Andrew: We build stuff. Small plazas, businesses, low-rises, that kind of thing.
Detective Hardy: And you’ve known Mr. Raymus for how long?
Andrew: Fifteen years, I guess? We met in college. Engineering. Been good friends since, formed a partnership.
Detective Hardy: And you went up together?
Andrew: No, I told you this. We took separate cars because he couldn’t get away as early. His cabin is about a hundred feet down from mine.
Detective Hardy: How long a drive is it?
Andrew: Couple of hours. Sometimes a little longer, if there’s traffic getting out of the Milford area. Can do it in under two if there’s nobody else on the road.
Detective Hardy: Hmm.
Andrew: What?
Detective Hardy: Nothing. So you didn’t actually share quarters.
Andrew: Not for sleeping. We had a late dinner at my place Friday night, dinner over at his on Saturday.
Detective Hardy: What time did you leave his cabin Saturday night?
Andrew: Before nine. We’re not exactly night owls anymore. There was a time, we might have sat up drinking till midnight. His leg was sore and I think he took a couple of painkillers.
Detective Hardy: What’s wrong with his leg?
Andrew: He was at a job site, up on a wall that was under construction, and he thought he could make the jump down instead of using the ladder. Broke his left leg below the knee. But it’s pretty much mended.
Detective Hardy: And Sunday morning? What happened then?
Andrew: I made my own breakfast but went over to his place for coffee around nine, I think it was.
Detective Hardy: So you didn’t see Mr. Raymus between nine o’clock the night before and when you went over for coffee in the morning.
Andrew: That’s right. We did some more fishing and then in the afternoon we both headed back.
Detective Hardy: Catch anything?
Andrew: No.
Detective Hardy: When did you get home?
Andrew: Just after three.
Detective Hardy: And Brie, she wasn’t home.
Andrew: (sighing) No. How many times have we been over—
Detective Hardy: But the car was there? And the house was unlocked?
Andrew: That’s right. When I couldn’t find her I thought maybe she’d gone for a walk.
Detective Hardy: So what did you do then?
Andrew: I called her cell. And heard it ringing in the house. Upstairs. It was plugged in to the charger, next to her bed. That didn’t make any sense. That was when I started to get worried. I searched the entire house. Wondered if she might have fallen down the stairs to the basement.
Detective Hardy: Why would you think that? Did she have a habit of tripping or something?
Andrew: No. But things can happen. I was looking everywhere.
Detective Hardy: When had you last spoken to her?
Andrew: The night before. She called me. We did a FaceTime thing so we could see each other. She told me about having some weird pest control guy there because she thought we might have mice.
Detective Hardy: She said he was weird?
Andrew: Yeah. I mean, nothing really crazy. That he was an exterminator who didn’t like to exterminate things. That struck her as kind of odd. Me, too. Have you talked to him?
Detective Hardy: Yes.
Andrew: You need to take a close look at him. He was the last person to see her alive.
Detective Hardy: Well, not technically. You saw her during your FaceTime chat.
Andrew: Okay, yeah, but he was the last person to actually be with her.
Detective Hardy: You said he’d have been the last one to see her alive. You think she’s dead?
Andrew: I didn’t mean it like that. I have no idea. I’m praying to God she’s okay, that there’s got to be some kind of explanation for this.
Detective Hardy: And what about the flour?
Andrew: The what?
Detective Hardy: Did you notice any flour, baking flour, on the floor in the kitchen?
Andrew: She told me she’d done that, to see if there were mouse tracks in the morning.
Detective Hardy: Did you see the flour on the floor when you got home?
Andrew: No.
Detective Hardy: You didn’t vacuum it up?
Andrew: No.
Detective Hardy: And you had no further chats with your wife after that Saturday night call?
Andrew: No. That... that was the last time... I talked to Brie.
Detective Hardy: Do you need a minute, Mr. Mason?
Andrew: (unintelligible)
Detective Hardy: Mr. Mason?
Andrew: I’m okay.
Detective Hardy: Do you want a glass of water?
Andrew: No. Yes. Thank you.
Detective Hardy: So, you called her cell, searched the house. What did you do after that?
Andrew: I drove around the neighborhood, hoping I might spot her. I called one of her friends, Rosie Holcomb. Didn’t want to panic her, just asked if Brie was there, and she said no. Not long after that I called you. Well, the police. I called the police, I think, around five.
Detective Hardy: That’s right. The call came in at five-oh-three. You look very tired, Mr. Mason.
Andrew: I haven’t slept for two days.
Detective Hardy: Do you think it’s possible your wife might have decided to just up and leave?
Andrew: No. That makes no sense.
Detective Hardy: Even though you’d been having some troubles in your marriage?
Andrew: I’m sorry, what?
Detective Hardy: Some troubles. Thinking about a separation? A possible divorce?
Andrew: Where the hell are you getting that from?
Detective Hardy: So you’re saying no problems on that front.
Andrew: We’d been through a rough patch, but we’d moved on from that. Did somebody tell you something?
Detective Hardy: A rough patch?
Andrew: Look, Brie had this very brief... I don’t know what you’d call it. It wasn’t an affair or anything.
Detective Hardy: What’s that person’s name?
Andrew: I don’t think there’s any point in making his life any more miserable than it already is. And anyway, I’d been kind of an idiot myself in that area.
Detective Hardy: Would that be with Natalie Simmons?
Andrew: Jesus.
Detective Hardy: She’s the woman you had an affair with, correct?
Andrew: (unintelligible)
Detective Hardy: I’m sorry, what was that?
Six
Albert McBain pushed tentatively on the hospital room door and stepped in quietly. He didn’t want to wake his mother if she was sleeping. He would settle into the vinyl-covered chair across from her bed and play some Reversi on his phone, or take the spiral notebook from his pocket and make some notes for the play he had written and was currently directing, and wait until Elizabeth McBain woke up on her own.