Chapter Forty One

CHAPTER FORTY ONE

Death Like a Crown

Detective Bridger woke up thrashing.

He gasped and waited for his heart to slow down, which took longer and longer to do.

“Dreaming about that girl again, sweetheart?” asked his wife. Her lovely face was full of sympathy, and traces of apprehension lined her forehead. Her husband had a tender soul and she was beginning to fear for him, because it seemed harder for him to shrug out of the coat of grime and murder he wore home each evening. He was growing distraught and driven and she knew the impending death of this lovely girl was behind it. Although she hadn’t seen the woman herself, she believed in her darling Ian, and she believed him when he said this girl wore death like a crown, and the crown was growing heavier and more difficult to endure, and one day her frail bones would snap entirely under the weight of it.

“I have to go over the files again,” he said, and then he was gone. She knew he would be locked in the home office for the rest