Chapter 20

Nero watched, as, with a heavy, put-upon sigh, Forrest wrenched the door open to reveal not only Lani Cooper but also Chief Dear. Honestly, if he didn't know Forrest was the older sibling, he would have assumed it was Lani.

"What are you doing here?" Forrest asked his sister belligerently.

Officer Cooper rolled her eyes and hobbled past her brother into the house, her crutch thumping against the floor, and Chief Dear followed behind.

"You know why I'm here, you idiot. Seriously, Forrest, I give you one instruction and you can't follow up on it. I'm checking up on you—hi, Nero—and we have some questions about what happened today."

"Oh my god, we're never going to get dinner," Forrest complained.

"You've had plenty of time to eat dinner," his sister said. "What have you been doing?"

Nero felt his cheeks heat as he pretended to be interested in his messages, but really it was just Austin texting for the third time that day. From the corner of his eye, he watched as Forrest spun around and headed back to his kitchen. Lani's intelligent gaze darted from her brother to Nero and back. She grinned.

Oh shit.

"We'll try to be quick. Now that I know neither of you are passed out from a concussion, I feel a bit better. I told you to call me and that I'd come back out here if you didn't."

"I didn't hear my phone," Forrest protested weakly.

Lani followed her brother into the kitchen, and Chief Dear was still right on her heels. Nero figured he might as well join them.

Crossing his arms over his chest, the police chief leaned back against the counter while Lani sat down at the table. Casual, but also not. Something was off about the both of them. Nero wished he could read minds, but he took the chair across from Lani instead. Forrest ignored them all and added something to the marinade.

"I'll be back in a minute." Forrest took the steaks and went out through the sliding door.

"Vik," Dear said, extending his hand. "Sorry to burst in on you two like this."

Nero forced a smile as he shook the man's hand. He wondered if Dear assumed he and Forrest were a couple. Were they? Maybe they were in the beginning stages? Did he want that? Shoving that slightly worrisome idea aside, he replied, "If you say so. What's going on? Why are you two here?"

Lani raised an eyebrow. "I did threaten Forrest with a visit if he didn't answer the phone."

"But that's not why both of you are here at this time of night," Nero insisted. "Why would the chief of police come along with you if all you were doing was checking on your brother?"

"No, you're right," replied Chief Dear. "It's not entirely a well-check visit. Vik, you've been involved in a lot of interesting things over the past few days. First, Cooper Mansion has a suspicious fire. We know you asked at the library about the archives there. You were the first person on the scene after Ned Barker was killed. And now the truck you're riding in has a suspicious accident. That's an awful lot."

"And his cabin was broken into," Forrest interjected as he came back inside through the patio door.

"When was this?" Lani demanded, glowering at Nero. "You didn't report it."

"Nothing was stolen. It was just a mess inside. It happened the night of the fire. I walked over to see what was happening and when I got back, the door was slightly open. I'm pretty sure I locked it when I left, but maybe I didn't. Maybe it was just, you know, just raccoons taking a look around." Nero's explanation sounded weak even to his own ears.

"Raccoons would have made a much bigger mess than what you described," Forrest told him.

"Squirrels. A curious wind. I don't know."

"Nothing was taken that you know of?" Dear asked.

"No, and I'm glad of that, of course. But it was weird. My laptop was inside, and a box of recording equipment. Admittedly, the laptop was kind of out of the way, leaning up against the wall underneath the table. But the recording equipment was in plain sight. Easy to take. And it's pretty high-end stuff."

"That's odd. So why didn't you report it?" Lani asked.

Nero was starting to regret his choice to wait on reporting the break-in. "Everyone in town was at the fire, including you both. I thought I'd do it later. And then, with everything else that happened, it slipped my mind. You don't think I was responsible for cutting the brake lines of Forrest's truck, do you?"

What Nero knew about cars was almost nothing.

"No, not unless you have some kind of death wish we should know about," the chief responded. "What were you two up to today?"

"We"—he glanced at Forrest, not sure how much he should say—"had some questions for Rufus Ferguson. Plus, the librarian I talked to a couple days ago sent me an email saying he might have some information I'd be interested in. Rufus wasn't around and neither was the librarian, so we ended up doing nothing anyway."

"What's up with Rufus?" Lani directed the question to her brother.

"He was shaken by the news yesterday," Forrest told them. "He even gave Magnus and Wanda the brush-off. We stopped by his house today, but he wasn't there. His car is though. Magnus is there now and is going to call if he hears from him. According to Wanda and Magnus, some of his hiking stuff is missing."

"Huh." Eyebrows very similar to Forrest's drew together in concern. "What were you really doing, Forrest?"

Lani Cooper had a well-honed bullshit meter. Nero glanced at Forrest, who shook his head ever so slightly. By unspoken agreement, neither of them were admitting to the two officers of the law that they'd decided to look into Ned Barker's murder themselves. No doubt both of them would shoot down the idea of a possible connection between Ernst Cooper's death and Ned Barker's twenty years later.

Forrest spoke. "Like Nero told you already, we wanted to see if Rufus could answer some questions for us, and Nero also wanted to go to the library. We started with the library, but after striking out there, we headed over to Rufus's. But he wasn't home, so we checked in at the pub. Where else would he be?"

They all nodded at that, even Nero. Where indeed would Rufus Ferguson be if he wasn't with Wanda, at home, or at the pub?

"Magnus hasn't seen or talked to him today and neither has Wanda. Magnus tried calling, but there wasn't an answer. We went back over to Rufus's place with Wanda because she has a key. Checked all the rooms, inside and out, including the basement. We were worried that he'd fallen or something. He's definitely not there, but maybe he just went on a hike. Uh, then Nero wanted to stop at the library again to see if that Fernsby guy ever showed up, but he hadn't. You know the rest."

"And on the way home, your brakes failed. I'm impressed you're both in one piece," Dear commented.

"Gotta love an old Ford," Forrest said with a tinge of sadness to his voice.

"Murphy called us a bit ago," Lani said, looking at both of them in turn. "The brake lines were cut, easy enough to do in an old truck like yours. That thing leaks so many damn fluids, you probably would never have noticed something out of order. All Murphy had to do was take a look underneath."

Forrest looked like he wanted to protest, but the fact that someone with malicious intent had done their best to hurt or even kill them seemed to stun him.

"Forrest, quit beating around the bush. What were you and Nero Vik so urgently needing to talk to Rufus about that you actually left the house for, what, the fifth time in three days?" Lani demanded.

Nero had been wondering when Lani would get around to asking that question; it was inconvenient that she was observant. Nero directed a do-you-want-me-to-keep-talking glance at Forrest, who nodded. Lani might not question Nero as deeply as she would her brother.

Might not.

"Right. Um, so, uh, Forrest found some diaries of your grandfather's," Nero babbled. "He was reading through them while I was doing more research on the history of Cooper Springs. I thought maybe there could be some interesting stuff in Ernst Cooper's writings." Not exactly a lie. "We came up with some questions that the diaries don't appear to answer. They are more day-to-day accounts," he explained.

"I was called to the school by Principal Harrison again. Worries about my ability to reach adulthood. Stuff like that," Forrest added.

Lani nodded her agreement. "It's probably a long list of Forrest's infractions, one after the other. You did like to put Grandpa through the wringer. Continue, Mr. Vik."

Nero smirked; he knew Lani was being formal because the visit had become official, but no one ever called him Mr. Vik.

"Please, call me Nero." He inhaled a deep breath and blew it back out. "Right. We decided to come into town and talk to Rufus in person. Like Forrest said, we stopped at the library first. The librarian I'd talked to before wasn't in. Which was a little odd because he'd sent an email saying he'd be there. After that, we went right over to Rufus's house and knocked. He didn't answer so we went to the pub, figuring that's where he was. Skipping forward because you've heard all this, Forrest was driving us back because I left my car here, and about halfway here, the brakes failed. Forrest did a great job of making sure we didn't die. We ended up in Forrest's neighbor's front yard and earned ourselves headaches but no concussions."

"What were you and Russel Fernsby talking about?" asked Chief Dear, his laser gaze burning through Nero. So that's what the R stood for. "Seems odd he'd email and then not be there. Maybe we need to check on him too." Dear pinched the bridge of his nose. Nero got the feeling Cooper Springs was maybe a harder place to keep safe than one would think. "If it were legal, I'd put this entire community under house arrest until whatever the hell is going on sorts itself out."

"The possibility of getting access to the library's archives. As you and the entire town know by now," replied Nero, "I'm here because I'm planning a podcast about the missing girls from the 1980s whose remains were identified publicly yesterday—by you, Chief. Also, I wanted to add a bit about the history of Cooper Springs. Who all lived here at that time, who's here now, their lives, et cetera. Additionally, I'm looking for evidence that my cousin could have been brought here after he was abducted twenty-five years ago."

"Keep going," Dear encouraged.

A buzzer sounded and Forrest stepped back outside with dinner plates in his hand. Nero was so hungry that his stomach was practically inside out.

"When I learned about those remains, and the fact that they were found only a short distance from where Donny was snatched, I thought Cooper Springs could be a possibility to make headway on his disappearance. Now that I've been here for a while, I don't really think it is. Donny's abductor probably hopped on I-5 and drove north or south, which is what police thought at the time. Anyway, I discovered that the Cooper Springs newspaper wasn't saved onto microfiche. After that, I wrongly assumed there might be hard copies at the library. But no, the documents I wanted to look at were stored in the basement of Cooper Mansion. Unfortunately, I did not get access to the archive before the mansion burned," Nero concluded. "It's my hope that some handy-dandy archivist will want to salvage what's left, if there's anything, but one never knows. Oh, um, right. When I mentioned that to Rufus the night of the fire, he told me he had old copies of the Sentinel and I could come over and go through them."

Forrest returned with the steaks, setting the plates down on the kitchen counter. They smelled incredible, and Nero's mouth started to water.

"It seems too much of a coincidence that the mansion had a fire after you asked for access."

"Yeah, it does to me too." Nero shrugged. It's not like it couldn't have been chance.

"Our dinner's ready," Forrest grumbled. "Do I need to cut these in half?"

He so obviously wanted his sister and the chief to leave that it was almost funny.

"Dante's keeping dinner warm for me," Dear told them.

"Lani?" Forrest said.

"I want to say yes, just to irritate you that much more. But as luck would have it, I called in an order for a calzone at PizzaMart, so you don't have to feed me."

"I appreciate you both talking with us. We'll head out in a second," said Dear. "It's important to get what you've told us straight in my head. It feels like a lot is happening. Too much. How likely is it, Nero, that you've upset someone who, quite literally, thought they'd gotten away with murder? How would Rufus fit into that scenario? I'd like to know why he was so concerned yesterday. I know he's a national treasure, but what if he had something to do with the disappearances?"

Nero had been wondering who would bring up the possibility that Rufus Ferguson might be a perpetrator and not just a bystander.

"I don't see him as a killer, sir. Chief," offered Lani. "I know I have a personal connection but… Rufus Ferguson is not our man."

"People can hide their true selves," Dear countered, but he clearly didn't believe Rufus had anything to do with the dead girls, either. "They do it all the time."

"He was genuinely upset yesterday. He said it changed everything, that he'd been wrong for all these years about what had happened to the girls. He's not our killer," Forrest said defiantly while plating the steaks and roasted vegetables.

If Lani and Chief Dear didn't leave soon, Nero was going to grab one of the plates and start eating in front of them. Only his mother's voice in his head kept him from being rude.

"Almost as soon as the announcement about the identity of the remains is made, a member of our community seems to have disappeared. I say seems because it hasn't been long enough to declare Rufus missing, and he is an adult of sound mind and body. But the fact that no one has seen or talked to him since right after the town meeting bothers me. If we don't hear something from him by morning, I'll see about sending out a Silver Alert. It could be that he had some kind of event, cardiac or a stroke, and is confused."

Dear's phone chimed, interrupting him.

"Probably Dante wondering where I am." He glanced at it. "Nope, let me take this."

Lifting his phone to his ear, the Chief stepped out of the kitchen. Lani stood up from her seat and Forrest moved to set their loaded plates down on the table. When Dear returned, his expression was grim. More grim? Grimmer. By now, Nero was so hungry that he couldn't put real words together.

"That was the county fire investigator. They found evidence that gasoline was used as an accelerant for the mansion fire."

"Dammit," Forrest muttered.

"We suspected arson right away, but it took them a little while to confirm it. The investigator wanted to be one hundred percent certain before we made an announcement."

Dear moved away again, heading to the front door.

"We'll be in touch," Lani told them, following Chief Dear. "Maybe try not to get yourselves killed between now and then. I really don't like that Rufus seems to be missing, so call if you hear anything from Magnus or Wanda." She pointed a finger Nero's direction. "You need to know that Forrest is a natural danger magnet. Both of you stay here. Stay out of trouble and call us if you think of anything else or if something else out of the ordinary happens."

"I get the message. I will call," Forrest grumbled.

The front door closed behind the officers and the house was quiet again.

"I love that she thinks she can boss me around."

"Seems like she does a pretty good job of it," Nero said before popping a crisp Brussels sprout into his mouth.