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Agent
Vartanian, or I will, and then I’ll whip you with it.” The threat was not an idle one. Frank had tanned Daniel’s hide more than once for one prank or another. But it was because Frank cared, which was more than he could say for his father. Judge Arthur Vartanian had been too busy to care.
    “Don’t knock those GBI sticks,” Daniel said mildly, though his heart had begun to pound. “They’re the latest technology, like all our toys. Even you might be impressed.”
    “Damn bureaucrats,” Frank muttered. “Offer ‘technology’ and ‘expertise,’ but only if they run the show. Give ’em an inch and pretty soon they’ve descended like locusts.”
    That, too, was a fair observation, although Daniel doubted his superiors at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation would see it as such. He’d found the key, but now had to focus on steadying his trembling hand. “I’m one of those locusts, Frank,” he said.
    Frank huffed, irritated. “Dammit, Daniel, you know what I meant. Art and Carol are your parents. I called you, not the GBI. I don’t want my county overrun by bureaucrats.”
    Daniel’s key didn’t fit the lock either. But it had been a long time, so that in and of itself was not a cause for alarm. “When was the last time you saw them?”
    “November. About two weeks before Thanksgivin’. Your mama was headed in to Angie’s and your daddy was down at the courthouse.”
    “Then it was a Wednesday,” Daniel said and Frank nodded. Angie’s was the town’s beauty shop where his mother had kept a standing Wednesday appointment since before he was born. “But why was Dad at the courthouse?”
    “Retirement was hard on your father. He missed the work. The people.”
    Arthur Vartanian missed the power of being the circuit court judge in a little Georgia town,
Daniel thought, but kept it to himself. “You said my mother’s doctor called you.”
    “Yes. That’s when I realized how long it had been since I’d seen either of them.” Frank sighed. “I’m sorry, son. I assumed she’d at least told you and Susannah.”
    That his mother had kept such a thing from her own children had been hard to accept. Breast cancer. She’d had surgery and chemo and had never said a word.
    “Yeah, well, things haven’t been so good between any of us for a while.”
    “Your mama missed several appointments, so the nurse got worried and called me. I checked around and found your mother told Angie she and your father were going to visit your grandma in Memphis the day she canceled her December hair appointments.”
    “But they didn’t go to Memphis.”
    “No. Your grandma said that your mother told her that they were spending the holidays with your sister, but when I called Susannah she said she hadn’t heard from your parents in more than a year. That’s when I called you.”
    “That’s just too many lies, Frank,” Daniel said. “We’re going in.” He shattered the small windowpane to the side of the door with his elbow, reached in and unlocked the door. The house was quiet as a tomb and smelled musty.
    Stepping over the threshold was like stepping back in time. In his mind Daniel saw his father standing at the foot of the stairs, his knuckles battered and bloody. Mama stood at his father’s side, tears running down her face. Susannah stood alone, a desperate plea on her face for him to abandon the confrontation that she didn’t understand. It would be easier on Susannah if she never knew, so he’d never told her.
    He’d walked away, planning never to return. The best-laid plans . . . “You take the upstairs, Frank. I’ll take this level and the basement.”
    Daniel’s first look confirmed his parents had gone on a trip. The water was off and every appliance unplugged. His mother had a fear of fire by toaster oven, he recalled.
    He cleared the first floor and heart pounding, descended into the basement, visions of bodies he’d found throughout his years as a cop bombarding his mind. But there