Once Pined. Blake Pierce

and his face was knotted with pain. Riley wondered if maybe it would be best for him not to tell the rest of his story. But she sensed that it would be wrong to tell him to stop.

      Bill said, “By the next morning, the doctors figured out what was wrong. She was suffering from severe ethylene glycol poisoning.”

      Riley shook her head. That sounded familiar but she couldn’t quite place it.

      Bill quickly explained, “Her punch at the party had been spiked with antifreeze.”

      Riley gasped.

      “My God!” she said. “How is that even possible? I mean, wouldn’t the taste alone – ?”

      “The thing is, most antifreeze has a sweet taste,” Bill explained. “It’s easy to mix with sugary beverages without being noticed. It’s awfully easy to use as a poison.”

      Riley was struggling to grasp what had she was hearing.

      “But if the punch was spiked, weren’t other people affected?” she said.

      “That’s just it,” Bill said. “Nobody else was poisoned. It wasn’t in the punch bowl. It was only in Mom’s drinks. Somebody specifically targeted her.”

      He fell quiet again for a moment.

      “By then, it was too late for anything,” he said. “She stayed in a coma and died on New Year’s Eve. We were all right there at her bedside.”

      Somehow, Bill managed not to break down in tears. Riley guessed that he’d done plenty of crying about it over the years.

      “It didn’t make sense,” Bill said. “Everybody liked Mom. She didn’t have an enemy in the world that anybody knew of. The police investigated, and it became clear that nobody who worked at the bank was responsible. But several co-workers remembered a strange man who came and went during the party. He’d seemed friendly, and everybody assumed that he was somebody’s guest, a friend or a relative. He was gone before the party was over.”

      Bill shook his head bitterly.

      “The case went cold. It’s still cold. I guess it always will be. After so many years, it’ll never be solved. It was terrible never to find out who did it, never bring him to justice. But the worst thing was never finding out why. It just seemed so pointlessly cruel. Why Mom? What did she do to make anybody want to do something so horrible? Or maybe she didn’t do anything. Maybe it was just some sort of vicious joke. Not knowing was torture. It still is. And of course, that’s one of the reasons I decided to – ”

      He didn’t finish the thought. He didn’t need to. Riley had long known that the unsolved mystery of his mother’s death was why Bill had gone into a career in law enforcement.

      “I’m so sorry,” Riley said.

      Bill shrugged feebly, as if a huge weight lay on his shoulders.

      “It was a long time ago,” he said. “Besides, you must know how it felt as well as anybody.”

      Bill’s quiet words shook Riley. She knew exactly what he meant. And he was right. She’d told him all about it long ago, so there was no need to repeat it now. He knew already. But that didn’t make the memory any less searing.

      Riley was six years old, and Mommy had taken her to a candy store. Riley was excited and asking for all the candy she could see. Sometimes Mommy would scold her for acting like that. But today Mommy was being sweet and spoiling her, buying her all the candy she wanted.

      Just when they were in line at the cash register, a strange man walked toward them. He wore something on his face that flattened his nose and lips and cheeks and made him look funny and scary at the same time, sort of like a circus clown. It took little Riley a moment to realize that he was wearing a nylon stocking over his head, just like Mommy wore on her legs.

      He was holding a gun. The gun looked huge. He was pointing it at Mommy.

      “Give me your purse,” he said.

      But Mommy didn’t do it. Riley didn’t know why. All she knew was that Mommy was scared, maybe too scared to do what the man told her to do, and probably Riley should be scared too, and so she was.

      He said some bad words to Mommy, but she still didn’t give him her purse. She was shaking all over.

      Then came a bang and a flash, and Mommy fell to the floor. The man said more bad words and ran away. Mommy’s chest was bleeding, and she gasped and twisted for a moment before she fell completely still.

      Little Riley started screaming. She didn’t stop screaming for a long time.

      The gentle touch of Bill’s hand on hers brought Riley back to the present.

      “I’m sorry,” Bill said. “I didn’t mean to bring it all back.”

      He’d obviously seen the tear trickling down her cheek. She squeezed his hand. She was grateful for his understanding and concern. But the truth was, Riley had never told Bill about a memory that troubled her even more.

      Her father had been a colonel in the Marines – a stern, cruel, unfeeling, unloving, and unforgiving man. During all the years that followed, he’d blamed Riley for her mother’s death. It didn’t matter that she’d only been six years old.

      “You might as well have shot her yourself, for all the good you did her,” he’d said.

      He’d died last year without ever forgiving her.

      Riley wiped her cheek and looked out the window at the slowly crawling landscape miles below.

      As she so often did, she realized how much she and Bill had in common, and how haunted they both were by past tragedy and injustice. During all the years that they’d been partners, they’d both been driven by similar demons, haunted by similar ghosts.

      For all her worry about Jilly and life at home, Riley now knew that she’d been right to agree to join Bill on this case. Every time they worked together, their bond grew stronger and deeper. This time was going to be no exception.

      They’d solve these murders, Riley was sure of it. But what would she and Bill gain or lose by it?

      Maybe we’ll both heal a little, Riley thought. Or maybe our wounds will open and hurt more.

      She told herself it didn’t really matter. They always worked together to get the job done, no matter how tough it was.

      Now they could be facing a particularly ugly crime.

      CHAPTER SEVEN

      When the BAU plane landed at Sea-Tac, the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, a heavy rain was streaking across the windows. Riley looked at her watch. It was about two in the afternoon at home now, but it was eleven in the morning here. That would give them time to get something done on this case today.

      As she and Bill moved toward the exit, the pilot came out of his cabin and handed each of them an umbrella.

      “You’ll need these,” he said with a grin. “Winter is the worse time to be in this corner of the country.”

      When they stood at the top of the stairs, Riley had to agree. She was glad they had umbrellas, but she wished she had dressed warmer. It was cold as well as rainy.

      An SUV pulled up at the edge of the tarmac. Two men in raincoats hurried out of the vehicle toward their plane. They introduced themselves as Agents Havens and Trafford of the FBI field office in Seattle.

      “We’re taking you to the medical examiner’s office,” Agent Havens said. “The team leader on this investigation is waiting for you there.”

      Bill and Riley got into the car, and Agent Trafford started to drive through the drenching rain. Riley could make barely out the usual airport hotels along the way, and that was all. She knew there was a vital city out there, but it was practically invisible.

      She wondered if she was ever going to see Seattle while she was here.

*

      The minute Riley and Bill sat down