The Escalade was left running so I wouldn't have to shiver while the cab warmed to a tolerable temperature. Jared helped me inside with a smile, kissing my red nose before shutting the door, and then we made a new set of tracks down the street. The sky had dropped another six inches of snow on the ground, but only after a few hours of sleet had laid down a solid bed for the snow to stick to.

Jared had no trouble navigating through the ice and powder, but red and blue lights lit the inside of the cab, and the Escalade came to a stop next to a nine foot snow drift.

“Can’t he just call?” Jared said, gripping the steering wheel.

Ryan knocked on the window, and Jared lowered it. Ryan began to speak, but Jared let his finger off the button, stopping the window half-way. Ryan waited patiently, and then Jared lowered the window again. When it was at chin level, Ryan addressed me, but Jared, once again, let his finger off the button.

“Funny,” Ryan said. “Where’s Claire? I haven’t heard from her today.”

“It’s possible she’s not going to pick up the phone every time you call, Ryan,” Jared said, amused.

Ryan's eyes focused on me. “Have you seen her?”

“Not today. If she’s not answering, then she must be busy.”

Jared sighed. “If you pull me over every time you can’t get Claire on the phone, we’re going to be seeing a lot of each other.”

“I just…,” he shook his head, “I just came across some information I wanted to share with her. About the investigation.”

“Like what?” Jared asked, annoyed, but curious.

Ryan narrowed his eyes. “Walter Grahm was the man that tried to rob Nina outside the pub. Ronnie Studebaker, whose friends called him ‘Stu’, was the man that stabbed me. Robert Benson was with them. They were never caught, or charged.”

“Yeah. So?” Jared said, impatient.

“They were all detectives of the Providence Police Department. Now they’re dead. Grahm was killed while answering a robbery call, Benson stopped breathing in his sleep, and Stu went missing. His body has never been found. I can’t account for the fourth man involved in the attack.”

“Do you have a point, Ryan?” Jared said.

“Commissioner Johnson and six members of state government, in addition to seven police officers have come to untimely deaths in the last eighteen months, including Kit Anderson. Grahm was killed the same night twenty-three deaths were reported in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. All GSW’s.”

Jared laughed once. “You’re not telling me anything I don’t know, Ryan.”

“Exactly. How do you know this information unless you are responsible for forty-one deaths?”

“Whoa! You are way off, Ryan,” I said, shocked at his conclusion.