“Tell me again,” Laura said. She was sitting on her bed wearing a bathrobe. She hadn’t cried and she didn’t know why. It felt like a betrayal. She had just learned that her only child was dead. She should be screaming, shouting, cursing, crying, something to show the world how much she cared, but what she felt was utterly and completely empty. Nick sat next to her. She leaned into him.
“Laura…”
“Tell me what happened to our son.”
“A homeless man found him under the Yakima overpass near the Goodwill. He’d been shot twice in the chest. They figure it happened sometime late last night. They don’t have any witnesses. They’ll let us know if they find anything else.” Nick paused. “There’s one other thing.”
“Tell me.”
“Ashley is missing. They can’t find her.”
“You don’t think Ashley….did this, do you?” Laura said, disbelieving her own words.
“Right now I don’t know what to think. I want to think it’s all some joke or one of their elaborate alibi schemes, but it’s not. I saw the body.”
“You what?”
“They asked me to ID the body this morning. That’s why it took me a few hours to get home. I told Augie. He said he was closing up the shop for the day.”
“I want to see him.”
“Who? Augie?”
“I want to see our son.”
Laura stood up. She started getting dressed. Moments ago she didn’t want to go anywhere or do anything. She didn’t want to leave this room, much less the house, but she felt a need to see Brandon’s body. She grabbed a pair of jeans.
“Laura, you don’t want to see him like this.”
“I don’t care. He’s my son.”
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