Chapter 29 Chapter Twenty Nine

Forty minutes passed.Cole squatted beside the sofa where a row of corpses had once sat, and lifted the flap of the sofa cover with his hands.Puller handed her the flashlight.Cole took it and photographed it under the sofa. "There's something," she said, pulling out a faux bone and two other plastic toys for the puppy from underneath. "Looks like this is where the dog hid," Puller said. "Anything else?" She stretched her arms inwards. "Wait," Pooler said, lifting one end of the sofa.Cole looked up to him from the ground and said, "Now you need your brains, and of course your brawn."

Puller looked down. "A piece of cardboard, as if torn from a mail envelope." "And this." Cole picked up a small piece of green paper from the carpet and stood up.Puller put the sofa back in its place. She looked carefully at the slip of paper and handed it to Pooler. "It looks like a corner of a registration form," he said. "Yeah, that looks like it. The question is where does the rest go? Shouldn't we be x-raying the puppy's stomach?" "Maybe the guys who killed Wellman took the mail. They probably figured out that the puppy had the mail and hid it somewhere. They looked under the sofa and sure enough they found it."

Cole asked with some confusion: "How do they know that mail has been delivered here?" "They interrogated the Reynolds family. The Colonel may be forced to tell them he's waiting for this mail." "Then why don't they intercept it on the spot? They can stay in the house and wait for Reed to deliver the mail. They can sign it and pretend it's from the Reynolds family, like that guy across the street pretending to be Eric Turtle." Same with Revere. Reed said he didn't know the family, so he wouldn't see anything out of the ordinary. As long as someone signs that piece of paper, he'll be fine."

"What if they didn't find out about it until later? After the mail arrived here?" "I don't understand, Pooler." He sat down on the edge of the sofa. "Reed said he walked to the door because someone had to sign. That meant there was something special about the mail. But Reed didn't specify anything else about the mail. Why would someone send something like this to The Halvorsons? They're both retired. Reid later remembered it was mailed to the Halvorsons for someone else. But he didn't say that to the police, he just said it was a signed The registered mail of the return receipt. So the killers probably made the same inference as we did. The postman came here to deliver the registered mail. What is in the mail? They are determined to find out."

Puller looked up out of the window.Landry Monroe was pulling up in front of the house. "Why don't we ask Lan if this thing is in the physical evidence list?" "Okay. But I want to make it clear to you first that I don't think there's such a thing in there." "Let's prove it." It was confirmed five minutes later.No mail. Lan looked around the room uneasily. "I've never seen such an email." "Maybe it was eaten by a puppy," Cole said.Her words drew Puller's stare. "I guess I could have a vet look at it or get an x-ray."

"It's some paper, maybe the x-ray can't show it, or it has been digested by the puppy, or even passed out as feces." Puller said. Cole's cell phone rang.She checked the caller screen with a startled look on her face. "Whose call?" Puller asked. "Roger Trent." "You coal mine boss." The bell continued to ring. "You don't want to pick it up?" Puller asked. "I think I'll still take it." She hit the answer button. "Hello." She listened, wanted to say something but continued listening. "That's all right," she said finally. "I'll see you later."

Cole hung up the phone. "Ok?" "Roger Trent wants to see me. At his house." "why?" "He said he was given a death warning." "You'd better go." "Why don't you go with me?" "Why? Do you need cover?" "It won't do any harm for you to go, and I can see that you are a little curious about him. If you go, you can observe and get to know him up close and personal." "Let's go."