Private Scandals

Jenner. “No one could.”
    He locked up carefully behind the policeman. His smile grew wider, wider, wider as he climbed the stairs. They might come back. A small, grinning part of him hoped they would. Because he would lead them right through the house, right by the hidden room where his princess slept.
    They would never find her. And eventually they would goaway. He and Deanna would be alone. Always.
    He turned on the television in his room. The evening news didn’t interest him. He flipped a switch on the splitter behind the set and settled down to watch Deanna.
    She slept on, still as a doll behind the glass of the screen. The tears he wept now were of simple joy.
     
    Jenner caught up with Finn at home. He made no mention of the speed limits Finn had ignored. “We’ll be checking out Hyatt and O’Malley thoroughly. Why don’t you be a reporter and get the story on the air?”
    “It’ll be on the air.” Standing in the chill December wind, Finn struggled to stave off panic. “Hyatt looked as innocent as a newborn lamb, didn’t he?”
    “Yes, he did.” Jenner blew out a smoky breath. Three days until Christmas, he thought. He would do everything in his power to be certain it was a day of celebration.
    “I had some trouble with that house,” Finn said after a moment.
    “What kind?”
    “Nothing out of place. Not a crooked picture, not a dustball. Books and magazines lined up like soldiers, furniture all but geometrically arranged. Everything centered, squared and bandbox clean.”
    “I noticed. Obsessive.”
    “That’s how it strikes me. He fits the pattern.”
    Jenner acknowledged that with a slight nod. “A man can be obsessively neat without being obsessively homicidal.”
    “Where was the Christmas tree?” Finn muttered.
    “The Christmas tree?”
    “He’s got the wreath, he’s got the lights. But no tree. You’d think he’d have a tree somewhere.”
    “Maybe he’s one of those traditionalists who don’t put it up until Christmas Eve.” But the omission was interesting.
    “One more thing, Lieutenant. He claims he came home early to lie down. The bed in his room was the only thing mussed up. Pillow scrunched a bit, bedspread wrinkled. We got him up from his nap.”
    “So he says.”
    “Why did he have his shoes on?” Finn’s eyes gleamed in the lowering light. “The laces were tied in double knots. Someone that neat doesn’t lie down on his bed with his shoes on.”
    He’d missed that clue, damn it, Jenner thought. “I believe I mentioned this before, Mr. Riley, you have a good eye.”
     
    He couldn’t stay at home. Not without her. Finn did the only thing that seemed possible. He went back to the station, avoiding the newsroom. He couldn’t bear to answer questions, to be asked questions. He went to his office, brewed a pot of strong coffee. He added a healthy dose of whiskey to the first cup.
    He booted up his computer.
    “Finn.” Fran stood in the doorway, her face splotchy, her eyes swollen and red. Before he’d risen completely, she took a stumbling step forward. “Oh God, Finn.”
    He stroked her shaking shoulders, though he felt no well of comfort that he could offer. It was just the routine, the show of comfort that meant nothing to anyone.
    “I had to take Kelsey to the pediatrician for her checkup. I wasn’t here. I wasn’t even here.”
    “You couldn’t have changed anything.”
    “I might have.” She shoved away, eyes fierce now. “How did he get to her? I’ve heard a dozen different stories.”
    “This is the place for them. Truth or accuracy, which do you want?”
    “Both.”
    “One’s not the same as the other, Fran. You’ve been in the game long enough. Accurately, we don’t know. She left early, went out to the lot where her car and driver were supposed to be waiting. Now she’s gone. Her driver seems to have vanished into thin air.”
    She didn’t like the cool control of his voice or the workaday hum of his computer. “Then what’s the truth, Finn? Why don’t you tell me what the truth is?”
    “The truth is that whoever has been sending her those notes,whoever killed Lew McNeil, Angela and Pike, has Deanna. They’ve got an APB out on her, and one on O’Malley and the car.”
    “Tim wouldn’t. He couldn’t.”
    “Why?” The single word was like a bullet. “Because you know him? Because he’s part of Deanna’s extended family? Fuck that. He could have.” Finn sat down, drained half his coffee. The shock of caffeine