“You and the wife having trouble?”
“When are we not having trouble? She doesn’t like how much more time my job takes now. She likes to complain she never sees me, but for the pay raise, she loves me even more.” Billy shook his head. “At least the kids are doing okay.”
Billy had a wife and two kids, and one of them had been very sick, which was one of the many reasons why Billy took his money and helped him out. This man saw the bigger picture and even though he killed people, he never went after innocents.
Like Bishop’s mother, she’d never been an innocent.
“How was your last lead?” Billy asked.
“I’m here talking to you rather than dealing with and killing the man who took her. What do you think?”
“Maybe you shouldn’t tell me what you’re going to do with the man who took Robin. I’m still a cop, after all.”
“You’re chief now. Don’t forget that,” Preacher said.
“Yeah, no one else would take the job and seeing as I was the longest serving man still on the force, well, I got the job. Let’s face it, you do most of the work for me.”
“So why aren’t you at home with your wife?”
“I’m trying to help.” Billy reached into his jacket and took out a small file. “It’s not much, but the picture looked like Robin.”
Preacher took the file. He held his cell phone above it, flicking it on to use the light. Inside was a single piece of paper and one picture.
Robin was there. Her long brown hair had been hacked off and it looked like it had been dyed red. In another picture a few months ago, it had been red.
All of her hair was gone.
He’d loved it spread out across his pillow. Of course, he didn’t get many opportunities to admire it like that.
“When was this?”
“Camera’s date is three days ago. I know it’s not much and they’re probably long gone by now. He’s still bouncing from hotel to hotel. He’s in the country but hours away.”
“How much do I owe you?”
“Consider it free of charge.”
“Why would you do this?” Preacher asked. He never got anything free. He was the kind of guy who had to fight or pay his way to get shit.
“Robin wasn’t a bad kid. I met her a few times and whatever she’s going through, she doesn’t deserve it. I don’t like to think of her hurting and if I can do anything to help, even if it is something so small. I’m willing to do it.”
“Without anything in return?”
“Preach, you pay me plenty. This doesn’t change our other arrangements at all. It’s the least I could do and I would hope that if it was my girl, someone would be there for her, offering me help like this.”
Preacher closed the file and nodded. “Thanks.”
“I should be getting back and you need to go home. I can smell the alcohol on your breath and you don’t want to end up with your ass thrown in jail.”
He laughed but nodded. He waited for Billy to leave before looking back in the file. This was one of the leads he’d already followed but he appreciated Billy trying. The closest person he’d ever had to a friend was Bear, but he was starting to believe there were others lurking around. He just needed to be a bit more open to accepting friendships, even if it did come from cops.
He straddled his machine, turning over the ignition once again, and this time headed straight for home. He didn’t make any stops and kept well within the speed limit. The moment he got home, his floodlights kicked in. He parked his bike and went into his empty house, flicking the locks and heading down to his basement. His home was one of the hardest places to be in right about now. Without Robin around, all he had were memories.
Gripping the cord, he pulled, turning the light on. Inside were all the pictures, maps, and files of a man obsessed with finding the woman he loved. Every single dead end and false lead. Even some that weren’t.
They were all laid out on the wall. Removing the file from inside his jacket, he grabbed a pin, and putting it through the single picture with the notes Billy had attached, he found the right spot for it on the wall and pressed it in.
Stepping back, he looked. Each image was like a separate clue.
In the beginning, the fire burning in Robin’s eyes was clear to see. Even in the blurred pictures and the video footage, which he had a great deal of. With each passing day, week, month, and year, the fire had died a slow and painful death.
It was how he knew she was still alive but her fight had gone. Something had happened to her, and she’d given up, but she wasn’t dead. In some of the pictures, he saw the bruises on her face. Again, in one of the video footages, he saw the marks on her arms and legs. Reaper didn’t exactly make her cover up or hide his destruction of her. The son of a bitch was taunting him and Preacher knew he couldn’t react. He had to bide his time. As the months passed, the bruises no longer appeared, though. It was like she was untouched by Reaper, but something had to have happened for the fire to go.