Alex Barclay 4-Book Thriller Collection: Blood Runs Cold, Time of Death, Blood Loss, Harm’s Reach. Alex Barclay

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I see one more of them weep in front of me …’ She paused. ‘How appropriate the crocodile tears. Crocodile – the only predator on earth to remain virtually unchanged since the time of the dinosaurs …’

      Gressett conceded a smile. ‘Just don’t let your anger cancel out your professionalism. That’s all. I could give two hoots about that guy myself. I was just worried that vein on your temple was finally going to blow.’

      ‘Oh no – I need that vein. It hypnotizes people.’

      Gressett smiled.

      ‘I know about you and Jean,’ said Ren.

      ‘What?’

      ‘I know you were in love with her,’ said Ren.

      He opened his mouth to deny it, but Ren hoped that the look on her face had only compassion.

      ‘You had such a bad reaction that time to the idea she was gay,’ said Ren, ‘I thought you were homophobic, but it’s been clear since then that you’re not – you just didn’t want to think you had spent all that time loving her for what you would have seen as no reason and that you may never have found out if she was. Over the past six months I’ve seen how you are grieving. And that photo you gave me for her file was very touching. You wouldn’t come to the autopsy. And then there was me … you hated the idea of me taking her place.’

      Gressett looked away.

      ‘Even though I had never, even for a second, thought I could,’ said Ren.

      For a moment, neither of them spoke.

      ‘Did you ever tell her?’ said Ren.

      ‘I didn’t get the chance.’

       Chapter 54

      Bob stuck his head in the door of the office. Robbie and Ren were sitting on Cliff’s desk, talking. Gressett was keeping his head down at the computer in the corner.

      ‘Ren, why don’t you stop by my office a minute?’ said Bob.

      ‘Sure. Now?’

      ‘That would be great.’

      They went in and sat down.

      ‘You know I like you, right?’ said Bob. His tone was one she had never heard from him before.

      ‘Sure, Bob … I like you too.’ She smiled.

      ‘Then can you explain to me what the hell you were doing with Malcolm Wardwell?’

      ‘I … was interrogating him.’

      Gary knocked and came in. He threw Ren a look, then turned back to Bob. ‘My apologies for all this, Bob.’ He sat down.

      ‘Well, when I spoke to an “irate” Mr Wardwell earlier, it didn’t sound quite so much like an interrogation to me as an abusive rant,’ said Bob.

      ‘Interesting,’ said Ren. ‘Irate with you, a pussy with me …’

      Bob looked at Gary. ‘Jesus, aren’t you guys trained to get shit out of people in a … gentle way? Aren’t we the ones supposed to go in all guns blazing?’

      ‘Ren, this really sounded bad,’ said Gary. ‘It sounded nasty and personal and –’

      ‘It was personal,’ said Ren, trying to file down the edge in her voice. Make up something worthy. ‘It is personal to me when a fellow agent is murdered, a woman my age. And I’m leading the case.’

      ‘The man is threatening to sue,’ said Bob. He clicked his fingers, ‘Like that. I mean, I do not need this right now.’ Bob’s phone beeped. ‘Excuse me,’ he said, leaving the room.

      Ren turned to Gary. ‘I could argue that, say, for example, local businessman, Mr Wardwell had provided money to Sheriff Gage’s election campaign, that that would be personal too.’

      ‘Is that a fact?’ said Gary.

      ‘“Say, for example” is how I started the sentence.’ She said it like a question.

      Gary shook his head slowly. ‘You sound like my teenage daughter. Who, God forgive me, I would be afraid to bring to the summer picnic she has such an attitude problem. Go take a break somewhere, Ren. I’ll finish this up with Bob.’

      Ren decided to drive into town, park the car and go for a walk along the Blue River.

      Her cellphone rang.

      ‘Hello? Agent Bryce? It’s Dr Tolman here.’

      ‘Hello, how are you doing?’

      ‘Good. I’m just calling to say I found something that may or may not be of interest to you. I did a little more searching.’

      ‘OK …’

      ‘I excise a block of tissue from every organ, standard practice. This would include the uterus. If there are problems with a pregnancy –’

      ‘Whoa,’ said Ren. ‘Jean Transom was pregnant?’

      ‘No, not when she died. But, yes … at some point. And I can confirm that she gave birth.’

      ‘OK,’ said Ren. ‘Go on.’

      ‘In a problem pregnancy, the placenta can have an abnormal attachment to the uterine lining. And that can create problems at delivery and major blood loss. When I examined her histological slides, what I found was evidence of retained placental tissue.’

      ‘How come you didn’t see this during the autopsy? I thought there was some pelvis thing that would have showed it up.

      ‘Not necessarily,’ said Tolman. ‘When a woman’s given birth, there’s a change in the cervical os – the opening at the top of the uterus. But you can’t always see that. And it’s not something you’d pick up routinely. We would only really do a detailed examination if we needed to confirm a recent pregnancy, like if a baby was found abandoned and a woman was found dead nearby … you know? We would do a detailed examination if it was relevant to the crime. Do you think it could be relevant this time?’

      ‘I have no idea,’ said Ren. ‘But thank you for letting me know.’

      Ren called Gary Dettling and Bob Gage and told them. She had to leave a message for Paul Louderback.

      Patrick Transom’s house was in darkness, except for one light glowing somewhere in the back of the house. Ren pulled up outside and jogged up the steps. The night was starless. She was reluctant to ring the doorbell in case it would wake his children. She called him on his cellphone instead. He came out and let her in.

      ‘My apologies for stopping by so late,’ she said.

      ‘That’s OK,’ said Patrick. ‘I’m not exactly sleeping these days …’

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