Discombobulate

Chapter Sixty-Three

Winston took his lecture from Dave in silence. The bald man's finger wagged in his face. Spit hit Winston while a slew of curse words flew.

Clarence and Mackenzie could only watch in silence. At one point, Mackenzie dropped her face in her hands. A vein bulge on the side of Dave's forehead. Clarence was in such a state of shock, he couldn't make a sound.

When things became too heated, Deputy Falcon had to remove the former deputies from the premises. Winston was silently drowning in his guilt. Mullen had been ignoring the situation. He was too busy trying to get into Denise's laptop.

"I was starting to think he was going to hit you." Falcon walked back into the room.

"Not a chance, he knew he'd be arrested. Dave is all bark and no bite," Mullen commented.

Winston ignored the pair and glanced at Falcon. "Is Grant Bowers still in prison?"

Falcon shook her head. "He was let go about a half hour ago."

"Shit," Winston mumbled under his breath. He had been hoping to talk to Bowers again. It likely wouldn't have worked, but they could have tried to find where Greg Sullivan was staying.

Falcon's cell phone rang. She dug her hand into her black uniform pants and pulled it out. "Hello?" She answered the unknown number.

Winston leaned his head on his hand. He glanced over to watch Detective Mullen. His fingers flew over the keyboard. A notebook sat next to him with a compiled list of potential passwords.

"Well, thank you for letting me know. I'll pass on that information. Have a good day." Falcon ended the call and put the phone back in her pocket.

"What was that about?" Mullen asked.

"The kitten didn't make it. They tried their best and they said he lasted quite a while. The smoke inhalation was too much for his tiny lungs."

A heavy silence swept over the room. Winston felt like his soul had been sucked out of him. Denise was dead, Arnold was dead, and Dupe was dead. Everyone was dead and the killer remained free.

"God damn it!" Mullen slammed his fist down on the table.

It caused both Winston and Falcon to jump.

"Dude, calm down. I know the situation sucks, but there's no need to get violent."

"It's not that, I can't get into her laptop! I don't know the password!" Mullen rubbed the sides of his forehead. He typed a final sequence of numbers into the text bar.

The laptop screen froze for a moment before the home screen appeared. The background was a photo of Susan Houghton. One arm was wrapped around Denise, the other was slung over Jennifer's shoulders.

Mullen hooked it up to the station's Wi-Fi. He pulled up her past search history. Winston leaned closer to see better.

"Am I missing something?" Falcon moved behind Mullen to glance over his shoulder.

"Her most recent search history was from two nights ago. She was looking at web pages filled with information about sleep deprivation." Mullen clicked on one of them.

A new tab opened. An article about sleep deprivation hallucinations popped up. Mullen squinted as he scrolled through the website.

"The video that was on her camera, she mentioned she had been up for hours. She mentioned something about hallucinating. She was afraid she was going to hurt her cat."

"Does anyone know how long she stayed up for and why?" Mullen asked.

"I don't know."

"Try checking her emails," Falcon offered. "That's how I stay in contact with a lot of people."