Blood Red

Boyd flashed his badge and Danny did the same. “Really sorry to bother you. Are you Jason Soulis?”

“Yes I am, Detective Boyd. How can I help you?” He stepped back and gestured for the men to enter the house.

Boyd nodded his thanks and stepped inside, followed by his oversized blond shadow. “We just need to ask you a few questions.”

“By all means. I was just making coffee. Would either of you like a cup?”

“You’re a god.” Danny nodded as he said the words.

Soulis’s lips curved slightly into a smile and he led them into a large, tastefully decorated room. He left and came back a few minutes later with a large silver tray loaded down with fresh coffee and a few cookies.

When everyone had been served—by the man of the house, no less—Soulis leaned back in an antique chair and nodded. “Ask your questions, please.”

“We just needed to know if you’ve seen or heard anything unusual in the last week or so.”

“This is in regards to the missing people around town?”

“You know about that, huh?”

“I read the paper every morning.”

“There’ve been fifteen disappearances from this neighborhood.” Boyd shrugged and sipped at his coffee. It was disgustingly good. He could get used to coffee like that.

“Well, I know about the Listers, of course. And about the Tripp family.”

“Did you know any of them personally?”

“I met both of the boys from the families and I tried to offer help when the Lister boy took ill.”

The man was calm and cool. He was exactly the sort of person that Boyd distrusted on sight.

“Have you seen anyone strange hanging around these parts?”

“My good man, I’m sure you’re aware that I have only recently moved here. Everyone is still strange to me.”

“Okay. Have you seen anyone stranger than you?”

Soulis gave that little smile of his and nodded his head. “Nicely put, Detective. I had a man visit me the other day, asking if I was interested in purchasing sexual favors. His name was Tom Pardue, I believe. He struck me as rather unsavory.”

“That was the only reason Pardue came to see you?”

“Indeed. I declined his offer.”

“He was here for a long while.”

“Was he? I wasn’t aware. I was out looking at the ocean.” Soulis shifted slightly in his seat and rested one hand under his chin.

“Like the ocean, do you?”

“It’s why I moved here. The view is spectacular.”

“Where did you move here from, Mr. Soulis?”

“Ohio.”

“Why did you move?”

“My house was broken into and I no longer felt safe.”

“Did they take anything?”

“There wasn’t much worth taking. Most of my valuables were in holding.”

“Did you know that Tom Pardue was dead?”

“Yes. I am also aware of the tragedy at the university. Something about a fraternity house fire.”

“It’s been a busy week.”

“I suspect so, yes.”

Boyd couldn’t get a thing from the man in front of him. He might as well have been speaking about the weather.

“If I leave you my card, will you call me if you see anything suspicious?”

“Naturally. Has the police force considered a curfew?”

“There’s already a curfew in place for kids around here, high school and under. They have to be off the streets by ten P.M.”

“How’s that been working out?”

“Not so good. We have around fourteen or fifteen missing right now.”

He read a list of names to the man, and asked if he’d met or knew anyone on the list. The only ones he claimed to know were the kids he’d already mentioned.

“We’ll be in touch if that’s all right, Mr. Soulis?”

“Please, call me Jason and of course, if I can help in any way, you have but to ask.”

Boyd shook his hand as they were leaving and winced. The man had a grip that was intimidating.

On the way out to the car, Danny was grinning like a run-way model.

“What are you smiling about?”

“You don’t like him.”

“No, I don’t.”

“You think he did something, don’t you?”

“Yeah. I just haven’t figured out what.”

“You’re getting jumpy, Richie.”

Boyd shrugged. “It’s a hobby.”

“You think he took those kids?”

“I think he knows something is all.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because he looks like he knows something.”

Before Danny could come up with an appropriate answer they were called back to the station. O’Neill wanted to bitch them out again. He’d recovered from being called a bitch.

He hadn’t driven twenty feet before Danny started in again. “Are we there yet? . . . Are we there yet? . . .”

“I’ve still got the cigar, Danny. I can light it right up.”

“You’re no fun when you’re pissy, Richie.”

“That ain’t what your mother said.”

“Gave up on Whalen, did ya?”

“Again with the damned Whalen comments!”

“Somebody’s getting oversensitive.”

Boyd lit his cigar. Danny shut his mouth.

Chapter 18

I

Soulis walked down into the basement of his house, smiling to himself. They were pleasant enough men, the detectives. Annoying, but pleasant.

It was easy enough to slide between the stones in the floor and move through the darkness until he reached the cave far below the house. There were a lot of tricks he’d learned over the years, and becoming a shadow was one of the simplest.