Then again, a mother’s love, even if her son had gone bad, was hard to control. Colt’d seen it over and over. Pete Hollister’s mother was a prime example. That woman knew what her son did to Feb, putting Feb in the hospital, and she stood by Pete, badmouthing Feb along the way.

Sully knew this too and he was going to play it.

Norm saw his wife breaking and his voice was a warning when he said, “Evelyn.”

“Also helps us,” Sully cut in, “if we know, to figure a way to bring ‘em in, you know, safe like. Get ‘em help.”

“You don’t want to help my son,” Norm accused, casting doubt on Sully, hoping Evelyn would rise to the bait.

Sully looked at him and asked good-naturedly, “You know me, sir?”

“I –” Norm started but Sully cut him off.

Good-natured gone, colder than steel and firmer than concrete in its place, Sully said, “You don’t know me, Mr. Lowe, so you can’t say that about me.”

“He was touched,” Evelyn whispered and the observation room went electric.

“Evelyn,” Norm snapped.

Sully turned fully to her, she had his complete attention. “Touched?”

“Touched.”

“Evelyn!” Norm’s voice was sharper and his hand on her arm gave her a quick but vicious shake.

“Mr. Lowe, due respect, but I’m thinkin’ you shouldn’t handle your woman like that in front of a cop,” Sully warned quietly, but quiet or not, that steel was still in his tone.

Norm instantly dropped his wife’s arm but declared, “We’re leaving.”

“When he was a little boy. Norman’s brother,” Evelyn said softly.

“Quiet now, Evelyn,” Norm hissed at his wife, leaning toward her. “You don’t know that.”

She turned her head to him, still talking softly, finding her way, uncertain of her footing and downright scared, she whispered, “I know it.”

“You don’t.”

“Denny told me.”

Norm threw out a dismissive hand. “I think it’s clear by his behavior that Denny tellin’ you anything can be taken with a grain of salt.”

Still soft, Evelyn said, “Not then, not then, Norman.”

“Ehv.”

“He was five,” she whispered and Colt closed his eyes.

“Jesus, sick, fuck, Christ,” Sean muttered and Colt opened his eyes.

Evelyn looked back at Sully, squared her shoulders and sucked in oxygen through her nose, counting on it giving her strength. “Far as I reckon, it’d been happenin’ since he was a baby.”

“No, now it’s Jesus, sick, fuck, Christ,” Mike remarked.

“Evelyn, you be quiet, you hear?” Norman warned.

She didn’t take her eyes off Sully when she replied, “Been bein’ quiet a long time.”

“No use dredgin’ this up,” Norm told her.

For some reason those words were Norm’s mistake. Evelyn’s body visibly locked but her eyes sliced to her husband.

“No use dredgin’ it up.” Her voice was still soft but it held an angry hiss. “No use takin’ him to see a psychologist when he had those dreams, would draw those pictures. No use havin’ him talk to someone when he killed our dog,” Evelyn returned, building her backbone with every word.

“Holy fuck,” Merry muttered.

“Classic case. Christ,” Mike noted.

Norm looked at Sully and declared, “Denny didn’t kill our dog.” “So, Sparky fell on a hatchet?” Evelyn asked, unpracticed sarcasm in her tone but still, it worked.

“Evelyn, I hardly think –” Norm started but Evelyn interrupted him.

She looked back to Sully and said on a rush, “Norm’s brother liked babysitting. He did it for us a lot. A lot. Kept tellin’ us to go to movies, out to dinner, have a break from our boy. Felix had no wife, no girlfriends, no interest, never did, but he liked babies, he liked little boys, he liked them a lot. Used to go to the park just to watch them. I’d take Denny on the weekend, he’d always be there to come with me. I thought it strange, thought he was a bit peculiar, but it was more than a bit peculiar.”

“Denny told you he touched him?” Sully asked.

“Told me, yes, told me how too,” Evelyn answered.

“Dennis couldn’t know –” Norm started but stopped when Evelyn looked at him again.

“If he didn’t know, if you didn’t know, why’d you send Felix away?”

“He got a position out of state,” Norm reminded her.

“You arranged for him to get a position out of state.”

Norm dismissed his wife and looked at Sully. “This is ridiculous. Felix died of leukemia five years ago. He can’t even speak for himself.

“And thank goodness. Thank goodness. Thank goodness for that,” Evelyn said. It had built up for years and she’d been holding it back, or Norm had been crushing it down, but now she let it go. There was a force of feeling behind her words so strong it was a wonder her husband didn’t go back on a foot. Hell, she’d been holding this back so long, it was actually a wonder she herself didn’t implode.

“That’s my brother you’re talkin’ about, Ehv.”

“That’s the man who drove our boy into madness, Norm.”

Sully cut in. “You know how he links to Feb and Colt?”

“Yes,” Evelyn said.

“Absolutely not,” Norm said at the same time.

Evelyn turned to him. “We do,” then she looked back to Sully, “or, I do.”

Norm was losing it, his face getting read, his eyes already blistering hot, if she didn’t find alternate accommodation that night, she’d catch it.

“Evelyn,” he bit off.

She ignored him and kept looking at Sully, taking a deep breath, she said, “Sometimes he’d talk to me. Not much, sometimes. I wanted him to talk to someone else…” her head twitched in her husband’s direction, it wasn’t much but her accusation was clear, “but we couldn’t do that so I thought it would be good if Denny would talk to me.”

“So he told you about Feb and Colt,” Sully prompted.

“Once, each,” she nodded and went on, “February stood up for him, something at school,” her eyes slid to the side, taking in her husband a moment then they went back to Sully, “not long after, Alec Colton beat up his father and went to live with the Owenses.”

“He say why this meant somethin’ to him?” Sully asked.

“No, but I reckon in February’s case, no one stood up for him, not in his whole life, and he had some demons he was battlin’, he didn’t need the likes of Devon Shepherd’s uppity daughter makin’ his life a livin’ hell at school.”

“Colt?” Sully pressed.

“Hero worship, I guess. I suspect, beatin’ up his Dad like that and endin’ up with the Owenses, Alec Colton did somethin’ Denny wanted to do. Then, of course, there was the fact that Alec had Feb.”

“I don’t believe this,” Norm muttered.

“You were hard on him,” Evelyn told Norm.

“I’m his father!” Norm’s voice was rising.

“You were too hard on him,” Evelyn shot back.

“He was a difficult boy to raise,” Norm returned.

“Yes, he was and there was a reason for that, wasn’t there, Norm? A reason you ignored.”

“He needed a firm hand.”

“He needed understanding and professional help.”

“Right,” Norm blew out that one word dismissively.

“Right,” she whispered back and then threw out her hand to indicate the room. “Look where you are. Can you still stand there and say, yet again, Denny didn’t need professional help?”

“She’s got a point there,” Mike muttered.

“Will this help you?” Evelyn asked, now looking at Sully.

“Yes, Mrs. Lowe, it’ll help a great deal,” Sully answered.

She took in another breath through her nose and then she asked, “Will it help Denny?”

“Denny?” Sully asked back.

“You knowin’ this, will it mean you’ll understand, get him some help?”

There it was. A mother’s love.

Even knowing this, Sully didn’t understand, Colt knew that, but Sully didn’t let on and said firmly, “Absolutely.”

She nodded, sucked in more breath, lifted her head then asked, “Can I use your phone? I want to call my sister to come to pick me up.”

“Thank God for that,” Sean whispered, “the old man’s itchin’ to lay into her.”

“What’s this now?” Norm asked, not about to be denied the chance to pull her back down where he wanted her, right under his thumb.

Evelyn looked at him and stated, “I think I need some alone time.”

“Hopefully, the next twenty years,” Merry put in.

“You stay in here, Mrs. Lowe, then we’ll get you to a phone,” Sully said quickly then turned to Norm. “Mr. Lowe, I’ll show you out.”

“But –” Norm began.

“This way,” Sully pushed.

“My wife –”

“Needs some alone time,” Sully’s voice was back to steel and he used it and his body to guide Norm to the door.

Unwilling to lose face, Norm scowled at Evelyn but followed Sully. Evelyn lifted her hand and smoothed it across her hair which was neatly pulled back into a bun. Her hand was shaking. Looking toward the floor, she sat down with her back to the door and to her husband.

Sully opened the door and Norm walked out.

The show over, people in the room were shifting, quietly moving out.

Mike moved toward Colt.

“More news in, Colt,” he said, “not just the bodies but the hatchet is also the same brand as what Skipp sold Denny and he ditched Cheryl Sheckle’s car. They don’t know what he’s drivin’ but they found her car about three blocks away from this mornin’s body.”

Well at least they knew where he was headed even if they didn’t know anymore what he was driving to get there.

“What news on the bodies?” Colt asked.

“This mornin’, pure rage. Reports say the remains of the victim looked like Marie. They even had trouble figurin’ out if it was a man or a woman.”

“Christ,” Colt muttered.

“The other body, done on the way from Idaho Springs to Taos. He was hacked like Angie, Pete and Butch, ‘cept he got him by cavin’ in the back of his head while he was runnin’ on some path. Likely a surprise attack. They found the body off the path, it’d been there awhile and the animals had gotten to it. Still, enough of him left to match a photo. We suspect somethin’ to come through soon.”

“Six,” Colt said, counting victims, or at least the dead, human ones.

“That we know of,” Mike replied, looking less than happy to say these words.

“What I wanna know is,” Sean turned to them, jerking his head to the window, “don’t these people pay attention? Cop shows? Movies? News? Fuck, their son is killin’ dogs and drawin’ unhealthy pictures and what? Nothin’? It’s fuckin’ textbook.”

“Denial can be crippling,” Merry, who’d also joined them, told Sean.

“Nope,” Sean replied, tipping his head to the interrogation room. “She knew. Just think that guy’s an assclown. Get my prescriptions there,” Sean said, “at his place. Got allergies. Definitely feelin’ a change comin’ on.”

“‘Spect Norm Lowe’ll lose a bit of business,” Mike noted and Colt’s eyes went to the interrogation room.

Norm and Sully were gone. Evelyn was still sitting down but now staring at the box. Even unmoving, she looked like she was lost in a way she’d never be found. Then again, Evelyn Lowe had likely been lost a long time.

“Think it might be a good idea, Norm Lowe retires,” Colt muttered.

“And moves,” Mike added.

“You’re up next,” Merry noted carefully, his eyes on Colt, “you takin’ precautions?”

Colt looked at him. “Yeah.”

“Creepy shit, Colt,” Mike remarked and Colt looked at Mike.

“Yeah,” he repeated.

Mike grinned. “Still, even creepy, I could see it would make it easier for a man to handle, he goes home to the knowledge he can play a game of pool with February.”

Sean grinned too. “Yeah, Feb playin’ pool in your own den, wearin’ that choker, a pair of her jeans. Fuck. That’d seriously make it easier.”

Garrett Merrick didn’t comment, he just smiled at Colt.

“Hear you only let her have a game,” Mike noted and Colt was slightly annoyed, slightly impressed, that the gossip was so accurate. “Was me, I’d let her take ‘em all.”

“It isn’t you,” Colt reminded him and was extremely glad he was in the position to do it.

Mike’s grin got bigger before he muttered, “Damn shame.”

One good thing about the conversation was that it was different to the conversations he’d overheard since Feb came back to town. Feb being in his bed meant he wouldn’t have to listen to the men discussing jacking off to her anymore and he had to admit that was a relief.

Of the many plusses of having her back in his life, that was one of them. A small one but in the current circumstances he was hanging on to all the positives he could get.