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“Miss me yet?”
“Hey, there he is.” Nico could imagine his old partner smiling over the phone. “And here I was thinking I was finally rid of your ass.”
“Here I was thinking you’d be lost without me.”
Wilde barked out a laugh. “Don’t flatter yourself.”
“Why not? I outrank you now.”
“Yeah, yeah. Twice the stripes, half the talent.”
The two shared a quiet chuckle before Wilde asked, “So, what’s up? You getting bored out there already?”
“I wish.”
“Why? What’s going on?”
Nico chewed on his lip—stalling—then answered. “Homicide.”
“Shit,” Wilde replied, his tone high enough to indicate his eyebrows were now much closer to his hairline than they were a few seconds ago.
“Yeah, a young woman. It’s—” Nico had trouble getting the words out, afraid of how paranoid it made him sound. Taking a breath, he tried again. “It’s the same, Rhett. The same MO as Sara Riley.”
Silence filled the line. Eventually, Wilde sighed.
“I know how it sounds,” Nico said. “But I’m telling you—”
“Nico,” he stopped him. “You were right there in the courtroom when they convicted Bryan Fowler for what he did to that girl. You know as well as I do, he’s still rotting in prison.”
“I know that. But that doesn’t change the fact that I have a dead woman up here with a good thirty holes in her,” Nick argued.
More silence. Nico got the feeling Wilde didn’t know what to say. Not that he could blame him. Even to his own ears, he sounded like a nutcase.
“Look,” Nico said, more calmly this time. “I’m not saying Bryan Fowler is the one who killed her, because that’s not possible, and despite whatever you might be thinking, I’m not crazy.”
“I never said you were.”
“Good. So, then doesn’t it strike you as odd that the same week I move out to the boondocks, they have their first murder in over twenty years? A murder that’s all but identical to one I’ve worked before?”
“It is . . . interesting,” Wilde conceded after some deliberation. “Look, how about this? I’ll take a drive out to the Ridge, make sure Fowler is still enjoying their excellent facilities, maybe have a chat with him, and see what he has to say?”
Granite Ridge Penitentiary was a medium security prison in Massachusetts housing a myriad of criminally sentenced males, and the place that Bryan Fowler now called home.
Nico’s shoulders relaxed a little. “I’d appreciate it.”
“No problem. Listen, Nico, I know you said you needed change or whatever, but are you sure this is what you want. Doesn’t sound like it’s off to the best start.”
“Truthfully, I don’t know what I want or need anymore,” Nico said, meaning it. “I just know that I can’t come back. Not yet.”
“Alright, I get it,” Wilde said, the words ringing hollow as Nico well-knew his departure hadn’t only been rough on himself, but his partner too. “I’ll, uh, let you know how it goes with Fowler.”
“Thanks.”
“Sure thing. It’s good to talk to you.”
Nico grinned. “I knew you missed me.”
After shifting the conversation to more lighthearted topics, Nico hung up twenty minutes later with a smile on his face.
