“Frankenstein’s monster,” Annie murmured.

“What?” Denver frowned.

“The scene from the old Frankenstein movie just popped into my head. The one where the angry mob is chasing the creature.”

“We were angry, Dr. McCall. Good people-a wonderful family-had been massacred in their own home. Everyone felt that if it happened to them, it could happen to anyone.”

Denver sighed heavily. “I knew Bob and Jenny, had known them all my life. My brother had gone to school with them, and back in high school, he had the biggest crush on Jenny.”

The chief felt everyone’s eyes on him then, and shook his head. “Don’t even think it could have been him. We lost him in Vietnam. He was long gone, come the summer of ’79.”

He cleared his throat.

“Anyway, we were talking about the day… that day. We-me and Jack Cameron, he’s dead now about six or seven years-we went into the house, and it was like walking into a horror movie. Cassie was there on the floor upstairs, covered with blood. We thought she was… well, we thought there were no survivors. Then we noticed that she seemed to move, and we called an ambulance. Gave her mouth-to-mouth to try to keep her going.” He wiped a tear from his face without seeming to notice he had done so. “I’d never seen anything like it. The carnage. That little girl, her neck snapped like it was a twig. And Jenny there on the bedroom floor… Bob on the floor in the kitchen. And Wayne Fulmer cowering in the garage, whimpering and shaking and covered in Bob’s blood.” He looked at Rick. “Who would you have thought did it, Agent Cisco, if you’d walked into that scene?”

“Well, I admit it looks pretty bad for Wayne.”

“We had no DNA back then, just fingerprinting. And that wasn’t always accurate, depending on who was reading the prints. None of this electronic matching. No profilers to come in and tell us what kind of personality we were supposed to be looking for.” He stared at Annie with dull resentment.

“Chief, I’m sorry. We’re not accusing you, we’re not judging you-” Annie began, but he cut her off.

“Yes you were, Dr. McCall. You were judging, and you were criticizing and you were accusing us of shoddy police work. Don’t judge our actions or our decisions twenty-six years ago by the way we do things today. We didn’t have the tools back then.” Denver got up and left the room before anyone could stop him.

“Shit,” Rick said softly.

Cass rose to go after her boss.

“Let me, Cassie. This was my fault. I’ll talk to him.” Rick followed Denver from the room.

“Cass, could we finish up here? I only have a few more questions for you.” Annie reached over and laid a hand on Cass’s arm.

“I think I should go in and see if he’s okay.” She gestured in the direction of the chief’s office.

“Rick made the mess, Cass. He’ll clean it up.”

“All right. I’ll give him five minutes to come back in. If he hasn’t cooled off and come back by then, I’m going to go and talk to him. It usually doesn’t take him much more than that to calm down, no matter what he’s angry about.”

Just then, Cass’s cell phone rang, and she glanced at the number displayed on the small screen.

“I need to take this,” she told Annie.

“Khaliyah. How are you?” She rose and walked to the window.

“I’m okay, Cassie. I was wondering how you are. I saw on the news, about your cousin. I wanted to make sure that you…” The girl paused, her voice shaky. “I just wanted to make sure that you were okay, that’s all.”

“That’s really sweet of you. I appreciate the call. But I don’t want you to worry about me. I’m fine.”

“I went by your house and saw the cops there and stuff and the yellow tape all around the place and I got scared,” Khaliyah admitted.

“No reason to be scared.”

“I wanted you to know you can come and stay here, with me, if you need a place to stay.”

“That is the nicest offer. Thank you, Khaliyah. But I have a place.”

“Someplace safe?”

“Absolutely safe, yes.” Cass’s throat caught, so touched was she by her young friend’s concern.

“But if anything changes, if you need to…”

“You will be the first person I call. Promise.”

“I guess our one-on-one is off for a while.”

“Nah. I’ll be there.”

“You will?”

“You betcha.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.” Cass hesitated for a moment, then added, “But let’s try to get there a little earlier this week. That way we can wrap up while it’s still light.”

“Okay. Six?”

“Six is good. Unless you hear otherwise from me.”

“Great. I’ll see you then.”

“Khaliyah…”

“What?”

“Ask Jameer if he can drive you this week, okay? Until this is over? I don’t think you want to be walking around town.”

“Okay. I’ll ask him.”

“If he can’t, you’ll call me, right?”

“Right.”

“I’ll see you then. And thanks, Khaliyah.” Cass closed her phone and dropped it into her pocket.

“Sorry,” she said to Annie. “Where were we?”

“We were-” The door opened behind Annie and she turned in time to see Rick and the chief coming back into the room.

“Sorry for the interruption.” Chief Denver nodded at both women.

He took his seat at the head of the table, and Rick sat down next to Cass again as if nothing had happened.

“What else did you want to ask me?” Cass asked Annie.

“Do you remember anything else about that day? Do you have any other images in your mind?”

“Going down the steps for breakfast, behind my mother. Thinking she looked so pretty. That I’d never be as pretty as she was.”

“What was she wearing?”

“A white shirt. Pink-and-white Capri pants,” she answered without hesitation. “She had her hair tied back in a ponytail, like she always did, and it was swinging…”

She demonstrated with one hand.

“I used to untie it whenever I could. It was sort of a silly game between us. That morning as we were going down the steps, I reached out and grabbed hold of the ribbon and pulled it, thinking her hair would fall free, but she had used a rubber band, too, so the ponytail stayed. She laughed, like she’d outsmarted me that day, and she tied the ribbon back into her hair.”

“Maybe we should give Cass a break,” Rick said abruptly, looking directly at Annie. “I think we could all use a little break.”

Cass frowned. “We just had a little break.”

“Oh. Excellent idea.” Annie had noticed his expression, which said, Just trust me. “You know, I sat for several hours in the car on my way over here, and I would dearly love a chance to stretch my legs.”

She turned to Cass and asked, “Is there any place close by where I could get ice cream? I’m dying for an ice-cream cone.”

“There’s a place a few blocks from here.”

“Would you mind showing me? Are you up for a little walk?”

“Sure. Why not? Let me get my purse. I put it in my office.”

After Cass left the room, Annie turned to Rick and asked softly, “How much time do you want?”

“As much time as you can give me.”

Annie nodded, and walked into the hall, closing the door behind her.

Rick turned to the chief and said, “We really need to look at the Burke homicide file, Chief. I’m sorry. I meant what I said back in your office. I’m not trying to step on your toes and I’ll apologize in advance if you think otherwise. But right now, I need to see that file if it’s still around.”

“Of course it’s still around. There are a couple of boxes of stuff that we found at the scene. We’re not total rubes, you know,” Denver snapped. “What exactly are you looking for?”

“Whatever the evidence can tell us. Whatever there is that can tell us something we don’t already know.”