Jack’s eyes blazed. “I didnotleave a chimney in such a bad state that it fell. And what about the text sent from Kate’s phone? And her business card on the ground? How do you explain those things?”
They were silent, as they had no answer.
Jack was frowning. “I’m going to get some clean shirts.” He went down the hall to his room.
“I need fresh clothes too.” Kate went to her apartment.
When Sara and Randal were alone, he said, “You don’t really believe that Jack left a chimney like that, do you?”
“Of course not. But I want to believe it. Otherwise I’d have to think someone was after Jack.”
“But why?” Randal said. “Money? To stop the investigation? Killingyouwould be more likely to achieve those things.”
“True.” She was unperturbed at his observation. “We need to—” She cut off because Jack came down the hall and from the look of him, it was something bad. “What happened?” she asked. “Tell me you didn’t get a call from your mother.”
“Rachel,” Jack said quietly.
“Injured? Went home? What?” Randal asked. “And who told you?”
“No one.” Jack sat down on a dining chair.
Kate came out of her apartment carrying a tote bag. “What’s going on?”
“Something’s happened to Rachel,” Sara said, “but Jack hasn’t told us what.”
“I’ll go to the house,” Randal said. “Whatever’s happened, everyone will be a mess. Should the sheriff be called?”
He was halfway to the door when Jack said loudly, “No!”
Randal went back to them, and they waited for him to explain.
“She’s not there,” Jack said. “She’s here. In my bedroom.”
They looked at each other for moment, then went down the hall to Jack’s bedroom. There, lying peacefully on the bed, looking like she was sleeping, was Rachel.
“You checked that she’s dead?” Randal asked Jack.
“Of course I did!” He snapped, because one time he’d assumed a person was deceased but he wasn’t. Jack wasn’t going to make that mistake again.
They stared in silence at the woman. She looked as though she might sit up at any moment.
Jack turned to Sara. “Who besides you doesn’t like her?”
“I changed my mind,” Sara said. “We had a good time yesterday. Sort of. If it weren’t for a murder investigation we might have become friends.”
“We have to call someone,” Randal said.
All four of them groaned. Whichever law enforcement agent they talked to was going to bawl them out.
“I’ll text,” Sara said. She was an expert at getting out of making telephone calls.
“What are you going to tell whomever you text?” Randal asked.
She had her phone in her hand. “Daryl. Dead body found in Jack’s bedroom. What do we do?”
Randal looked at it. “Concise and horrible. It’s perfect.”
While the others stared in silence, Sara ran to get her camera and the shortest, fastest lens she had. She even slid the flash onto the top. In Jack’s room, she moved all around the bed as she took a lot of photos. It was while she was leaning over the bed that she saw the tattoo. As Lenny had said, it was the double R—just like Reid’s.
