SHADOWS IN THE GLASS -- Chapter 32 (2)

They took the Interstate 10 south. Mid-morning traffic was light. They had a couple hours of travel time. Plenty of time to talk. They didn't talk much.

Most of the time they brooded silently on the case. Turning the puzzle pieces over in their minds to see how they fit together. They had neither questions nor answers. Just an increasing number of pieces that didn't fit the picture.

The more Lisa thought about it, the less sure she felt. It was like watching a cloud figure dissipate and trying to guess what it'll look like in an hour.

Was Rodriguez their guy or not? He didn't fit the standard psychopath profile, but how can you expect consistency in an aberration? Roberto was in a gang and he left it. He got a taste of the life and he spit it out. If he got off on violence, why give it up? What changed?

Benny said, "Penny for your thoughts." 

She rolled one shoulder in a shrug. "Not worth it."

"A nickel then."

"No. It was a bad investment at a penny. Save your money. Thinking about Rodriguez?"

"Yeah." Benny admitted.

"Are you thinking a penny's worth of anything?"

"No."

After a moment. "Do you think he did it?"

Benny stared at her over his sunglasses. "You were there. Body on the couch. Jar of eyes sitting next to the beer, staring out of the fridge at me. You read his history. How specific is that? Just like what happened to his mother. Exactly like it. Who else would have done it?"

"How about the guy that killed his mom? No one was ever caught him."

"That guy would be sixty now. He'd have to be Jack La-fucking-Lanne to pull that off. That's a pretty hectic kill schedule for a senior citizen."

He chewed on it a moment. "Who else?"

"Someone in his family. Someone close."

"That's messed up but it fits. You really think something else is going on there?" He asked.

"It smells like a shit sandwich."

"Well you got good instincts." Benny said, "You follow your gut and your heart. That's good. Because the brain is the easiest thing in the world to fool. It sees what it already knows and assumes the easiest answer is correct. Horseshit. Life isn't neat and tidy. Murder never is. The heart and gut know that. They deal with the ugly truth every day. Reality does shit every single day that you'd never believe if it was in a movie."

He let out a slow breath. "Your brain expects things to make sense, but each situation has its own internal logic. It's own clockworks turning toward an inescapable destiny. You can only see the pieces afterwards. Where we stand, we only see a single cog. A piece of gear. A flash of movement. That isn't enough to make sense of it. Maybe that's what we're doing here. Maybe we're just looking too closely at this thing right now. Overthinking it."

Staring down the highway, Lisa said, "Did you see him pull the trigger?"

"I was behind him. Did you?"

"No. I jumped on instinct. Before the blast."

"What are you asking Doe?"

"Maybe he never pulled the trigger. There could have been a remote detonator."

Benny nodded. "It would have burned up. Or there wouldn't be much left anyway."

They rolled along in silence for a while. Benny asked, "Your gut tells you there's more to this?"

"My gut tells me we're just scratching the surface of this thing."