Chapter 12 – Inconclusive Answers
Audrey tried to go to sleep, but sleep just wouldn't come to her. She lay on the plush futon mattress, tossing and turning while her mind filled with dark and frightening thoughts that wouldn't leave her alone. Images of Jeffrey Halter and Angelina Waters' broken bodies were interspersed with pictures of Nathan; reclining in his office chair at the station, eating pancakes at the diner, doubling over in pain in the living room of the Colden house, laying in a pool of unnaturally bright blood.
After an hour of anxious restlessness, she couldn't handle it any longer. She tossed aside the blankets and climbed out of the bed. Nathan's sweatpants were rolled up several times at the cuff and her feet were still barely visible, and his shirt hung to nearly her knees. Keeping quiet, even though she could have made all the noise she liked and it wouldn't have made a difference to the house's other occupant, she padded across the hall and pushed open the door to his bedroom.
Nathan was lying on his back in the bed, tucked beneath the covers with Delilah curled against his side. In the illumination from the light outside the window, he looked almost peaceful in his sleep. Content that her partner was still safe, she sighed and went back to the guest bedroom, and back to her thoughts.
What clue were they missing? It was like the answer was just outside her grasp, just beyond the reach of her fingertips. It was close enough that she could nearly touch it, could get the faintest feeling that it was there, but just far enough that she couldn't get a good enough grip on it to know it clearly. It was maddening, and even more so because Nathan's life might rest on that stupid little elusive clue.
Groaning, Audrey perched herself on the edge of the futon mattress and slammed her palm into the downy pillow. It did nothing to alleviate the tension in her mind, but it did at least feel good to funnel out some of that frustration. Even if it was just at the pillow.
Needing to feel like she was doing something, and knowing that sleep was something that was beyond her at the moment, she stood up again and wandered back into the living room. All of their notes and files were still spread out on the coffee table, and Audrey turned on the lamps at either end of the couch and then settled herself in the middle. Steeling her brain, she threw herself back into the facts and figures they had already spent hours reviewing. She was determined that she would find that missing piece that was evading her, even if she had to search all night.
At eleven she went into the kitchen and started a pot of coffee to clear her head. While she waited for the water to warm, she made her way back to Nathan's bedroom to check that he was still alright. As the night wore on, it became a habitual routine. She would sift through papers at the table for about an hour, then check on Nathan, then refill her coffee cup and head back to the table.
She couldn't fail to notice that the longer into the night it got, the less restful he looked. He never woke, at least not that she could tell, but he went from appearing peaceful, to grimacing in his sleep, to fidgeting and tossing sometime around three in the morning. She started wondering if he was in some sort of pain, his unconscious body registering what he normally couldn't, or if it was just a nightmare. Or if, worst of all perhaps, it was some side effect of the sand condition, something that was going to make his situation deteriorate even further. If maybe it was what had made both of the others die first thing in the morning.
Feeling all the more determined, Audrey went back to the living room and began scanning the paperwork with renewed fervour. It had to be there. It just had to be. She would find it.
The sun was just beginning to lighten the horizon outside the window when Audrey's eyes landed on a scribbled notation beneath a name and everything clicked into place. There it was, the little clue that she had been missing. A forensics request that she had completely forgotten in all of the chaos that had followed. That was her answer, right there. And she needed to go get it.
Audrey jumped up and hurried down to Nathan's bedroom, ready to wake him and tell him what she'd found. She opened the door just as he let out a groan in his sleep, and she hesitated. It wasn't like she'd be able to wake him and they didn't really have much time to waste.
Back in the living room she grabbed a blank sheet from the notepad, wrote a hasty note explaining where she'd gone, and laid it on his bedside table. "I'll be back, Nathan," she murmured aloud. "I'll find him and get him to fix you, I promise." He simply moaned and rolled his head to the other side without waking.
She dressed hastily, paying no attention to how wrinkled her clothes had become overnight, and then rushed out the door without bothering to grab anything more than the keys to Nathan's truck; she was in a hurry, she wasn't wasting time fighting with her car's finicky ignition. The truck's heaters were slow getting started and she had forgotten a coat, but the cold was the least of her concerns. The address was engrained in her mind and it was with a frighteningly single-mindedness that she drove.
The little blocky apartment building was set back from the main road and, apart from the occasional coloured curtain or plant in a window, completely devoid of decoration. Audrey pulled the truck into the car park at a haphazard angle, taking up four stalls, before jumping out. She practically jogged up the stairs to the second floor and then found the door marked 4B. Drawing her sidearm with one hand, she pounded on the door with the other.
There was a series of thuds and scuffling sounds, and then a loud exclamation of, "Who in the hell's hammerin' at my door at the God damn crack of dawn?"
"Haven PD," Audrey shouted, instinctively tightening her grip on her 9mm. "Open the door!"
From behind the door came a long string of growled oaths. Audrey waited about ten seconds before pounding on the door again and the curses got louder. "What the hell you want?" Jimmy Daley was shouting before he'd even opened the door all the way. He was standing there in a ragged shirt and boxers with an open bathrobe that looked like it had seen better days hanging on his shoulders. The sleepy scowl he fixed her with twisted up his face, and his eyes narrowed dangerously. "I'm not talkin' to you anymore, Barbie doll. Thought I made that clear."
In response, Audrey lifted her sidearm until it was pointed at his torso and returned his glare. "What did you do to Nathan?" she ground out, fighting to keep control of herself.
At the sight of her gun, Jimmy had taken several hasty steps backward and Audrey took a half step forward so he couldn't shut the door on her. "What the hell is this?" Jimmy demanded, his wide frightened eyes ruining his irritable expression. "You can't just show up and be pointing guns at people."
"I know it was you," Audrey said, not loosening her stance. "You took out Jeffrey Halter and then Nurse Waters, and now you're going after Nathan. Well you're not going to get him. Stop it, fix him now!"
"What the hell are you on about?" Jimmy asked frantically, backing up another three steps until he collided with the back of the couch. "I ain't done nothin' to nobody. I already told you that."
Audrey's heart was thudding painfully in her chest and she shifted her grip on the handgun. This was it, it had to be him. "You had the sand," she said. "The sand in your wheelbarrow, it was the same colour as the sand found in Halter and Waters. It matched what we found."
"It's just sand!" Jimmy exclaimed, throwing his hands up incredulously. "I bought it down at Mary's. The city's got my receipts for it if you don't believe me. Lotsa people buy sand. It don't make me a fetchin' killer and it don't give you no right to be waving that damn gun in my face."
Audrey felt her resolve shake. As the adrenaline of her epiphany began to wear off, doubt began to creep in. "At Mary's?" she asked uncertainly. "You buy your sand from an art store?"
"Yeah, it's the on'y place that sells it white," Jimmy said, his eyes still firmly fixed on the nose of her gun. "The stuff from the hardware store is that dirty yellow colour, the city planners don't like it s'much as the white. And I ain't put none of that sand inside nobody. I on'y get so much sand a month, if I gotta buy extra it come outta my paycheck."
This time Audrey slowly lowered the gun, although she didn't holster it. All she'd been able to think about was that they had sent the request in, and that Jimmy had been furious with Nathan when he'd taken the sand, and that Nathan had seemed so certain. That had been all the proof she'd needed, but now she was far less certain. Could it be just a coincidence? Perhaps she'd been wrong.
Trying to regain her bearings, Audrey continued to scowl dangerously at Jimmy Daley. "Do you know anything about what happened to Angelina Waters?"
"Who the hell is that?" Jimmy replied.
"Nurse Waters, she worked on rotation for the hospital," Audrey said levelly. Maybe he knew the nurse, just didn't know her by name. That was still plausible. There was still a chance. "Maybe she was the one who treated your arm. Maybe she's the one who filed your injury as work-related, so you didn't get the insurance benefits. Is that what did it? That's what set you off?"
"What the blue blazes are you talking about, Barbie?" Jimmy asked, his face twisted up in confusion. "I don't know what the hell you mean. I didn't even see no skirty nurses when I was there. Just some dumpy old black woman at the front desk and then Dr. Kendrickson. I wish there'd been some hot lady nurse there, that woulda made the trip much better, but there weren't."
Audrey frowned even harder, because even with her limited people skills she could tell that Jimmy was being genuine. He really knew nothing about Angelina Waters. She was wrong. And that meant that she was still no closer to finding the Troubled person and saving Nathan.
"Thanks for your time, Mr. Daley," she said in a tight voice, managing to summon up a slightly sardonic smirk to retain some of her usual demeanour, while on the inside she was rushing towards panic again. "If I have any more questions, I'll be in touch."
"Yeah, yeah, just put that damn gun away, wouldja?" Jimmy said and his shoulders remained tense until she'd slipped the sidearm into its holster. She had just turned her back when his voice, once again condescending and sarcastic, called out, "So someone offed Wournos too, did they? Good riddance."
Before Audrey could even recall moving, Jimmy Daley had fallen backwards over his sofa and the knuckles of her right hand were throbbing painfully. He gaped up at her from the floor, clutching his bleeding nose with his hands, and she stared back. "Do not talk about my partner like that," she said in a threateningly low voice, and then without a backward glance she turned and left the tiny apartment.
It was only after she was halfway across the car park that it occurred to her that she'd probably be facing a police brutality charge as soon as she made it into the station. It only took a tenth of a second to decide that she didn't really care.
He'd deserved it anyways.
As Audrey struggled with the keys to the old Bronco, she was already planning her next stop. Jimmy Daley said he'd bought the sand from the art supply store. She would stop there and get a list of all the people who had bought that same sand and see if any names looked familiar. She would find the link. She had too. Distantly, she could hear the radio inside the truck squawking feebly. It didn't really concern her, because all of her focus would be on solving the Sand case, and nothing short of the entire town exploding would change that. Or at least it didn't concern her until she opened the door and heard a familiar name.
"Nathan honey, you there?"
Sighing, Audrey hauled herself up into the truck and grabbed the radio. "Laverne, it's Parker," she said.
"Audrey? Where's Nathan?" the old woman asked curiously.
"Home, sick," Audrey answered shortly. She didn't want to get into the details. No one else needed to know what was going on with Nathan, and she knew that he wouldn't want people knowing anyway. He was too private a person to want the co-worker's wives bringing by breads and dinners and home remedies for the common cold, or whatever sort of thing it was people did in a small town like Haven.
Laverne hummed her understanding, although it sounded a bit sceptical even through the rough connection of the radio. "Well did he get a dog? Because the neighbour just phoned in a complaint that there's been a dog barking in his house for the last ten minutes and it won't stop."
Audrey felt her heart drop into her stomach and a sickening wave of foreboding rushed over her. "I'm on it," she said and then slammed the radio back into its base. Flipping on the overhead lights, she turned the truck around and sped back out the way she'd come. As she blazed around street corners and past stop signs, she couldn't help but count the seconds, feeling like she was facing a giant countdown to something horrible.
Why was Delilah barking? Why hadn't Nathan gotten her to stop? Was it simply because he was asleep and couldn't hear it? Or had something else happened? Please God, don't let anything else have happened…
The truck's brakes squealed in the cold air as she pulled to a hard stop in the drive, narrowly avoiding her own car. Throwing it into park and yanking out the keys, Audrey bolted across the yard, from which she could hear Delilah's loud, repetitive barking. Audrey was shouting before she'd even opened the front door, even though she knew it was a useless gesture. "Nathan!"
Nothing was out of place in the living room; the coffee table was still covered in papers and empty coffee mugs, a worn throw blanket she'd been sitting under was draped lazily over the arm of the sofa, and Nathan's jacket – the one he'd been wearing since she'd stolen his – was laying over the back of the armchair. Either way, Delilah's barking wasn't coming from this room. It was coming from the master bedroom.
Audrey's heart had leapt up to pound in her throat, making her breathless and lightheaded as she tore down the hall and to Nathan's room. Delilah was standing in the middle of the bedroom floor and the moment Audrey appeared in the room the old dog fell silent. It wasn't the dog that she was concerned with though. Heaped awkwardly on the floor beside the bureau was a long-limbed body in flannel pyjama pants and a gray tee-shirt. A body that wasn't moving. A body whose face was streaked with crimson.
"Nathan!"