Page 26 of Investigation of a Quest

“I’m so sorry.” Dorothy reached out and took Mrs. Calon’s hand. “I should have recognized him. It’s just with all the…” she trailed off as she realized how devastating it would be to learn the details of her husband’s demise.

“Did he suffer?” his wife asked.

“No,” Dorothy lied before anyone could answer, but Mrs. Calon glanced at Bel for the truth. Dorothy was a friend, but it seemed this wife didn’t want sugar-coated comfort.

“Did he suffer?” she repeated.

“We believe so,” Bel said, the words ripping into her like the very screws drilled into this widow’s husband.

“I…” Mrs. Calon’s lips trembled, and her fingers flew to her mouth as if to keep them from falling off. “Why did this happen? Why? Please tell me why?”

“I wish I had answers for you,” Bel said, and by the way the woman’s eyes lingered on her scars, she believed her. “I will do my best to find them.

“Thank you,” the woman said.

“Did Frank owe anyone money?” Olivia asked.

“Not that I know of,” Mrs. Calon answered, and Bel scanned the children and extended family’s faces while their focus was on Gold, but none of them so much as twitched. This family knew nothing. Kids often noticed things they hid from their parents, but Bel had been watching these children. They were miserable but focused. Not one of them even raised an eyebrow. Neither did their aunts nor grandparents. Even their friends’ expressions remained neutral, which didn’t surprise Bel. If witches were responsible, human connections and failings weren’t to blame for this man’s murder.

“Here’s my card.” Bel handed it to Frank’s wife. “If you can think of anything that might help us, please call me.”

“I will.” The woman wiped the tears from her cheeks and opened her arms to her youngest so he could sit on her lap, and Bel understood Eamon just a little more. This is what he wanted to avoid when her mortality claimed her.

“One more question, and then we’ll be out of your hair,” Bel continued. “Did your husband have a home office?”

“He does…did,” Mrs. Calon said. “Mom, can you show them?”

“Of course.” A silver-haired woman stood and motioned for the officers to follow her.

“I’ll stay with the Calons,” Dorothy said, but Bel saw through her sympathetic gesture. Her first death notice was too much for her to handle, and Bel graciously nodded her agreement. She remembered her first death notice. Nothing could ever prepare someone for telling a family that the person they loved most was never coming home.

“It’s good you’re here,” Bel said to Mrs. Calon’s mom as the woman led them upstairs. “Have Frank’s parents been notified? We can call them if you need us to.”

“Thank you, dear, but they’ve already booked their flights. They live a few states over, and when Frank never came home, my daughter called them. We’re a close-knit family, so you need to find who did this. Frank was a good husband and father. He didn’t deserve this.”

“I know.” Bel gripped the woman’s arm before stepping into the tidy office, which was a stark contrast to the professor’s disorganized studio. “Medical textbooks and journals. Family photos,” she said as she trailed her fingers over the bookshelf. “Diplomas. Self-help books, but nothing on the occult.”

“So no connection there,” Olivia said. “Jack Samuel’s campus office was spotless, but his apartment was cluttered. Jack Calon had a large family with small children. Do you think he might have lived in reverse?”

“Home office orderly and hospital office hoarding the valuable stuff?” Bel asked. “It’s possible. We should head over there. There’s nothing for us here.” She smiled at Frank’s mother-in-law as they exited the room.

“Bel!” Olivia’s shout, while not loud, froze Bel in her tracks.

“What?” she hissed as she retraced her steps, half expecting Gold to be bleeding out on the floor, but her partner didn’t say anything. She simply raised a finger and pointed at a frameless, aged photograph. Bel squinted at the image, but it was merely a snapshot of a young Frank Calon posing in hiking gear before a jungle landscape that was clearly not the United States. Why had that made Olivia freak out?

“What’s so sp—” Bel’s mouth froze mid-word, and she snatched the photo from the shelf to get a closer look at the ruins below Calon’s boots. “No way.”

“It’s the same yellow brick that Jack Samuel had, isn’t it?” Olivia whispered.

“Yeah…” Bel whispered back. “We just found our connection.”

“I don’t know where this was taken,” Mrs. Calon said. Bel had pulled her aside to privately ask about the yellow brick in her husband’s photo, since she couldn’t risk Deputy Dorothy asking questions she couldn’t answer.

“He took that trip before I met him. After graduation, but before medical school, I think,” she continued. “He never talked about it.”

“So you have no idea what country this is?” Bel asked.

“No, sorry. Why is this so important? This was years ago.”