Chapter 67
By the time Bryant came to the door, it was close to midnight. Annie had not calmed down, even though Mike had made her some chamomile tea, which usually helped soothe her.
“Can I get you some tea or something?” Mike said to him.
The detective looked at Annie. “I’ll have what she’s having. Thank you.” He sat across from Annie at the kitchen table. “What’s going on?”
“I went to the crop tonight, came home a bit early, started going through cards, and this slipped out of the one that Hannah Bowman gave me.”
“Whoa,” he said, reading it over.
Mike sat a cup of steaming tea in front of him.
“But we have the killer now,” Bryant said.
“She gave this to me after Luther confessed.”
“Are you sure?” His eyebrows knit. “I mean, she may not have known about the confession at that point.”
“No, I can’t be sure,” she said. “Everything was foggy for me. I was on all this medication.”
He sipped from his cup. “Interesting,” he said.
Annie wasn’t sure if he was talking about the tea or what she’d just said to him.
“I was shot,” she told him. “It’s taken a while for me to sort through this. But nothing has made sense from the beginning. It’s one of the strangest cases I’ve ever covered.”
“What do you mean?”
“The rune symbols are one thing, but the other things go in this order. The CDC showing up quickly during the second murder sighting, the FBI sending undercover agents here, and the way Cookie was held so long without being charged.”
The detective nearly choked on his tea. His eyes met hers as her husband sat next to her.
“Flight risk, my ass,” she finally said, glaring at him.
“What do you want from me?”
“I want answers, and I want you to help me rescue Hannah.”
“First, Hannah is in no danger. We have the killer. And second, why would I tell you anything? This is police business.”
Mike’s arm went around her in a protective stance.
“I’m a crime reporter, Bryant. I’ve worked on a lot of cases, but nothing like this. At some point everything comes together and makes sense. The more I think about it, I think we’re missing a huge part of the puzzle. But you know what? I can live with that. I don’t need to do your job for you. If you feel like Luther is your man, then fine. But how difficult would it be for us to go and check on Hannah?”
“Us?” Mike said. “I don’t think so.”
“I agree with your husband, Annie. Let’s not rush into anything. You’re barely healed from your wound. But here’s what I’ll do. I’ll give the bakery a call in the morning to check on her, okay?”
“Let’s call now,” Annie said.
“It’s almost one a.m.”
“The first shift is probably getting in now,” Annie said, handing him the telephone.
“Nah, that’s okay. I got it,” he said and pulled out his cell phone.
Annie’s heart was racing. Was Hannah in trouble? Were they too late? Why hadn’t she looked at her cards earlier?
Within moments Bryant ascertained that Hannah hadn’t been to work in two days. Her parents didn’t have a telephone, so nobody from the bakery was able to call to see where she was. If her parents knew she was missing, they would deal with it in their own community.
Bryant clicked his cell phone off. “Son of a bitch. She’s missing.” His face was an angry red.
Annie’s stomach clenched, and her head dropped to Mike’s shoulder. “I didn’t want to be right about this,” she said.