Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
DOM
The news alert hits my phone three days after Roxy sends the email to Void Gallery.
I'm at a job site in La Tesa, framing out a kitchen remodel when the notification buzzes. I almost ignore it as I've got alerts set for specific keywords, things that might indicate someone's looking for us, but they rarely trigger anything useful.
This one's different.
GARY HOLLIS CASE - NEW DETECTIVE ASSIGNED
My hands go still on the two-by-four I'm measuring. The job site noise of saws, hammers, and someone's radio playing classic rock fades into background static.
I pull out my phone with hands that don't shake because I refuse to let them falter. Years of controlling my reactions, of staying calm when everything inside me is screaming, have trained my body to obey.
The article is from a North Arizona news site. Small, regional, the type of outlet that covers local crime and high school football with equal enthusiasm.
The Arizona State Police have assigned Detective Lily Chen to reexamine the death of Gary Hollis, a truck driver found murdered in his vehicle three months ago.
The case, which went cold after initial investigations yielded few leads, is being reexamined following new forensic analysis and witness testimony.
"We believe there may be connections to other incidents that occurred around the same time," Detective Chen stated in a press conference yesterday. "We're asking anyone with information about Mr. Hollis's movements in the days before his death to come forward."
Witnesses from a small town near the Arizona-New Mexico border reported seeing a couple matching descriptions of persons of interest, a tall man with dark hair and tattoos, and a young woman with long black hair driving a camper van.
Both individuals were seen in the area during the timeframe of Hollis's death.
The article continues, but I've stopped reading. This has got to be a joke. Witness descriptions. A couple. Camper van.
They're looking for the old us. I thought this shit had been buried.
I pocket my phone and tell the foreman I need to leave early with a family emergency, and that I'll make up the hours tomorrow.
He waves me off without question. I'm reliable, professional, the kind of contractor who shows up on time and does good work.
James Brennan is exactly the kind of person no one suspects of anything.
The drive back to Ten Park feels like it takes forever. On the journey, I spend the time running a checklist in my mind of any situations that could arise to find us here.
It’s been three months since Gary Hollis. Three months since we became the Brennans. The IDs are solid, I know Marcus doesn't do sloppy work. Our financial trail is clean. Our story is air tight.
But witness descriptions are a spanner in the works, and descriptions can be circulated, especially online with all of the internet sleuths wanting to get involved.
Detective Lily Chen.
I pull up everything I can find on her at a red light. LinkedIn profile. Department bio. News articles about previous cases.
She's good. Thirty-eight years old, fifteen years with AZDPS, specializes in cold cases. Her clearance rate is impressive and isn’t that fucking wonderful, she doesn't give up, doesn't let cases die just because the trail goes cold.
I roll my eyes. Whatever happened to lazy policing?
She is exactly the kind of detective we don't need sniffing around.
Roxy's in the darkroom when I get home. I can see the red light bleeding under the door, smelling the faint chemical smell that's become a permanent fixture in our apartment.
I don't interrupt her. Instead, I open my laptop at the kitchen table and start digging deeper.
More articles. More details. The forensic analysis that triggered the reopening was DNA evidence where they found trace DNA under Gary Hollis's fingernails that didn't match him. Male DNA. Unknown profile.
My fucking DNA, from when his nails scraped my arms during the struggle.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
DNA in the system means they can run comparisons.
If I ever get arrested, if I ever have to give a sample for any reason, they'll match it to the Hollis case.
But James Brennan has no criminal record.
No reason to be in any database, as long as I stay clean and invisible, the DNA is just an unknown profile sitting in a file somewhere.
But it's still a thread. And threads can be pulled.
The witness descriptions are vague though, a tall man, dark hair, tattoos. Young woman, long black hair, camper van. Nothing specific enough to generate a sketch, but specific enough to narrow a search if someone's looking.
And Detective Chen is looking.
The article mentions she's reviewing traffic camera footage from the area, interviewing witnesses again, building a timeline of Gary Hollis's final days. She's thorough. Methodical. Exactly the kind of investigator who might notice patterns, connections, things that don't quite add up.
Fuck this. I close the laptop and lean back in my chair, running through scenarios.
Worst case is she finds the camper van. Traces it to Roxy's old identity and discovers that Roxy disappeared around the same time as Gary Hollis's death. That will give her a starting point to look for where she went.
But the camper van was sold for cash in Nevada before we became the Brennans. No paper trail connecting it to us now. And Roxy's old identity is dead with no activity, no traces, nothing to follow.
The best case scenario is that the investigation stalls. The DNA profile sits in a database and witness descriptions are too vague to be useful. Detective Chen moves on to other cases.
Most likely scenario is somewhere in between. She keeps digging, but without concrete evidence, without a clear trail, she can't connect the dots.
As long as we stay invisible as James and Roxy Brennan, we're safe.
But Roxy just sent her portfolio to a major gallery.
She's about to step into the public eye, even if she is using a fake name and not planning on revealing herself in person. If Detective Chen is looking at art galleries, at photographers, at young women with long black hair who create work for the dark web, then we’re officially fucked.
No. That's paranoia thinking. There's no reason for her to make that connection. The witness descriptions are from a long time ago. We're safe, we have to be.
The darkroom door opens and Roxy emerges, blinking in the normal light, her hands stained with chemicals and her hair pulled back in a messy ponytail.
"Hey," she says, smiling. "I didn't hear you come in. How was work?"
I look at her, this woman I would burn the world down for, this woman I'd kill for again without hesitation, but I know I have to tell her.
"We need to talk."
Her smile fades as she notices my expression, I can’t hide anything from her as she reads me too well.
"What happened?"
I turn the laptop toward her. "The Gary Hollis case. They have assigned a new detective as they have new leads."
She reads the article carefully. I watch her face but she remains unreadable. When she finishes, she closes the laptop and looks at me.
"Detective Lily Chen."
"Thats right, she specializes in these cases."
"DNA evidence and witness descriptions. What DNA? And how have they got new witnesses when it was so long ago?"
"The DNA is mine from the fight. I will be in the system now, but it's an unknown profile. As long as I never get arrested or never give a sample, it's just data."
"And the witnesses?"
"Vague information. Tall man, dark hair, tattoos. Young woman, long black hair, camper van. Nothing specific enough for a sketch."
"But specific enough to narrow a search."
"If someone's looking, yeah."
She nods slowly, absorbing what I’m telling her.
"What did happen with the camper van? Did your contact sell it?"
"Yeah they sold it for cash in Nevada which I collected when we bought the new car, so there won’t be a trail unless they link your name to the case."
"So our old names?"
"Dead. No activity since we became the Brennans."
"Okay, so we are safe. As long as you keep out of trouble, nothing should change."
"I really hope so."
"On another subject, I just sent my portfolio to Void Gallery. If they respond, if they want to show the work, there is a possibility of someone linking the locations. What do we do?"
I've been thinking about this, running all kinds of situations in my head since I saw the article. Every angle, every risk, every possible outcome.
"We could leave again, become another new couple," I say.
"Could we?" She's looking at me with those big brown eyes, and I see the challenge in them. "Really? How many times can we run before we're just running forever?"
"As many times as we need to, until this Detective Chen gets fed up and closes the case."
"No." She shakes her head. "Running can’t be the answer, where you're always looking over your shoulder, unable to relax because we’re waiting for the next problem, never building anything real."
"This is real," I say, gesturing at the apartment, at the life we've built. "We made this real."
"And if we run, we lose it. And what about all my work? It would all have been for nothing."
"But we would be safe."
"Would we?" She stands up, pacing the lounge as her anxiety builds. She is normally so put together, that I’m shocked at how she is reacting to this. I don’t like to see her unsettled.
"Or would we just be hiding again? Waiting for the next detective and another reopened case, the next reason to run? "
I don't answer, because I know she's right. Running is what we've been doing since Gary Hollis, and was the trigger for creating James and Roxy Brennan in the first place. But at some point, we have to be able to live.