The Whispering Room

“You want me to go down and check it out for you,” Evangeline said. “I can’t do that. Like I told you on the phone, I’m no longer working this case. I was sent here today to hear what you have to say and report back to Captain Lapierre. What she does with the information is out of my hands.”

Lena bent forward, her eyes very direct. “I have a proposition for you, then. It’ll need to be off the record, I’m afraid.”

“No way,” Evangeline said bluntly. “I don’t work like that.”

“Johnny was right,” she said with a wry smile. “You are a tough nut to crack.”

It was still weird to hear her talk about Johnny so casually. Even more weird to think that he might have been in this house, might have sat in the very chair that Evangeline now occupied. In the course of one day, her husband had begun to seem like a stranger to her.

Lena studied Evangeline’s face for a moment.

“All right,” she said. “I’ll lay all my cards on the table. If you want to tell your superiors what I’m proposing, that’s up to you.”

“And just what are you proposing?”

“I want you to find Rebecca Lemay for me. In return, I’ll do everything I can to help you find out what really happened to Johnny.”

Seventeen

Mitchell called right after Evangeline left Lena Saunders’s house. She could tell something was wrong by the tense sound of his voice.

“Where are you right now?” he asked.

“I’m on my way back to the station,” she said. “Why? What’s wrong?”

“Nathan Mallet’s body was found at Mount Olive Cemetery this morning. He was shot to death.”

Evangeline was so shocked and distracted by the news, she almost failed to brake for a red light. She clutched the steering wheel as she came to a fast stop. “My God,” she muttered.

“It’s a real shocker, all right.” He paused, then said, “Look, I gotta ask you something, Evie.”

“The answer is yes. I saw Nathan yesterday.” Her heart started to hammer against her rib cage. Evangeline knew she’d done nothing wrong, but she had a feeling this wasn’t going to go down well.

“What time did you see him?” Mitchell asked.

“It was right after you called. Somewhere between seven-thirty and eight. I saw his Mustang parked at the cemetery so I went inside and looked around for a bit. Then I came back out and waited for him by his car. We spoke for a few minutes and then I got back in my car and drove off. That’s it, Mitchell. Nathan was alive when I left him.”

“I wasn’t implying otherwise. I just wanted to make sure you know how you’re going to answer if someone else asks you that question.”

“If?”

“However you want to handle this is fine by me. As far as I’m concerned, we never talked yesterday.”

“Thanks.” Evangeline was touched by his loyalty. Of all the things that had been turned upside down in her life lately, Mitchell’s friendship was a staple. “I would never ask you to do that,” she said. “Besides, I’ve got nothing to hide. Like I said, Nathan was alive when I left him.”

“How did he seem?”

“He was nervous. He kept looking around, as if he was afraid to be seen with me. But I figured I’d just caught him by surprise.” The light changed and she started through the intersection. “Have they found anything yet?”

“Right now, they’re concentrating on what they haven’t found. His wallet is missing and there’s no sign of his car.”

“You think it was a robbery?”

“Maybe. Or maybe someone just wanted it to look that way. Evie…” He paused and lowered his voice. “I think you should know something. Nathan was shot three times. Once in the face and twice in the chest. What does that sound like to you?”

“Overkill, for a robbery, but we’ve seen a lot worse—” She stopped, her heart going crazy inside her chest. “My God,” she breathed. “Two shots to the chest and one to the face. Just like Johnny.”

“Might just be a coincidence,” Mitchell said.

“If you really believed that, you wouldn’t have said anything.”

“You know what? I don’t know what to believe. Something about this whole setup doesn’t feel right to me.”

“How so?”

“Nathan’s gun was found underneath his right leg. Out of sight, but within easy reach, like maybe he was expecting trouble.”

“What else?”

“You say you waited for him to come out of the cemetery and the two of you talked in his car. Then you left. So why did he go back inside? And when? The caretaker said everyone was gone when he locked the gates. It’s possible he didn’t see Nathan, but I think it’s more likely that Nathan came back later, after the gates were already locked.”

“You think he came back to meet someone.”

“All I know is something about this stinks to high heaven. It has the feel of a professional hit, and now I’m starting to wonder why in the hell someone would go to the trouble of taking out a mullet-head like Nathan Mallet.”

As soon as Evangeline spoke with Lapierre, she came clean about her meeting with Nathan. The captain took the news better than Evangeline had anticipated, possibly because she had the notes from the meeting with Lena Saunders to distract her.