It was a heavy key ring. Henry was a man with many locks. She glanced down at them all, a great fist of silver and brass. Big keys. Medium keys. Keys with colorful plastic collars around the bows. Dirty keys. Clean keys. And on top of all those keys, one other.

A tiny black key.

Like something that might open the front door to a dollhouse.

Susan stared down at the key for a long second. There were lots of keys in the world. Lots of locks.

She lifted the key ring by the little key and held it up toward Archie.

She didn’t have to say anything.

He reached out slowly and took it, and his eyebrows drew together.

“What?” Claire said, standing up.

“It looks like the key the kid left behind,” Archie said softly.

Claire gazed down at the key. Her face was seven kinds of stillness. “That key wasn’t on there yesterday,” she said.

Archie fumbled with his wallet, opened it, and slipped out the key that the kid had left behind under his hospital bed.

The keys looked identical.

Archie got out his phone and hit a number. “It’s me,” he said. “I need to know what was found in the pockets of the three other TTX victims.” He listened for a moment. Then lowered his forehead onto a hand and rubbed his temples. “What do the keys look like?”

Susan’s stomach turned. The killer had left that key with Henry. Just as he’d apparently left keys with his other victims. The killer had touched it, and she had held it in her hand.

Claire reached into her purse, got out her own key chain, twisted off a key, and handed it to Susan. Susan understood. It was Claire’s copy of Henry’s house key.

“He’ll be a while,” Claire said. “I guess you’re on your own with the old people.”

Susan looked down at the house key. She was being dismissed. At least she still got to feed the cats.

Claire closed her eyes and settled back into the chair. “Leave the muffin,” she said.

Archie was still on the phone when Susan left.

Chapter 24

CHAPTER

24

Archie watched as Robbins propped the three photographs side by side against Henry’s motionless calf.

When a body ended up at the morgue, all the personal items were removed, bagged, and catalogued. Clothing. Jewelry. Nipple rings. A morgue tech took it all. Sometimes it went back to the family, sometimes it got tagged as evidence, sometimes it got lost in the chaos of a flood evacuation. Sometimes it got photographed.

Three photographs. Three key rings. All different. Stephanie Towner’s keys were on a silver S. Megan Parr’s keys were on a Honda fob. Zak Korber’s keys were at the end of a silver chain that had once been clipped to his belt loop. Different keys. With one exception. Each ring had the same small black key.