“How do you think she was...you know? Killed?” Kate asked. “I don’t see any marks.”
“Maybe she was killed elsewhere and put here,” Randal said. “If we could turn the body over, we might see an injury.”
But no one dared touch her.
“Poison,” Sara said as she made sure her aperture was wide-open. “Her vodka was laced and she was dropped off here. She staggered inside and...” Her eyes widened as she looked at Jack. “Sometimes you leave your windows open, so I checked this room last night. Everything is locked.”
He knew what she meant. While Sara had been sleeping just a few feet away, Rachel had died on his bed. Of her own accord or with help, they didn’t know. “Who knew you were spending the night here?”
“Lenny, you, and Kate.”
“You told no one else?”
“No,” Sara said. “But I could have been followed. I didn’t think to look.”
“Maybe no one realized you were in the house,” Jack said. “Oh no! Yesterday I said I had to go home to get some clean clothes. Several people were there.”
“If one heard, they all did.” Randal was looking at Jack. “I think this is a warning toyou.”
“Why me?” he asked.
Sara’s phone pinged. It was a text from Daryl.
Touch nothing. I’m in Boca. be there soon.
She showed them. “So I guess we wait. Let’s go into the—”
“Hey!” Gil was standing in the doorway. “I pounded on the door but nobody answered. What are you guys up to?”
Jack tried to block his friend from seeing what was on the bed, but he didn’t succeed.
When Gil saw Rachel, he tried to go to her. He was a large man, and it took both Randal and Jack to hold him back. It wasn’t easy to get him down the hall, into the living room, and seated on a couch.
“She’s...?” Gil asked.
“Yes. I’m really sorry,” Sara said.
“She can’t be gone,” Gil said. “We just found each other. She was with us at home and it was like we’d always been a team. She and Quinn watched a movie together. Hetalksto her. She’s the best woman I’ve ever met. Smart and funny and—”
Kate sat down by him and took his hand, while Jack sat on the other side of him. Sara and Randal went to the dining room and began clearing away the breakfast dishes.
“This is not good,” Randal said when they were alone. “Someone has more in mind than some old murder. There’s something contemporary going on.”
“Why?!” Sara said. “What did Rachel know?”
“She didn’t have the jewels since they were inside the skull.”
“But maybe the murderer didn’t know that. He or she wanted to know where the jewels were and when Rachel didn’t know, she was removed.”
“What’s ironic is that if she told the killer she’d sewn them into a hedgehog, the murderer would know they were in an unreachable place.”
“And that would make Rachel unneeded,” Sara said. “Since she knew who the killer was, she had to go.”
“Of course. So why is this person also after Jack? The chimney and now his bedroom. It’s like Jack is the real target.” Neither of them had answers.
Sara left Randal to fill the dishwasher and went back to the living room to Gil. He looked awful, and he was still talking.
“You know what I went through with Quinn’s mother and I’ve dated some women, but Quinn hated them all. I always found out that he was right. He and I—”
