"Right." Max was on his feet. "Thanks for the information. We'll be on our way."
Charlotte set her untouched coffee aside and stood. Roxanne handed her jacket to her without a word. Max shrugged into his windbreaker and yanked his cap down over his eyes.
"One more thing before we take off," he said to Egan. "Has anyone else contacted you recently about that old rape case?"
"No," Egan said. "You two are the first people to ask about it in years. Why?"
"Just curious," Max said. He handed Egan a card. "If you think of anything else, I'd appreciate it if you would give me a call."
"Will do," Egan said. He opened the front door. "Do me a favor, keep me in the loop. I'd really like to know if your investigation goes anywhere. After all these years it would be nice to get some answers."
"I'll be in touch," Max said. He looked at Charlotte. "Ready?"
"Ready."
She moved out onto the sheltered porch. Max followed.
She hurried down the steps. The wind chimes crashed and clanged, creating a dark, unnerving music. The rain was letting up, but the wind was growing stronger. The atmosphere was stirring with a violent energy. She was very glad they were leaving.
She went quickly toward the SUV. Max moved ahead of her. She knew he was going to open the passenger-side door for her.
"I'll get it," she said.
She waved him off, got the door open and jumped up into the seat.
Max loped around the front of the vehicle, climbed in behind the wheel and fired up the engine. He paused long enough to shrug out of his windbreaker and sports coat. She noticed that he did not unbuckle the gun belt.
She removed her anorak and put it neatly on the floor of the rear compartment to dry.
Max put the SUV in gear and drove cautiously down the steep, graveled driveway.
Charlotte looked back at the darkened cabin.
Roxanne Briggs, illuminated by the glow of the lantern, was at the window, watching them drive away.
"That is one unhappy woman," Charlotte said.
CHAPTER 23
Charlotte turned back around in her seat and studied the scene through the windshield. The rain was still coming down. It was going to be a long drive back to Seattle.
She realized that the uneasy sensation that had been icing her nerves for the past couple of days had grown more intense during the interview with Egan Briggs.
"Briggs didn't seem to know anything about Louise Flint," she said after a while.
"No," Max said. "He didn't."
"He didn't even recognize her name, so obviously she didn't travel to Loring to speak to him."
"Evidently."
"I guess that's not very surprising. Briggs is retired, after all. Louise had no reason to look him up."
"Not unless she thought she had a lead on the man who attacked Jocelyn. In which case it seems likely that she would have wanted to talk to the cop who handled the case."
"Just like you wanted to talk to him," Charlotte said.
"Right." Max reduced his speed to drive around a fallen tree branch. "But maybe Louise Flint had another reason for making the trip to Loring."
"Any idea what that reason might be?"
"Not yet."
"Maybe she came across some information that convinced her that Jocelyn's attacker was still living in the area." Charlotte paused. "But why would she try to investigate on her own?"
Max glanced at her. "You don't think Louise was the type to try to conduct her own investigation?"
Charlotte considered that for a moment. "To be honest, I didn't know Louise well enough to be able to predict her actions. But I can tell you that Jocelyn would not have wanted Louise to take any risks on her behalf."
Max changed gears, slowing the SUV a little more to deal with the bad road.
"Maybe Louise didn't realize that she was taking a risk," he said.
"Or maybe she really did drive all the way to Loring for some reason that had nothing to do with Jocelyn."
"Then we're back to coincidence, and I'm not buying that," Max said.
"Not to change the subject, but did Mr. and Mrs. Briggs strike you as a bit eccentric?"
"A lot of retired cops are a bit eccentric. Some get downright paranoid. Hazard of the job."
"I suppose I can understand that."
"I've got no problem with eccentricities," Max said. "Got a few of my own. What bothers me is that Briggs showed almost zero interest in Louise Flint."
Startled, Charlotte turned partway around in the seat. "What do you mean? He said she hadn't contacted him. Why would he be interested in a woman he never met?"
"Because we drove all this way to ask him about her. Because we brought up Jocelyn's assault case. And most of all because Louise Flint is dead. In my experience, cops don't blow off that kind of data."
"You think he should have been more curious about Louise?"
"Yeah, I do. And there's something else I didn't like."
"What?" Charlotte demanded.
"Briggs claimed that he watched for reports of attacks against women that exhibited an MO similar to the one Jocelyn's assailant used."
"Right. He said there were only two more that year and then they stopped. You were the one who told me that criminals don't change their methods very much."
Max checked his rearview mirror, frowning a little. Then he returned his attention to the rough road.
"No," he said. "But sometimes the smart ones refine their techniques."
"Where are you going with this?"
"It's possible that the blindfold was part of the attacker's fantasy. But what if it was just a means to an end-part of his strategy? What if the purpose was simply to make certain the victim was helpless and to ensure that she couldn't describe her assailant?"
"Meaning?"
"Meaning there are other ways to achieve those objectives. Drugs, for example."
Charlotte caught her breath. "That theory opens up some very scary possibilities."
"Yes, it does. You said that the reason your sister's case wound up in the deep-freeze file was because the evidence box disappeared."
"Right."
"What if someone made certain it got lost?"
Understanding slammed through Charlotte. "Are you suggesting that Briggs may have destroyed the evidence box?"
"I'm just juggling chain saws at the moment. But according to what I found online, Egan Briggs retired less than a year after your sister's case went nowhere."
Charlotte exhaled slowly. "Briggs kept telling us that he believed Jocelyn's account of the assault. But Jocelyn was convinced that he didn't believe her. Still, why would he go so far as to make the evidence box disappear?"
"You told me that the college authorities applied a lot of pressure on the local cops."
"Yes, but to deliberately destroy evidence? That is . . . breathtaking."
"Wouldn't be the first time that people in power have leaned on the local police to make a crime go away. Briggs might not have liked it, but if he didn't have the support of his superiors, there wouldn't have been much he could do about it. Maybe he had nothing to do with losing the evidence box. But the fact remains, it vanished."
"And any way you slice it, he should have shown more interest in Louise Flint's death."
"Right."
"So why would he invite us up here and pretend to be helpful?" Charlotte asked.
"I can think of a couple of reasons. He may have hoped to persuade us to discontinue the Loring angle in our investigation."
"And reason number two?"
"He wanted to see how much we already knew and find out where we were headed."
"So, while we were trying to extract information from him, he was doing the same thing to us."
"Just a theory." Max glanced in the rearview mirror again. "Looks like we're not the only ones trying to get off this mountain before the worst of the storm hits."
It was late afternoon, but twilight descended early in the mountains. When Charlotte checked the side mirror, she saw the laser-bright headlights of another vehicle flash briefly.
The twin beams disappeared when Max drove around another tight curve. She turned in her seat and looked back through the rear window.
The headlights of the other car appeared again, closer this time.
"It looks like the same SUV we saw parked at the Briggses' cabin," she said. "Whoever it is, he's driving awfully fast for these conditions."
"Yes." Max gave the rearview mirror another swift, assessing look and then he concentrated on his driving. "He is."
"Maybe Briggs is trying to catch up with us because he remembered something about the case."
"You really believe that?"
"Well, no." She studied Max's hard face. "You think we might have a serious problem, don't you?"
"Yes, I think we've got a serious problem."
He took one more look in the mirror. "Whoever it is, I'm not going to risk trying to outrun him. I don't know the road as well as he does and the visibility is too low. So we're going to bail."
She took a deep breath. "Okay," she said.
"Okay?"
"It's not like I've got a better plan. So, yeah, okay."
"The bridge is coming up soon. There's no cover on this side, but the woods are pretty thick on the other side. As soon as we're across, I'm going to pull over. Get ready to jump out when I give the word. Head into the trees. Understand?"