“We don’t even know if it is a disappearance,” said Tommy. “According to Susan at the library, she’s been known to skip town for a few days every now and then. Says it helps her recharge. But it’s an awfully big coincidence that she did it this time with bullet holes in her windows and a dead body in her backyard.”

“Have you filed a missing persons report?” said Renée.

“We haven’t listed her as a missing person,” said Tommy. “Not yet. But she is a person of interest in the investigation, and that does give us the ability to put some feelers out.”

“Any leads?”

“Two, actually. We searched the house and found the floor safe in her closet was open and empty. We don’t know what she kept in there, but she doesn’t have a safe deposit box at the bank and there was one thing we didn’t find anywhere else in her house.”

“What’s that?”

“Her passport. I checked with the Passport Agency and she had a new one issued just last year.”

“You think she left the country?”

“At first I didn’t,” said Tommy, “because of the second thing we found. Her phone turned up in the parking lot of a truck stop in Tennessee.”

“You don’t need a passport to go to Tennessee,” said Renée.

“No, but you need one to go to London. Just to cover my bases I ran a check on her passport with Customs and Border Protection, and she boarded a flight for London in Atlanta the day after Art was killed.”

“You don’t think P.J. had anything to do with Art’s murder?” said Renée. “I mean, she couldn’t possibly.”

“Not a chance,” said Tommy. “But I sure would like to talk to her. And I sure would like to know why her passport is in England and her phone is in Gatlinburg.”

The mourners had mostly returned to their cars and Tommy took Renée’s arm and led her slowly back to the cruiser in which they had driven to the cemetery. She was holding up pretty well, he thought, but he had seen this before with the spouses of murder victims or people who died in accidents. They remained stoic through the funeral, but after a few nights home alone, after the casseroles stopped arriving and the visitors slowed to a trickle, the darkness set in. Tommy vowed he would be there for Renée in the days and weeks and months ahead. It was the least he could do for Art.