“One,” she called back. “Want me to play it?”
In the back room, a drawer opened and shut. “Yeah, go ahead.”
Annie pushed the button, and a voice crackled through the speaker.
“Hey, Jake, Austin Smith here. State boys have been trying to reach you at the station all morning, but I guess you’re not in today. They wanted me to give you a call at home and let you know they broughtJustin Grimes in last night. Got a confession out of him, too. They got lucky. He ended up hiking north instead of south, and one of their guys spotted his tent from the highway up past Rubicon Falls. Anyway, just wanted to let you know you can get back to business as usual down there. Have a good one.”
There was a click as Sheriff Smith hung up, and Annie stood rooted to the floor, unable to tear her eyes from the small black machine as the recording ceased.
There was a sound behind her, and she turned to find Jake in the doorway, bare chested and wearing jeans that hadn’t yet been zipped up. Annie watched as his face transformed, deep confusion creasing his brow as he stared past her at the machine.
“How far?” she asked, and his eyes found hers. “How far are we from Rubicon Falls?”
Jake shook his head. “Forty miles.”
Too far. An impossible distance.
For a long beat, Jake and Annie stared at each other across the room.
That was the only word for it.Impossible.Justin Grimes couldn’t have killed Jamie Boyd, and the same question racing through Annie’s mind was clearly written on Jake’s face as the lines on his forehead deepened in bewilderment.
Now what?
Chapter 26ANNIE
Annie stared at the faded diamond pattern on the purple carpet beneath her boots.
Were she and Jake really back here? Back in the windowless mortuary with its dry, potted ficus and its watercooler that dripped with maddening regularity?
Yes. They were. Waiting for the results of yet another autopsy.
They had passed the twenty-four-hour mark since finding Jamie’s body in the woods, but it still felt detached from the fabric of reality. Still just a bad dream.
“He’s gotta be close to finishing by now,” Jake said beside her.
Annie nodded, her eyes on the watercooler in the corner. The dripping seemed to be growing louder by the second, and she was going crazy with thetap-tap-tapof it.
Another minute passed, and she reached her limit.
Annie shot to her feet and strode across the room. She shook the appliance soundly and gave the base a kick with her boot for good measure, but it did nothing to stop the leak, and she returned to her seat defeated, sinking back into her chair with a sigh and resting herhands over her stomach. Her insides had been in knots since their fateful hike yesterday, and no amount of antacid tablets had put a dent in the nausea.
The minute hand on the clock swung past the four-o’clock hour and the rain came at last, the clouds opening their hatches with gusto. The sound was like applause on the roof and Annie closed her eyes, letting the noise wash over her.
Finally, the sealed door of the morgue opened, and Doc Porter stepped out, his mostly silver curls in frayed tufts at his temples where his glasses pressed into his hair.
“Jake,” he said, beckoning him over with a finger, and Jake’s chair groaned as he rose. “You’re not gonna like this.” The doctor lifted his clipboard and adjusted his glasses.
“There’s nothing about this that I like, Doc, just give it to me straight. Strangulation?”
Doc Porter lowered the clipboard and peered over his glasses at Jake, silver mustache twitching as his mouth worked beneath it. It was a long moment before he spoke, and when he did, it was a single, unexpected word.
“Drowning.”
For a minute, no one in the room spoke, and from her chair, Annie was certain she had misheard the man with the chart, his voice muddled by the sound of raindrops peppering the roof.
“Excuse me?” Jake said finally.
“That’s right,” Doc Porter confirmed with a head bob. “She was drowned sometime between one and three in the morning yesterday. Her lungs were full of water.”
