Page 46 of Shadow of Death
Hunter left the room with Amy right behind him. In the hallway, he heard Brian laughing as Belinda Montgomery stepped into the hallway from the room where she’d been with him.
She smiled. “That is a great kid.”
“He’s laughing. You must be great at what you do,” Hunter said.
“You must be pretty great, too. The kid is okay...okay with being here. Okay with me, and though I still say he’s going to need a therapist, you kept him...sane.”
Amy glanced at Hunter as he smiled grimly.
“I know a bit about what the kid is going through. But you—”
Belinda laughed. “Hey. My ancestry is Irish, Asian, Jewish, and African American. My folks died early in a car accident, and my grandparents were all too old to raise a kid. I bounced around a few homes in my day, and I guess I learned to watch and learn, and I wound up with some wonderful people, too. I guess I just want to pay it back. I was ready to take him home with me, but it seems he does have an aunt who loves him. Of course, I need to spend time with her and the boy and make sure before I do the paperwork to get started on putting him in her custody.”
“Of course,” Amy murmured. “Any kid would be lucky for time with you. Brian is laughing, honestly laughing. In all this...well, it’s pretty miraculous.”
“Because he’s a good kid,” Belinda said. “Anyway, I’m going out to the front for a soda and a candy bar!” She hesitated a minute. “How is the father?” she asked.
Hunter glanced at Amy. “We think he’s truly repentant, and he’ll help us in any way he can—but we don’t think he’s lying when he claims he doesn’t know much. Still, I don’t want him seeing Brian yet.”
“No. There needs to be some distance from this,” Belinda agreed. “Well, I promised a candy bar and I don’t like to break my promises—”
She broke off. Andy Mason was coming down the hall for them. “Aunt Vi—Violet Austin—is in conference room two,” he said. “I’ve asked that she speak with the two of you and then Belinda. That work for you three?” he asked.
Hunter glanced at Belinda. “Hey, I’m on the hunt for a candy bar. Take your time. I plan to take mine and make sure Brian is going to be okay.”
“Andy, we don’t want to have Bret Johnston taken to a detention center yet. Can someone see to it he gets something to eat?” Amy asked. “After we meet with Violet—”
“We’ll just see if we can get anything else,” Hunter finished.
“I will make sure he gets food,” Andy promised. “And we’ll keep Johnston as long as you say.” He looked at them all and inhaled deeply, shaking his head. “I’ve heard from the teams still out on the cliffs. It will be tomorrow before we hear anything on what might be discovered with the preliminaries at the morgue. They will, however, start on autopsies as soon as they are able to extricate the corpses. I’m assuming you’ll attend?” he asked, looking from Hunter to Amy. “Oh, and last...you both fired your weapons resulting in death today. Mandatory session with our shrink. He’s a good guy. You won’t mind. Sometime tomorrow.”
“Will do,” Hunter promised. He looked at Amy, arching a brow.
“Time to meet Aunt Violet?”
“Time to meet Aunt Violet,” she agreed.
They headed toward the conference room where Andy had Violet waiting for them. As they neared the door, Hunter saw Amy had paused and frowned as she glanced at her phone.
“It’s the hospital, I think, the number...” she said, frowning as she answered. “Larson.”
He held still, watching her as she listened.
“I’m sure it’s all right and she’ll be back—”
Amy broke off because the other person was speaking excitedly.
“Okay, okay. Right now, Carey, it’s best if you get yourself calmed down.” She glanced over at Hunter and spoke again. “All right. Hayden left your room and said she’d be back, but she hasn’t come back. How long has it been?”
Amy listened again.
“Did she say where she was going? Carey, did she say she’d be back in five minutes, or was she going to go home, or—” Amy paused to listen. “All right. We’ll get someone out to her place, and we’ll see what we can find out. But if she said she was going home to feed the cat, she may have gotten tied up with something else. You can’t upset yourself so much—”
Hunter couldn’t make out the words being said, but he could hear the hysteria in the voice coming through Amy’s phone.
It was Carey Allen, their first surviving victim, the young woman from the pit.
“Carey, Carey, please. I promise you. I’m at the local headquarters now, and I can speak with the acting director here and get someone out to check on her. Please, calm down, try to rest, and we’ll do everything possible to find her.”
