Black Evening

"If only you could have seen the skyrockets," Grady murmured. "I don't know how to describe… Their colors were so…"

The beep from the pager on his gunbelt interrupted his halting monologue. He frowned.

The pager was one of many i

Its persistent beep made Grady stiffen. He wiped his tears, braced his shoulders, said goodbye to his wife and son, and stood with effort, reluctantly leaving the mausoleum, locking its door behind him. That was important. Helen and John, their remains, needed to be protected, and the cemetery's caretaker had been as inventive as Grady had been about the pager, arranging for every mourner to have a key, so that only those who had a right could enter.

Outside, the July afternoon was bright, hot, humid, and horribly reminiscent of the sultry afternoon a year ago when Grady had come here, accompanied by friends and a priest, to inter the precious urns.

He shook his head to clear his mind and stifle his tortured emotions, then approached the black-and-white cruiser, where he leaned inside to grab the two-way radio microphone.

"Grady here, Dinah. What's the problem?" He released the transmit button on the microphone.

Dinah's staccato response surprised him. "Public-service dispatch."

Grady frowned. "On my way. Five minutes."

Uneasy, he drove from the cemetery. "Public-service dispatch" meant that whatever Dinah needed to tell him was so sensitive that she didn't want a civilian with a police-band radio to overhear the conversation. Grady would have to use a telephone to get in touch with her. After parking at a gas station across from the cemetery, he entered a booth beside an ice machine, thrust coins in the telephone's slot, and jabbed numbers.

"Bosworth police," Dinah said.

"Dinah, it's me. What's so important that – "

"You're not going to like this," the deep-voiced female dispatcher said.

"It's never good news when you page me. Public-service dispatch? Why?"

"We've got a combination one-eighty-seven and ten-fifty-six."

Grady winced. Those numbers meant a murder-suicide. "You're right." His voice dropped. "I don't like it."

"It gets worse. It's not in our jurisdiction. The state police are handling it, but they want you on the scene."

"I don't understand. Why would that be worse if it isn't in our jurisdiction?"

"Chief, I…"

"Say it."

"I don't want to."

"Say it, Dinah."

"… You know the victims."

For a moment, Grady had trouble breathing. He clutched the phone harder. "Who?"

"Brian and Betsy Roth."

Shit, Grady thought. Shit. Shit. Shit. Brian and Betsy had been the friends he'd depended upon after all his other friends had distanced themselves when his grief persisted.

Now one of them had killed the other?

And after that, the executioner had committed suicide?

Grady's pulse sped, making his mind swirl. "Who did what to…"

The husky-throated female dispatcher said, "Brian did. A forty-five semiautomatic."

Christ. Oh, Jesus Christ, Grady thought.

The puzzling directions Grady received took him not to Brian and Betsy's home, where he'd assumed the killings would have occurred, but instead through and past the outskirts of Bosworth into the mountains west of town. Pe

"I'm looking for Lieutenant Clauson," Grady said.

When the trooper heard Grady's name, he straightened. "And the lieutenant's waiting for you." With remarkable efficiency for so large a man, the trooper backed his car from the entrance to the lane, allowing Grady to drive his own car up the narrow draw.

Leaves brushed against Grady's side window. Just before the first sharp curve, Grady glanced toward his rearview mirror and saw the state-police car again block the entrance. At once, he jerked the steering wheel, veering left. Then, behind as well as ahead, he saw only forest.

The lane tilted ever more upward. It kept forcing Grady to zigzag and increased his anxiety as branches scraped the top of his car in addition to his windows. The dense shadows of the forest made him feel trapped.

Brian shot Betsy?

And then shot himself?

No!

Why?

I needed them.

I depended on…

I loved them!

What on earth had made them come out here? Why had they been in the woods?

The lane became level, straightened, and suddenly brought Grady from the forest to a sun-bathed plateau between two mountains, where an open gate in a chainlink fence revealed a spacious compound: several cinderblock buildings of various sizes on the left, a barbecue pit adjacent to them, and a swimming pool on the right.

Grady parked behind three state-police cars, an ambulance, a blue station wagon marked MEDICAL EXAMINER, and a red Jeep Cherokee that Grady recognized as belonging to Brian and Betsy. Several state troopers, along with two ambulance attendants and an overweight man in a gray suit, formed a cluster at the near rim of the swimming pool, their backs to Grady. But as Grady opened his door, one of the troopers turned, studied him, glanced back toward the rim of the pool, again studied Grady, and with a somber expression, approached him.

Lieutenant Clauson. Middle forties. Tall. Pronounced nose and cheekbones. Trim – Clauson's doctor had ordered him to lose weight, Grady remembered. Short, receding, sandy hair. On occasion, Clauson and Grady had worked together when a crime was committed in one jurisdiction and a suspect was apprehended in the other.

"Ben."

"Jeff."

"Did your dispatcher explain?" Clauson looked uneasy.

Grady nodded, grim. "Brian shot Betsy and then himself. Why the hell would he – "

"That's what we were hoping you could tell us."

Grady shivered despite the afternoon heat. "How would I know?"

"You and the Roths were friends. I hate to ask you to do this. Do you think you can… Would you…"

"Look at the bodies?"

"Yes." Clauson furrowed his brow, more uneasy. "If you wouldn't mind."

"Jeff, just because my wife and son died, I can still do my job. Even though Brian and Betsy were friends of mine, I can do whatever's necessary. I'm ready to help."

"I figured."

"Then why did you have to ask?"

"Because you're involved."

"What?"

"First things first," Clauson said. "You look at the bodies. I show you what your friend Brian had in his hand, clutched around the grip of the forty-five. And then we talk."

The stench of decay pinched Grady's nostrils. A waist-high wooden fence enclosed the swimming pool. Grady followed Clauson through an opening onto a concrete strip that bordered the pool. One of the policemen was taking photographs of something on the concrete while the overweight man in the gray suit suggested various angles. When the other policemen saw Clauson and Grady arrive, they parted to give them room, and Grady saw the bodies.

The shock made him sick. His friends lay facedown on the concrete, redwood deck chairs behind them, their heads toward the pool. Or what was left of their heads. The.45-caliber bullets had done massive damage. Behind Betsy's right ear and Brian's, the impact wound was a thick, black clot of blood. On the opposite side, at the top of each brow near the temple, the exit wound was a gaping hole from which blood, brain, bone, and hair had spattered the concrete. A repugnant swarm of flies buzzed over the gore. The.45 was next to Brian's right hand.