Near Miss

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Doorstep

"Sylvie?"

"Rhiannon?"

There was a brief silence while both Rhiannon and Sylvie took a moment to think.

Why had Sylvie called? There must be something she wanted... or maybe it was just a coincidence. Since they'd barely talked after the Hathaway case, though, Rhiannon knew Sylvie's reason must be important. And it was certainly odd that she had called just as Rhiannon had been about to contact Detective Knapp. Maybe she already knew something about this business with Lucia's family, and was calling to ask about it. It wasn't entirely improbable- Sylvie probably knew everything that was happening in Skybrook. Rhiannon often found it reasonable to take this for granted, although she still wasn't sure how that intuition worked.

Why hadn't Rhiannon begun talking yet? Sylvie knew her personality well enough to understand that normally she'd answer a call while asking a question. It felt uncannily as if she'd been expecting Sylvie to call... Sylvie shivered. It was an odd, uncomfortable thought, and not one she enjoyed entertaining. Sylvie had never liked coincidences- not because they often seemed unfortunate, but because they were never really that improbable. The word itself- coincidence- had been adopted to refer to almost anything odd or out of the ordinary that involved two things happening simultaneously. But she had to admit that, if Rhiannon had been just about to call her, that was a coincidence indeed. Rhiannon hadn't bothered to call for months.

"Can you do me a favor?" said Rhiannon.

"I... need you to help me out with something," Sylvie said, at the same time. Without giving Rhiannon time to deliberate over who should speak first, she plunged into the main body of her request: "I'm investigating an attempted murder case, and one of the victim's friends died last week in Seattle, and it looks a bit suspicious. It's my only lead right now, and I need to ask whether you're willing to look into it."

"Sylvie, I've got my hands full with another murder," Rhiannon answered wearily. "I'm just calling to see if you know the Valenti family."

"Another murder?" Sylvie said incredulously, well aware of Magdalen and Fabian's watchful eyes. "What do you mean, another murder? Do people just crawl up to your doorstep and die?"

Rhiannon scoffed. It wasn't really that odd for someone to be distantly connected to a suspicious death, in her opinion, and Sylvie was obviously exaggerating. After all, this was only her second case.

"My friend's coworker was run over by a car, okay? I might not call it murder, but something weird is going on."

Sylvie almost dropped the phone.

"Sorry, sorry," she apologized as soon as she managed to steady the phone in her hand. "That's... just... exactly what I was going to ask you about. Is that Malachi Lindquist?"

Rhiannon was thrilled. Something was happening in Skybrook, something connected to Malachi's death, something deeply suspicious. She might as well have expected a billboard proclaiming Lucia's guilt. "Yes," she smiled. "Yes, it is. I know who you're looking for."

"What?" Sylvie gasped. "How could you- you haven't even seen this case!"

"Yeah, well, I know anyway," Rhiannon grinned. "Her name is Lucia Valenti. She's staying with her brother somewhere in Skybrook, I'm not sure exactly where..." She checked the address on her notepad. "Raindale Street, apparently? Do you know where that is?"

Sylvie slung the phone over her shoulder and turned directly to Magdalen. "Your neighbor, David Vale, or Vance, or Vaughn- is it Valenti?"

"David Valenti..." Magdalen said slowly. "Yes... that sounds right... I mean, I don't know. It could be anything, really, I barely know him."