“Frankly, Jacob, I don’t give two farts what the lab comes back with. Or what Doc Porter says. Or what you say, for that matter. Honest to God, I don’t even care how the guy did it, I just want to know who he is so I can break his neck myself.”
Annie risked a sideways glance at Jake, whose jaw had tightened.
“We only found her yesterday,” he said evenly. “We don’t have any suspects in custody yet, and I don’t want you thinking about taking matters into your own hands. There’s a right way to go about this and a wrong way, and I—”
“What about that creep who lives by himself at the end of the road?” Ronnie interrupted, voice rising in pitch. “You talked to him, yet?”
“Ronnie, please.” Debra’s eyes shone with tears as she turned to her husband. “We don’t know if he has anything to do with it. Let’s not point fingers before we have any real reason to.”
Ronnie only shook his head, his bloodshot gaze falling to the stained carpet, where it stayed. “I got my reasons. Any numbskull in the world could put two and two together. He knows them woods. And Jamie went up there more than once to swim this summer. The guy’s not right in the head and everyone knows it, but she… she trusted him. She trusted him.”
Ronnie’s hardened façade cracked as he repeated the last few words, and his eyes grew misty with tears that he hid by bowing his head to his chest.
Annie watched as his throat bobbed. He was right, or at least partly right, and she and Jake both knew it, though she had been actively trying not to think about Daniel since discovering Jamie’s body. Her heart would not let her head broach the possibility.
Beside her, Jake’s fingertips tapped together, and she knew that he was choosing his next words carefully.
“Let’s focus on what we can do right now,” he said. “Did Jamie do anything out of the ordinary lately? Were there any friends she’d had a fight with, or anyone she mentioned that might have wanted to hurt her?”
Debra’s gaze slid to her husband, whose head remained bowed.
“We—we think she might have been seeing someone,” she said, “but we don’t know for sure. She didn’t tell us. Jamie is… was… private about that sort of thing. At least with us. It must not have lasted long, because I heard…” Debra’s voice trailed off and her eyes slid to the dark hallway that led into the rest of the house. “I was doing laundry, and Jamie’s bedroom is on the other side of the wall. She’s got a landline in there, and she was talking to her friend on the phone, the girl with the blue hair, Stephanie. She said something about breaking up with someone, but I turned the dryer on and didn’t catch anything else after that.”
It was an instinct, a reaction, the quick glance that Annie shot at Jake, but his eyes stayed locked on Debra’s as he nodded.
“And when was that?”
“Two days ago. Before…”
“Okay,” Jake said with a single nod, pulling out the small pad and pen that he kept in his shirt pocket. “Would you mind giving me Stephanie’s number?”
While Jake took it down, Ronnie shifted on the couch.
“I need a drink,” he muttered, pushing himself to his feet andbrushing Jake’s and Annie’s knees in his path to the kitchen. Annie watched him go, clicking his tongue at the cages as he passed.
Jake leaned forward with his pen still poised over the pad. “Did Jamie ever sneak out of the house at night?”
“Once or twice. But didn’t we all as teenagers? I know I did back when I first met Ronnie, and Jamiewasn’t interested in partying or drinking. She was excited about her future. About painting, and working to save for college and a car… and starting a family someday. She wasn’t the type to get into trouble.”
Debra’s eyes filled with tears again, and Jake set the pad down, abandoning his neutrality as he took her hand in both of his.
“I know this is hard, Deb, but you’ve gotta stay strong for me. Tell me about the night before last. Do you remember hearing anything unusual? Anything at all?”
“No.” Debra shook her head adamantly. “Jamie went to bed when we did. Just after ten.”
Annie’s mouth popped open, the contradiction ready to be voiced, but she snapped it shut again. Saying aloud that she had heard Jamie running up the road at midnight would paint a bright red target on Daniel’s back, when the truth was that there was plenty of room for doubt. She hadn’tseenJamie; she’d only heard running footsteps on the road and assumed that it was her. Hand on a Bible, staring down a courtroom, would she be able to say beyond the shadow of a doubt that the person jogging up the road was Jamie? No.
In the kitchen, the refrigerator door slammed, and Ronnie swore.
“We’re outta beer, Deb,” he hollered, and Debra glanced apologetically at Jake and Annie.
I’m so sorry,she mouthed.
Jake shook his head. “It’s fine. Go on. Tell me what happened the next morning.”
“Well, Jamie was gone when we got up, but she usually goes for her runs in the morning, so I didn’t think much of it. We had breakfast, and I went outside to feed the chickens. She wasn’t back by ten, but I still wasn’t worried. I thought maybe she had run down to the pool, or to Stephanie’s house. Jamie was independent that way. I don’t think I truly would have started to worry unless she wasn’t back by dinnertime. It was just a normal day until… until you told us the news.”
Ronnie stepped back into the living room with a bottle of white wine clenched in his fist. He didn’t bother returning to his seat on the couch, but stood swaying slightly as he stared down his nose at Jake and Annie.
