Agent Ren Bryce Thriller Series Books 1-3: Blood Runs Cold, Time of Death, Blood Loss

‘It was right after New Year, in fact,’ he said. ‘That same week.’

I know that.

‘I’m sorry to hear about her death,’ said Wardwell. ‘I remember thinking she was a nice lady.’

‘She was,’ said Ren. ‘Was there anything you noticed that you think might help the investigation?’

He paused, then shook his head. ‘Nothing out of the ordinary.’

‘OK. Thank you for your time.’

Ren walked through security at the Sheriff’s Office and grabbed her purse as it slid out of the X-ray machine. She searched through it for her cellphone.

‘Pardon me, Agent … Bryce?’

Ren turned around. It was one of the attorneys who’d caught her when she fell up the steps.

‘Oh, hi,’ she said. ‘Did I look like I was about to fall again?’

He smiled. ‘No, you were doing OK. You’re with the FBI, right?’

‘Yes. And you’re …?’

‘Ollie Haggart. Oliver Haggart. I’m a defense attorney.’ He gestured back toward the courtrooms.

Ren tried to hide any recognition when she heard the last name. ‘Nice to meet you.’

‘Could I have a word with you?’ he said.

‘Sure. Go ahead,’ said Ren.

‘I guess you’ve seen the news report about the guy who went missing last year? Mark Wilson?’

‘Yes.’ She looked at him.

‘My brother is Terrence Haggart. He was the last person to be seen with Mark.’

‘Ah. OK …’

‘And I don’t think he had anything to do with Mark going missing.’

‘OK.’

‘I know he was always getting into trouble, but he just wouldn’t have done something to someone like that … He’s my brother, I’d know.’

‘OK,’ said Ren.

‘I know, I’ve just come up to you with this. But … I’m having a hard time with it all. So are my parents. And Terrence leaving town did not help. He looks guilty.’ He shrugged.

‘Do people around here really believe he did something to Mark Wilson?’

‘He was mentioned in all the news reports,’ said Haggart. ‘This is a small town. You’ve seen the Summit Daily News is everywhere. It kind of kept it in people’s psyches.’

‘I can see how that might happen.’

‘Terrence would not have done anything bad like that. He just wasn’t from that kind of family … we’re not that kind of family.’

Ren smiled at him kindly.

‘I know,’ said Haggart. ‘Probably everyone says that.’

‘In your line of work, you know that.’

Haggart nodded. ‘Yes. But just seeing that news report was kind of bam – there it was in full-color widescreen, all dragged up again. I mean, sure, old reports are on the internet, if anyone wanted to look … But it’s all resurfaced and the name … my name is up there. It doesn’t look good for me, for what I do.’

Something about how he said it made her empathy shift back a gear.

‘I’m sure that’s very difficult,’ said Ren.

‘I’m talking to you about it because I … can’t really approach the Sheriff because it would be weird. Or the Breck PD, because they were like Terrence’s personal chauffeurs and it got to pissing them off. I mean, he was a funny guy, people liked him, so he got away with a lot, but when this all came up, people were looking at him a different way.’

Ren nodded.

‘But you’re not from here,’ said Ollie, ‘and I was wondering if you could look at the file to see if it makes sense to you.’

‘Did you look at it?’

‘Conflict of interest.’

‘I don’t know if it’s appropriate for me to look at it either. I’m here to investigate Jean Transom’s death …’

‘I know – on Quandary. Wilson’s disappearance was a year ago, but it was the only other recent alleged crime out that way. Wouldn’t that make it at least worth a look?’

Ren paused. ‘OK, I’ll read through it. That’s the best I can do.’

‘Thank you,’ said Haggart. ‘I appreciate it. My mom’s been very upset the past few days.’

And at the last fence, Ren saw a little spark of humanity in his eyes. And she promised herself she would remember that a side effect of Ollie Haggart’s job was having to keep that part of himself hidden.

Chapter 24 (#u8bb60e53-87b4-54e1-a600-62c12d8c99b9)

Bob rolled his eyes with spectacular dramatics. Ren smiled at him, but stood her ground while she had him at his desk and could temporarily tower over him.

‘We get people coming in all the time – look at this, look at that, re-open this, re-open that,’ he said. ‘You know the drill – they think by wishing someone was a good person, that’s enough. If they believe their husband couldn’t rape and murder women, then that is so. “Please look at this again. I just cannot believe XYZ is capable of murder. You’ve got the wrong man/woman/teen psychopath …”’

‘Oh, come on – this is different,’ says Ren. ‘It’s not a confirmed murder. I mean, there’s no body.’ She paused. ‘Hey – maybe Quandary Peak feeds on dead bodies. Maybe we’re in a Stephen King novel.’

‘Yeah – Misery,’ said Bob.