Page 5 of Go Alone

“The cipher carved into the inside of the neighbor’s front door frame,” Winters replied.

Marcus and Kate both looked up at Winters. “The neighbor’s front door frame?” Kate asked.

"Yes. Howard's body was found in his neighbor's home, sitting at the dining room table."

Marcus and Kate exchanged a glance.

“Shall I ask the obvious?” Marcus said.

"The neighbor, Leonard Odum, is out of town and has been verified for the past five days. Time of death for Mr. Greer is estimated as early yesterday afternoon, so Leonard has an alibi."

“He also has a checking account, presumably,” Marcus said, “meaning he could have paid someone to do this.”

“To kill his neighbor in his home?” Kate countered. “I doubt that.”

Marcus nodded to concede that point. “How did Greer have access to Odum’s home anyway?”

“According to Odum, Greer was supposed to be there to check on houseplants,” Winters replied.

“Houseplants?”

“Houseplants. That’s what he said.”

Marcus lifted his eyebrows briefly but didn’t offer any other argument.

“In any case,” Winters continued, “the woman who discovered the body testified that Leonard and Howard were close friends. She says they never argued that she could remember. Leonard’s flying back early to talk to detectives, but since he already has an alibi, and since—as Kate pointed out—it’s incredibly unlikely that he called a hit on his neighbor in his own home, he’s not being considered seriously as a suspect.”

Marcus frowned. Friends had spats sometimes that ended badly, but they didn’t go from zero to murder in one evening. There would have been signs of bad blood long before this.

Well, someone had bad blood with Greer.

“What about the woman who found him?” he asked.

“Patrice Mullen. A friend of Leonard’s. She knew Howard by sight but didn’t know him well. She was working until five in the afternoon and discovered the body shortly after six. Coroner thinks he was dead no later than two, so it’s highly unlikely she’s the killer either.”

“Let’s go back to that,” Kate said. “The cause of death was suffocation due to potting soil?”

“Yes. He aspirated a copious amount of it, so they know he was alive when it was poured into his mouth.”

“How was he restrained?” Kate asked.

“I mean, he was an old man,” Marcus said. “The killer could have probably just held him down.”

“They could have,” Winters agreed, “but he was restrained with rocuronium.”

Marcus frowned. “What’s that? A sedative?”

Winters gave him a grim smile. “No. It’s a paralytic. A very powerful and fast-acting one that does not cause any sedation or pain relief. It’s typically combined with a sedative to induce sleep prior to and during surgery, but on its own, it just prevents the patient—or in this case, the victim—from moving.”

“So he was awake the whole time,” Kate surmised.

“Yes.”

Marcus shivered. Memories clawed at the back of his mind, of hot sand, sour sweat, pain, terror, and rage. He pushed them away. He wasn't a SEAL anymore, and this killer wasn't a soldier. He was just a garden-variety asshole who used God as an excuse to murder innocent old men.

I don’t know if I’d say garden variety, a voice in his head pointed out.

“How long did Greer live in that neighborhood?” Kate asked.