something—”
“I’m not questioning you, Saint. I’m just wondering how much pull you have with surrounding areas. I’ve got the map here, reckon you can reach out to four departments and get them mobile.”
She caught herself in the mirror. She knew who she was, throughout. “I haven’t been out that long, Himes. I know how to run a hunt.”
“You’ll come back in for this last one?”