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Finn walked over to an empty boothand sat down. Winters sat across from him, They both looked out through theglass to the rain beating on the window. It was bleak darkness outside and Finnwas surprised by how quickly the weather had turned.
“You wouldn’t know it’s summer outthere,” Finn said in a low voice, feeling as though he was somehow catching thetiredness of the place. Like it was contagious.
“You still don’t get the Britishweather, do you?” Winters said, turning to him.
Her eyes were tired too, but morethan that, there was a disappointment within them. Finn knew it was about thecase.
“It changes so fast,” Finnobserved.
“That’s the way of it,” Wintersreplied.
Heather brought over their hotdrinks and set them down in front of them.
“You don’t happen to sell a hairdryer or a towel by any chance?” Finn asked.
Heather looked puzzled, as thoughnot getting the humor. “Oh yeah,” she then said. “You’re wet… Very funny.”
She then turned and busied herselfwith one of the other patrons.
“She doesn’t like my jokes,” Finnsaid.
“You think?” Winters replied.
“Actually, I have beenthinking,” Finn said, sipping his coffee. “We’re really far behind the game.”
“What do you mean?” asked Winters,holding her tea cup in both hands and blowing on it to cool it down.
“It’s not our fault,” Finncontinued. “I mean, we’ve only been on the case for a day. But Quentin waskilled two weeks ago and we only now know it was murder. The killer has takenhis second victim in Maggie DeGrey, and I wonder if that’s where it’ll stop. Ifthere are more DeGreys to die, then the killer is following a plan, and it’sone he’s been meticulous about. That means he’s more than a step ahead of us. Bythe time we get done with all of our basic inquiries, that castle up therecould be more like a grave than anything else.”
Finn nodded to the darknessoutside. Somewhere nearby the castle loomed, but the rain and the dark had nowobscured it in the distance.
“I agree the killer is meticulous,”Winters said. “Waiting for Maggie going on her run, to kill her with a car,that takes planning and knowledge.”
“Yeah.” Finn nodded and tookanother sip from his cup. “I think now that we’ve established two murders, weneed to look at the bigger picture.”
Winters rubbed the sides of hertemples and closed her eyes for a moment.
“Either you have a headache,” Finnsaid, “or you are trying to psychically destroy me.”
Winters opened her eyes. “Thefirst one. I just need to drink this.”
“What you need is rest,” Finnsaid.
“So what is the bigger picture?”Winters asked.
“The DeGreys are powerful, rich,influential,” Finn explained. “At least, on the surface.”
“Do you think things are worse forthem than they’re letting on?”
“I don’t know,” Finn said. “Butone thing I do know is that Stewart DeGrey and Devon Langdon bothconfirmed that they are in a dispute over money and ownership of a business. Itcould be the normal slice and dice of business, but it could also be that thereare money problems and that’s why Stewart and Quentin DeGrey were both tryingto dissolve the company and sell its assets.”
“Money certainly pushes people tokill,” Winters said, sipping her tea. “I agree it’s a good line to investigate,but we know Quentin was the patriarch of the family. With his death, could ithave been about inheritance?”
Finn took out his phone andstarted scrolling through it.
“It’s not the time to look throughsocial media, Finn.”
Finn looked up from the blue hueof the phone screen. “I want to see if the tabloids have caught wind ofsomething we haven’t. Something from the last few weeks.”
