The Speed of Sound (Speed of Sound Thrillers #1)(47)

After a moment, he motioned down the bar. “He’s the ugly guy who looks like an asshole.”

“Not mine,” Eddie said.

Red was speechless as Skylar and Eddie made their way toward Butler. “Hello, Detective.”

He studied her quickly. “Hello, Skylar. What’s going on?”

“This is Edward Parks, one of the patients at the facility where I work.”

Eddie interjected. “Harmony House is a special place for special people.”

“Hello, Edward. I’m Detective McHenry.” Butler extended his hand to shake.

Eddie did not extend his hand. He just stared awkwardly at the detective’s.

Skylar intervened. “Eddie doesn’t shake hands. He’s not comfortable with most forms of physical contact.”

Butler nodded as pleasantly as he could. “Okay.”

“Is there somewhere more private we can talk?”

The detective turned down the bar to Red. “You mind if I use the office for a minute?”

Red shook his head. “Don’t mess anything up. I just had it cleaned.”

Eddie made his BUZZER sound.

Red wasn’t sure how to take it. “What was that?”

Butler answered, “He said your momma was good last night.”

“That is not true, Detective. I’ve never even met his mother.”

McHenry led Skylar and Eddie through a door marked “Private” at the rear of the bar. The small office was an absolute pigsty, but at least it was more quiet than in the bar.

“Not cleaned. Definitely not cleaned. You see?” Eddie ran his finger along the dusty desktop, just like Skylar’s little brother, Christopher, used to do around the surfaces of their childhood home. With her mother out of the picture so early, and her father not much of a domestic, it was left to Skylar to keep the house clean. By Christopher’s standards, she usually failed miserably, but did her best because dust made her brother uncomfortable, just like it was putting Eddie ill at ease now.

“I do see.” Her tone was soothing, intended to calm Eddie down. It worked, at least to some degree.

Eddie watched the grainy black-and-white images on two old surveillance monitors. The video flickered through badly scratched glass. One angle showed the cash register. The other showed the bar’s entrance. “Are places for guys with nothing better to do always so loud?”

McHenry stifled a smile. “For this place, that’s actually quiet.”

Skylar turned to Eddie. “Would you play him the last conversation you played for me when we were in Dr. Fenton’s office?”

“Because he’s a detective who is going to help us?”

“That’s what I’m hoping for.”

He stared at Butler for a moment and turned back to Skylar. “Yes.” Eddie turned on the laptop, which took a moment to boot up.

Skylar explained to Butler, “What you’re about to hear is a conversation that took place on Wednesday afternoon, approximately four hours before the incident in the subway occurred.” She said it in such a way that the detective understood Eddie did not know about Jacob Hendrix’s death, and that she did not want him to.

“Where did this conversation take place?”

“In my boss’s office at Harmony House. His name is Dr. Marcus Fenton.”

“Was he aware the conversation was being recorded?”

Eddie chimed in quickly. “The conversation was not recorded.”

“You lost me.”

Eddie immediately launched into his lecture. “The basis for sound-wave retrieval and reconstruction, which is called acoustic archeology, has existed since 1969. We just haven’t had equipment sensitive enough to acoustically map an enclosed space or the computing speed necessary to re-create the original sound wave.” He paused for emphasis, just like he had in the recreation room at Harmony House. “Until now.”

Detective McHenry turned to Skylar. “What the hell is he talking about?” He didn’t notice the two men who could be seen entering the bar on the two old black-and-white monitors.



Red’s was a locals-only bar. And it was a cop bar. If someone new wasn’t either, every set of eyes in the place was on them until an acceptable explanation as to their presence was given. Red knew when he approached Skylar and Eddie that they weren’t going to be trouble. The opposite was true when he moved toward Lutz and Hirsch. “Can I help you?”

Hirsch eyed the massive bartender. “We’re looking for Detective Butler McHenry.”

The bar quieted ever so slightly, but Red didn’t flinch. “Never heard of him.” He returned to cleaning glasses behind the bar.

Lutz didn’t appreciate the lack of cooperation. “Are you the proprietor?”

Red positioned himself next to one of the photographs on the wall in which he was clearly identified. “Good guess.” He glanced behind the bar, where his trusty baseball bat was located. From the dings and dents in the bat’s surface, he was obviously not afraid to use it.

Down the bar, another off-duty detective quickly typed in a text message on his phone: You’ve got company.



Inside Red’s office, Butler felt his phone vibrate as Eddie babbled. When the detective read the message, he glanced at the security monitors. The two strangers were talking to Red. He interrupted Eddie’s lecture, addressing Skylar. “Do you know who those guys are?”