Back Final Days Save as PDF
Chapters (32)
  1. ONE
  2. TWO
  3. THREE
  4. FOUR
  5. FIVE
  6. SIX
  7. SEVEN
  8. EIGHT
  9. NINE
  10. TEN
  11. ELEVEN
  12. TWELVE
  13. THIRTEEN
  14. FOURTEEN
  15. FIFTEEN
  16. SIXTEEN
  17. SEVENTEEN
  18. EIGHTEEN
  19. NINETEEN
  20. TWENTY
  21. TWENTY-ONE
  22. TWENTY-TWO
  23. TWENTY-THREE
  24. TWENTY-FOUR
  25. TWENTY-FIVE
  26. TWENTY-SIX
  27. TWENTY-SEVEN
  28. TWENTY-EIGHT
  29. TWENTY-NINE
  30. THIRTY
  31. THIRTY-ONE
  32. THIRTY-TWO

‘Olivia,’ he spread his hands in a gesture of helplessness, ‘I don’t mean to sound callous, but I’m not sure what any of this has to do with me.’

She gave him an angry look. ‘Jesus, Saul, he’s your friend.’

‘Was my friend, until I started sleeping with his ex-wife.’

She stared back at him in silence.

‘All right,’ he raised his hands, ‘I’m sorry. Don’t you have any idea where he might have gone?’

Olivia shook her head. ‘Before I tell you anything else, there’s something you need to see.’

Saul’s UP informed him that she had just sent him a video file.

‘What is it?’ he asked.

‘Just take a look.’ She rolled her eyes.

Saul pushed his glass to one side, then tapped the four corners of an imaginary square on the bar counter with one finger. His contacts responded by projecting the clip she had sent within the confines of the same square.

It turned out to be something snatched from one of the main news feeds. He saw men in diving suits falling backwards off a boat into the waters of a lake, snow-capped hills dense with pine visible beyond the shore.

He glanced at Olivia, as the video clip remained locked to the counter. ‘What is this?’ he asked.

‘They dredged Jeff’s body out of that lake yesterday morning. We have a cabin up in Montana, where we used to spend our summers. There was a local news report saying it was suicide.’

Saul swallowed. ‘Shit, Olivia, I’m so sorry.’

‘No, don’t be. I don’t believe it.’

‘Don’t believe what?’

‘That it was suicide.’

He gave her an appraising stare.

‘I’m not out of my head, all right?’ she snapped. ‘It just . . . not something he would do.’

‘You can’t possibly know that, Olivia.’

Tendons stood out on her neck as she replied. ‘I know him, Saul, and I know he wouldn’t drown himself deliberately. I think somebody killed him.’

‘Does this have anything to do with the people that were looking for him? Who exactly were they?’

‘One was a guy called Dan Rush who’d worked with Jeff. The other was Mitch.’

Saul shook his head. ‘Mitch?’

‘Mitchell Stone.’ She peered at him like he’d lost his mind. ‘We were just talking about him, remember?’

Saul froze, with one hand clasped around his second Drambuie. He nodded slowly, his expression impassive.

‘He called you during the last couple of days? What day was it exactly?’

She thought for a moment. ‘It would have been the 29th.’

‘Of January?’

She nodded. ‘The other man, Rush, called me a few days before that.’

Four days ago, Saul realized. ‘I need you to be sure about that.’

She gave him a reproachful glare. ‘Jesus, Saul, of course I’m sure.’