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“I know only their first names. He never really talked about them to me, or even talked on the phone with them in front of me, but I’ve overheard snippets here and there. One of them he called Reggie, the other Charlie.”

Ah, so I had been right!

“Charlie he’s known longer, several years, but Reggie is more recent. I would say just under a year?” She frowned at that. “I might be wrong, but that’s when I heard him talking to the new man.”

Seiji leaned forward a little, eyes intent on her. “What did you overhear them talk about?”

“I realize now it was likely coded, because it never sounded nefarious to me. They talked about hunting, and how good their last hunt was. He always made it sound like they were on hunting trips when he came down here.”

Hunting for victims, more like.

Borrowman asked hopefully, “Do you know the passcode to your husband’s phone?”

“1998,” she answered, mouth twisting. “The year we got married. I thought it was cute when I realized.”

More like he’d done it just to remember his own anniversary. Schmucks like him did that kind of shit.

Her eyes were on Seiji’s as she demanded, “Just what was he into?”

“To be frank, we’re not sure,” Seiji admitted on a long sigh. “But they’re messing with psychic portals and living power banks, and that stuff’s very, very volatile. Atomic bomb level of dangerous if not handled correctly. There’s a setup in the basement of your house that’s horrifically dangerous. I’m trying to get more information on it before I lay out a plan of how to dismantle it. Think hard for me, was there any mention of some grand scheme, or anything like that?”

She shook her head a little, brows furrowed, and I could tell she was thinking hard. Then there was this little light that went off in the back of her head. “Ah. There was something he said in passing, once. Something like…” she trailed off, eyes on the ceiling now. “Goal was almost met, Reggie should be able to enact the plan now?”

Now that sounded suspicious as hell.

Borrowman pressed, “No idea what that meant?”

“No, sorry, I don’t even have context. I truly heard it in passing. I’m not even sure it relates.”

I’d bet good money it did. We just didn’t have enough pieces to put together yet.

Her eyes came back to me and there was heartbreak there. “Mr. Havili, your eyes can truly see a lot, so I must ask this of you. Did my husband intend….”

She couldn’t force the words completely out of her mouth. I hated saying it, but I felt she had to know, to make a clean emotional break from him. “I’m so sorry, yes. He did intend to kill you. Your death was the final one for that house before they shifted to a new location.”

I left out the part about him eating her as that was nightmare fuel she didn’t need. It was bad enough he’d intended to murder her.

Her eyes filled with tears and she looked away.

Donovan reached into a pocket, pulling out a tissue pack and offering it to her. “This isn’t on you, all right? He’s just that evil of a man.”

She took the packet and whispered, “Thank you. The first three years of our marriage were fine, really, we got along and I thought we were happy. It’s only in the past two years things started falling apart. I suspected he was cheating, but I couldn’t prove it. He was so secretive. It got worse in the past year, when he met Reggie.”

I could see why she’d gradually been forced to consider a divorce. It was a near thing she was even alive. If not for the report from the neighbor, and cops already being at the house, she’d be dead and laid out for lunch right now on the table. I didn’t even want to contemplate how much therapy she’ll need.

Borrowman took over, asking more clarifying questions, but she sadly didn’t know much else that could help us. But I had a feeling, she’d told us enough. Enough to put the rest together.

Now, we had two locations to find. I honestly wasn’t sure which one was more important, hospital or that secondary location. I just prayed that while we searched for it, the two men still loose wouldn’t kill yet another person.

6

Barely an hour after we left the precinct to get dinner, Borrowman called. Sho had worked some magic and turned out, Mrs. Carrington had given us the singular piece of information we needed to find her husband’s cohorts. In his phone’s contacts, he had their full names, and once Sho looked them up, he found both of them working as a doctor and orderly. In the same hospital, no less.

Pretty damning, that, and it was just enough to get a warrant put together. Borrowman called us and told us to head for—I’d been sadly right—Hadley General Hospital, which relieved me because at least we had a direction to point Seiji at.

We finished up dinner, hopped back into the Humvee, and away we went. We’d probably beat Borrowman there, as we’re closer than the precinct, but knowing Nashville traffic as I did, it was best to just go and not kill time somewhere first.

I was fighting for my life on the 440—it was six o’clock rush hour traffic, of course it fucking was—when Seiji leaned in from the backset to ask, “How are you getting a warrant this fast?”