Page 66 of Vanish From Sight
“Aye, you could be right. Yeah, I think the bastard is playing us,” McKenzie said, staring through the glass. “Seen these types before. All irate one minute and then giving an Oscar performance sob story the next. He fancies himself as some Morgan Freeman. If he keeps this up, the only damn award he’ll be getting is my foot up his ass.”
Noah stifled a chuckle. “Check with local PD to confirm the report of a stolen vehicle.”
McKenzie was quick to offer a rebuttal to Sawyer’s answer. “Doesn’t mean he wasn’t involved. He could have murdered the jogger, dumped his vehicle in some remote place where he had already parked his truck, and then driven over to High Peaks Police Department and reported the SUV missing.”
“Possibly but that’s where the names of those who can verify his alibi will come into play. Maybe you can handle that,” Noah said, patting McKenzie on the arm.
“No need, Callie will do it, won’t you, love?”
“Well… I …”
“That’s a good lass, and while you’re at it, get me a cup of coffee. I think this is going to be a long ass day. Oh, and don’t get me one from that shite machine in the break room. I’m taking a hammer to that bastard later. No, nip down to the local café. I take a large with two cream and three sugar. And snag me one of those strawberry scones. Fucking love those.” He lifted a hand, all theatrical. “You know the ones with the icing on the top. And what’ll you have, Noah?” he asked, turning to him.
Callie looked at a loss for words.
Noah waved her off and shook his head, to indicate to ignore him. Callie looked utterly perplexed as she strode away. Once she was gone, Noah piped up. “You want coffee, pal, get it yourself. That’s not what she’s here for.”
“Aye, I see, so she only does favors for you. I get it. You cheeky wee lad.”
“McKenzie. I don’t know how you ran things down in the Big Apple but up here, you’re liable to find yourself with a black eye if you keep rattling off at the mouth like that.”
McKenzie scoffed, squaring off to him. “Aye, you and whose army?”
Before Noah could reply, Callie returned looking out of sorts. “Noah. Is your phone off?”
“Yeah, while we were in the interview.”
“Your daughter Mia is on line two. She sounds pretty worried.”
He nodded, hurrying to the nearest phone in the office. He took a seat on the edge of the table and scooped up the handset. “Mia?”
“Dad. I’ve been trying to get hold of you all morning.”
“Sorry. I…” He took out his phone and turned it back on to see a whack of text messages and missed calls from Mia, Ethan and Aiden. “I had my phone off.”
“It’s mom. She never came home last night.”
“What?” He stood up, his body tensing. With the two women dead, and talk of a serial killer on the loose, his mind began to think the worst.
CHAPTER 18
Tuesday, November 22, 3:25 p.m.
Abright afternoon sunshine bathed Ray’s face as he awoke. The world came spinning back into view like a kaleidoscope of images through his slitted eyes. He groaned, pawing at his face to dust out the cobwebs of sleep. The aroma of coffee attacked his senses as did the continual sound of metal clinking. His mind was in a hazy fog as his eyes slowly fluttered open and he tried to piece together what he was looking at.
It was an overwhelming sight.
Above him, an intricately painted ceiling displayed a tapestry of vibrant colors and lifelike figures inside panels. He lay there still feeling groggy and took it all in, utterly perplexed. He was lying on a sofa inside a cabin and yet the imagery above looked more geared toward a church. As Ray looked up, he saw a multitude of figures and scenes. It was familiar but for some reason he couldn’t quite place where from.
“Quite something, isn’t it,” a voice said off to his right. “It took Michelangelo five years to paint 343 figures on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. It took me all of an hour to wallpaper that print on mine. Sometimes I just lay on that sofa, wondering how on earth he managed to do that without a crook in his neck. It’s beyond me. I put that up two months ago and I’m still feeling pain in mine.” The stranger ran a hand around the back of his neck. “But hey, it was worth it. It’s a beauty, right?”
“Yeah. A real beauty.” Ray rubbed his eyes again. The colors were so vivid and figures so real that he almost felt like he could reach out and touch them. He started to recognize some of the scenes from the fresco. There were nine main panels, each depicting a different scene from the book of Genesis, starting with the creation of the world and ending in the account of Noah’s ark.
“By the way, I’m Ed.”
“Ray.”
“I know.”
