What the fuck, he wanted to say, looking Somers right in the eyes. What the fuck have you been doing?

That wasn’t fair; Hazard unbuckled himself, killed the minivan and headed to the building. The rational part of his brain knew Somers hadn’t done anything wrong; as Hazard had told Park, when she’d suggested a connection between Somers and the Keeper killings, this was a frame job. Somehow, Dulac had managed to get Somers’s fingerprints on the drugs. He had taken Mitchell, he had abducted Nico, and he had vanished. He had doubtless headed out to Golden City a few days before and killed Kleinheider, probably when he got the bees to use for Susan’s body. Leaving behind the drugs and the bloody underwear had been an easy way to neutralize Somers—and, possibly, Hazard, because Dulac might have assumed Hazard would be so upset by the arrest or involved in protecting Somers that he would be incapacitated.

For Hazard, a lot of questions remained: had Dulac planned to take Nico as a victim all along? Or had Susan’s death been the only part that was planned, and the rest had all been a series of rash decisions motivated by fear of being discovered? In the end, it didn’t matter; it all boiled down to the next move, and the next move was to find Dulac. Fast. Because when Dulac ran, and he was going to run soon, he wouldn’t try to take Nico and Mitchell with him.

At the door to Dulac’s building, Hazard buzzed the manager’s unit. He got no response. He tried a couple more times, and then he tried an old standby, running his hand down the panel, buzzing just about every unit in the building until a voice answered: “Yes, hello?”

“This is Emery Hazard. I’m part of a police investigation into the disappearance of Gray Dulac, who lives in this building.”

“I don’t know Mr. Dulac, so—”

“This is police business, sir. Buzz me up, please. Right now.”

“I don’t really—I mean, I’m kneading bread right now, so it’s not exactly an ideal time.”

“Great,” Hazard said. “I’ll be sure to explain to Detective Dulac’s family that we tried our best with this investigation, we really wish we could explain why that cartel broke into this apartment building and cut their son’s face off like it was a Halloween mask, but the investigation stalled out pretty early because one potential witness was kneading bread and it wasn’t really a good time. You know what? I’ll tell his mom right now. Just stay on the intercom, sir, I think you’ll want to hear this.”

The door buzzed, and Hazard went inside. The next few steps were crucial; he’d seen the cruisers, spotted at least one uniformed officer. If he crossed paths with them, nobody was going to believe he just happened to be in the building as a coincidence. They’d throw him out on his ass. Worse, they might charge him with interference—what some states called obstruction of justice. Hazard didn’t like the idea of spending up to a year in county while his fiancé tried to evade possession charges. Hazard wouldn’t be able to get inside Dulac’s apartment; they’d have that place locked down tight for the next few days at a minimum. But that didn’t mean that Hazard couldn’t get other, equally important information. He just had to be creative.