Chapter Six

The detective and the chaplain exchanged glances, and Kenney lowered his voice when he explained.

“Mr. Smithing, Eric was beaten to death. The damage was such that visual verification wasn’t possible. I didn’t share that with her. I’m telling you this because Maddie may want to see him when he’s released by the coroner’s office. Trust me, she doesn’t need that image in her head. None of you do.”

Chase blanched.

“I see. I’ll make sure she’s not subjected to that.”

“Eric worked for you, Mr. Smithing, is that right?”

“Yes, he’s my CFO.”

“Do you know of anyone that might have wanted to harm him? Anyone you can think of?”

“No,” Chase answered. “No one. Eric was well-liked by everyone so far as I knew.”

Chase fielded a few more exploratory questions, and the three men moved back into the living room. Maddie’s mother Deborah was seated beside her daughter, holding her hand.

“What happens now?” Maddie managed through her tears.

Officer Greene stepped forward, extending a card to her.

“Maddie, here’s my contact information. Once they’ve done what they need to in Wyoming, they’ll be able to send Eric home to Texas. I can help coordinate that for you, if you like.”

“That would be very helpful. Thanks.”

“Here’s my card, as well,” Detective Kenney offered. “If you have questions, or if you think of anything that might be helpful, please reach out. And again, I am so sorry for your loss.”

Chase saw the policemen to the door and met Kathy as she was stepping onto the porch from the front walking path.

“Hey, Kathy, glad you’re here. She needs you. Come on in.”

“Thanks, Mr. Smithing.”

They made their way back to the living room, where Maddie cried softly. Kathy sat next to her and hugged her.

“I’m so sorry, Mad.”

***

Two days later, Maddie, her parents, and Kathy returned to Maddie’s house from the funeral home. Eric had never agreed to any sort of pre-planning, although Maddie had told him repeatedly over the years that it was a good idea.

“Why? It’s morbid,” he’d snarled.

“Because,” she’d sighed, “it will make it easier on the one left behind to not have to make all sorts of decisions during the worst time of their lives, that’s why.”

But she’d been unsuccessful, and he’d refused to discuss it further. Now, her prediction had become her reality. On top of the deep, stark grief came a myriad of choices to make, and Maddie had felt completely overwhelmed.

To make matters worse, Maddie’s in-laws had shown up and attempted to take over all the funeral planning. When Caroline Nibless had shrilly and loudly announced to everyone present that no casket costing less than seven thousand dollars could possibly be good enough for her son, Maddie finally reached her breaking point.

I’ve always just put up with the way she treats me, because of Eric. No more, she thought, and set her jaw.

“We’re going with that one,” she’d said coldly and calmly, deliberately pointing to the lowest priced one.

“I hardly think—” Caroline started to protest but Maddie cut her off, with just enough volume to stop everyone in their tracks.

“I don’t care what you think,” Maddie said matter-of-factly to the woman who had treated her like a second-class citizen the entire marriage. “You know why? Because it’s not your choice to make, Caroline. It’s mine, and it’s final.”

She’d turned back to the funeral director and spoke calmly.

“Now, Mr. Gates, how about we continue this planning session in private, so there aren’t any further interruptions?”

He’d swallowed, nodded, and escorted her to his office, leaving a visibly mortified Caroline in their wake.

I shouldn’t have acted that way toward her, Maddie chastised herself the minute they walked away. I know she’s grieving too. But it was just too much. I’ve had enough.

As if he could read her thoughts, Mr. Gates softly said, “No worries, miss, that’s not the worst outburst we’ve witnessed here, believe me. Grief does strange things to people.”

“I appreciate that,” she’d replied, then sighed as they sat down in his office. “What did you need me to decide next?”

It was with relief that she sat in her living room that afternoon, surrounded by those she loved.

***

Mason sat in his office behind a firmly closed door with his head in his hands.

I still can’t believe it.

When Mason had returned from lunch, he’d walked down the hall to the conference room for his two o’clock meeting with the team to finalize soft launch plans. But one person never arrived at the meeting.

Toby Mitting had seemingly vanished from the face of the earth.

Mason had looked for him everywhere in the offices, then tried Toby’s cell phone, and was dumbfounded to get a disconnected number message. He checked the number three times and got the same results.

Mason’s stomach had turned to lead as he marched to his office again and sat at the desk.

“Please, dear God, no,” he whispered as he attempted to call up files relating to the massive project that they’d all spent so much time and effort on.

The main server had been wiped clean. Even his personal folders on the secondary server - that no one else should have been able to even navigate to, much less access - were devoid of anything relating to the single most important project of his existence.

Specifications, timelines, testing, raw data, all of it. Gone.

It was like the last six years of his life had never happened. No obvious trace remained of Mason Gentries’ dream to make the world a little bit safer.

***

“I’m glad that part’s over,” Maddie murmured as she rubbed her temples. “Although I should probably apologize to Caroline at some point.”

“I don’t think so, personally,” Chase said. “She was out of line. But you do what you feel is right, Maddie.”

“Here, sweetie,” Kathy said when she came back into the house. “Thought I’d grab the mail for you.”

“Thanks,” Maddie told her, and began to leaf through the stack.

When she saw the thick manila envelope, her brows furrowed.

“Wonder what this is?” she wondered out loud. “And, who sent it. No return address on it.”

“Only one way to find out,” Deborah said.

“I suppose,” Maddie replied, and opened the envelope to pull out the contents. She set the envelope on the coffee table and began to scan through the half-inch thick stack of pages.

Deborah turned to say something to Maddie and noticed her daughter had turned ghostly white.

“Maddie… What’s wrong?”