The Things We Bury - Part 1: In Anticipation of the End of the World [Completed]

Chapter 7: The Ring of Fire (Part 4 of 8)

The office felt completely different with the door closed.  It was more compact—intimate even.  The heat of their two bodies seemed to raise the air temperature and fill the space like a tangible field of energy.

She had entered so quietly that Delgado was still absorbed by the report in his hands.  He only looked up when she said, "I found her."

He was instantly on his feet.  The muscles in his jaw flexed with anxiety.  "We shouldn't talk here."

Barbara took a step back, pressing herself to the door.  Her hand took hold of the handle; the cold steel between her fingers tethered her there, while he approached.  She paled, but it was a subtlety that could be felt more than it could be seen.  Her body moved by instinct, reacting before her mind could stop it.  There was no fear in her—no sense of danger—only a twinge of anticipation.

He grabbed her arm.  The gesture fell somewhere between aggression and tenderness, and Barbara found herself comforted by it.

"It's not safe here."  Delgado followed her gaze down to where his fingers dug into her skin.  Although he didn't let go, his grip slackened.  "Hell, it's not safe anywhere."

Gracie lowered her voice.  "Then we have to meet again soon.  I found her."

"Found who?"

"The woman in the photo."

"Shhh!" 

She had been speaking softly but Delgado reacted as though she'd yelled and the room was porously leaking every sound.  He pulled her away from the door and into the corner formed by the office wall and a gun-metal gray filing cabinet.  His body hovered less than an inch from hers.  "How?" he whispered.

Barbara had been spending all of her spare time on the case.  It was infinitely more interesting than the work in the bunker, which she drudged through until the end of each day.  The investigation also had the added advantage of moments like this with Delgado. 

She still believed that Wiley was the most likely culprit, but Delgado had made her promise that she wouldn't keep tabs on him.  Maxwell Wiley was too adept at spotting a tail and surveilling him was too big of a risk.  So she stuck to Emily.  It didn't take long to confirm the relationship between the two of them.  Although as the Major pointed out, it wasn't evidence of their involvement in the crime.

"I still don't get it," Delgado had said during one of their covert rendezvous.  They were in Old Town Scottsdale browsing through a deserted tourist shop.  He picked up a mass-produced beaded basket designed to resemble Hopi art and examined it as though he were thinking of buying it.  "So they're having an affair.  I don't see under what circumstances he would kill Cullen because of that.  Even if he had found out about them, Maxwell is a pro at manipulation.  He would have been able to make Tray keep his mouth shut about it without killing him."

"Emily was extremely upset with Tray.  She must have convinced Wiley to do it."

"But why?  I just can't see why anyone would have someone killed just because they were being hit on.  Do you think he did something to her?  Something bad?"  He dropped his voice down to a lower register for his last question, as if the words could invoke some lurid scene before their eyes. 

Barbara shrugged.  Despite a millennium of civilization people were savages—capable of anything.  Tray most certainly could have been willing to violate her.  But could he have gotten the upper hand with Emily and walked away without any visible wounds?  Emily isn't exactly a shrinking violet.

But she might have used Wiley to simply get rid of her unwanted admirer.  She was dating a trained killer; why shouldn't she use him to her advantage?  But Delgado would never see the world that way.  He had a moral code and for some reason expected others to have one as well.