Free The Murders at Astaire Castle (A Mac Faraday Mystery) by Lauren Carr

had no body, you assumed he killed his daughter and editor in a rage, took the money, and ran,” Mac said.
    “Made sense until now,” Bogie said.
    “That’s why whoever killed them hid Wagner’s body,” David said. “They wanted you to assume that.”
    “Did the agent have access to Wagner’s account in order to transfer the funds out?” Mac asked.
    “Wait a minute.” From where she was kneeling next to the decomposed body, Dr. Washington held up her hand. “Let’s get a positive ID on this body first, and then you can start looking for suspects.”
    “How long will that take?” Mac asked her.
    “We have Damian Wagner’s dental records on file,” she said. “All we need is a comparison to this corpse.”
    David’s silence during the drive down the mountain and across the lake to the hospital in Oakland to check on Riley’s condition proved that Mac’s attempt to alleviate his guilt had been futile. He wondered if he would have been able to shake the guilt if it had been him. Survivor’s guilt. Not unlike surviving a shootout while the cop next to me got gunned down. David said they had been friends all through school. What’s the saying? There, but for the grace of God, go I. Mac cleared his throat.
    “What?” David asked without taking his eyes from the road.
    “Does Riley’s family still live in the area?”
    David gave only one shake of his head. “His father died when he was real young. His mother passed away less than a year after Riley disappeared. She hadn’t been sick a day in her life, but after he was gone … She died of congestive heart failure.”
    “Broken heart.” Mac glanced out the passenger side window at the passing countryside.
    “Riley had a sister a couple of years behind us,” David said. “Last I heard, she was in law school. I’ll have Tonya look her up. We’ll need to contact her.”
    As they drove south on Garrett Highway, the countryside gave way from farms to rural homes to shopping plazas until they were in Oakland, Maryland. David made a right turn at a traffic light to take them into the hospital parking lot. In comparison to the metropolitan hospitals that Mac had been accustomed to in the city, Garrett County Memorial Hospital appeared to be more of a medical center. It certainly wasn’t equipped to deal with men who thought they were wolves.
    “I doubt if they’re going to be able to keep Riley here for long,” David said. “As bad off as he is, they’ll be shipping him off to a psychiatric hospital as soon as possible.”
    “They can do a lot with meds.” Mac unclipped his seat belt. “Don’t assume the worst. With treatment and medication, he may be able to get to the point where he can function like a normal person.”
    David cocked his head at him. “Mac, the guy thinks he’s a wolf.”
    “And Gnarly thinks he’s a cat burglar.”
    A police chief’s gold shield can get a lot of action and information that those without can’t get. As far as the hospital staff was concerned, David was looking for information about a murder suspect, not a long lost friend. While he wasn’t allowed to speak to Riley, who was in no condition to talk to anyone who wasn’t of the canine species, he was able to ask the chief nurse practitioner about his condition.
    She was as bewildered by Riley Adams as everyone else. “He’s under heavy sedation,” she told David. “He became violent when we tried to bring him out from under it after he was brought in. We had to strap him down to sedate him again. Before that, the only talking he did was in the form of growling and barking. Do you know if he has a history of drug use?”
    “No,” David said with certainty.
    She went on. “We’re doing a full medical workup on him. We’ll be able to give you more information later, but as far as his physical medical condition—he’s malnourished. We can see signs of nerve damage on some of his fingers and toes—possibly brought on by frost bite. Healed over