The Burying Place

Chapter Thirty-six

Maggie carried a chair into Regan Conrad's living room under one arm and set it down with the back facing the sofa and the bay window. She straddled the seat and leaned her forearms on top of the chair. Her heels sank into the plush carpet. She eyed the glass artwork in the room with casual curiosity and then focused on Marcus Glenn, who sat on the sofa with his hands in his lap.

'When can I go home?' Glenn asked.

Maggie shrugged. 'What's the rush, Doc?'

'I have surgeries scheduled in the morning. I can't just walk into the hospital and cut someone open. I have to prepare.'

'Yeah, those knee jobs, ka-ching, right?' she said. 'I saw your Lexus outside. KNEEDOC, that's pretty cute. But right now I'm not too worried about some CEO who needs help with his golf game, OK? We found you at a crime scene, Dr Glenn, so whether you make it home today really depends on the conversation we're having right now.'

The surgeon settled back into the sofa with an exaggerated sigh. 'I told Ms Dial, and I'm telling you, I had nothing to do with whatever happened here.'

'So you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Again. This is becoming sort of a habit for you, isn't it? You were in the house when your daughter disappeared, but you had nothing to do with it. You were in the house where a murder appears to have taken place, but you had nothing to do with it.'

'That's right.'

Maggie had dealt with doctors before, and she knew they were tough to rattle, but Glenn's eyes were nervous underneath his annoyed facade. He had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar, and he knew it. When Maggie didn't say anything more, Glenn added, 'Look, if someone killed Regan, it happened hours before I arrived.'

'Really? How do you know that?'

'I'm a doctor. I see a lot of blood.'

'But you're not a pathologist, are you?'

'I'm also not a magician. I can't make a dead body disappear. The one good thing about being under surveillance is that the police always know where I am. Ms Dial knows perfectly well that I was here for less than an hour before she arrived.'

'Yeah, let's talk about that,' Maggie said. 'Why exactly were you here?'

Glenn shrugged. 'I thought that Regan may have had something to do with Callie's disappearance.'

'Why is that?'

'We were having an affair. The break-up was extremely bitter.'

'So what were you planning to do? Ask her if she was involved in stealing your daughter? Did you think she'd break down and confess?'

'You didn't know Regan. If she did something, she was the kind of person who would throw it in my face.'

'But she wasn't home when you arrived?' Maggie asked.

'Obviously.'

'Did you break in or was the door open?'

'The door was open.'

Maggie nodded. 'Do you have a key?'

'I didn't need a key. I told you, the door was open.'

'Let's try answering the questions I ask. Do you have a key to Regan's house?'

'Yes, I do,' Glenn admitted. 'Regan gave me a key while we were involved.'

'Do you have it with you?'

'I imagine it's still on my key chain. I haven't thought about it in months.'

Maggie smiled. 'Sure. You came here with Regan's house key, but you didn't even think about breaking in. So why did you go inside?'

'I was concerned when I saw the door was open,' Glenn said.

'I shouted, but there was no answer. I began to look around the house, and that was when I saw that something terrible had happened.'

'Why didn't you call the police?'

'I was about to call them.'

'Really? Ms Dial said you were too busy ransacking Regan's medical files.'

'I thought Regan might have kept something that would tell me if she was involved in what happened to Callie.'

'Did you think you were likely to find something that the police would miss? Or were you planning to make sure we didn't find whatever you were looking for?'

Glenn didn't reply.

'When was the last time you spoke to Regan?' Maggie asked.

'It was months ago.'

'Have you called her recently?'

'No.'

'You're sure?'

Glenn backpedaled as he read Maggie's face. 'Actually, I left her a message last night. I told her I wanted to talk. But I didn't actually speak to her.'

Maggie nodded. 'People think they can delete answering machine messages, but they're among the easiest things to recover. We pulled up your message to her. You said something about Regan being in your office over the weekend.'

Glenn didn't look happy. 'Yes, my nurse told me she was there.'

'Why would Regan be in your office?'

'I don't know. That's what I wanted to find out.'

'Would you like to make a guess?'

'I have no idea,' Glenn told her.

'Were you concerned that she stole something?'

He blinked uncomfortably. 'I told you, I don't know,' he repeated.

'Regan told your wife that she thought you were responsible for your daughter's disappearance,' she said.

'That's completely untrue.'

'It makes me wonder if your story is a little backwards, Dr Glenn.'

'What do you mean?'

Maggie leaned forward. 'I mean, are you sure you weren't going through Regan's files to find out if she had any evidence that you were involved in Callie's disappearance? Evidence she may have taken from your office?'

'Of course not.'

'It's quite a coincidence, you showing up at Regan's house after someone else killed her.'

'I had nothing to do with it.'

'Did you know she was dead? Did you come here to erase evidence before the crime was discovered?'

Glenn shook his head. 'I didn't know anything had happened to Regan until I got here.'

'Who do you think killed her?' Maggie asked.

He shrugged. 'She lives in the north farmlands. There have been some terrible crimes here recently.'

'So you think the same person who killed the other women also killed Regan?'

'I have no idea, but doesn’t that seem likely? The women in the hospital are all afraid of this man, whoever he is. Regan bragged about sleeping with a shotgun by her bed.'

Maggie raised her eyebrows. 'You knew she had a shotgun?'

'A lot of people did,' Glenn replied defensively. 'Regan didn't make it a secret. She was scared of this maniac like everyone else.'

'Not everyone is scared when a serial killer comes to town,' she told him.

'What the hell does that mean?'

Maggie pushed her red hair out of her eyes and frowned. 'Every now and then, Doctor, someone sees it as an opportunity.'

Serena sat in her Mustang in Regan's driveway, staring through the open window at the snow-covered fields. It was almost dusk, but she wore sunglasses, and Maggie suspected she had been crying. She didn't say a word as Maggie opened the passenger door and sat beside her. They didn't look at each other. Maggie left the door open and kicked at the dirt outside with her boot. When she took a sideways glance at Serena, she could see that her face was rigid with fury.

She didn't blame her for being angry, and she had no idea what to say. There was no way to make it better.

'Glenn didn't do it,' Maggie announced after an uncomfortable stretch of silence. 'Or at least, he didn't pull the trigger. That doesn’t mean he's not involved.'

Serena didn't say anything. Maggie glanced at the highway and saw media vans parked on the shoulder. 'The press already has the story,' she continued. 'Blair Rowe was on CNN half an hour ago speculating about a link between the murder here and Callie's disappearance.'