“And the wood shavings on her shorts? Did you take her out in the canoe?”
“No.” He shook his head firmly. “Her killer must have done that. She jumped down off the dock and walked into the dark, but I didn’t stick around to make sure she climbed the gate and started back toward home. I just assumed she did, but she must not have.”
Annie wrapped her hands around the bars. “And your lighter. Why did you go for that box of matches when I asked you to build a fire? Where’s that little orange lighter I’ve seen you use all summer?”
Daniel frowned. “What does that have to do with anything?”
Annie’s grip on the bars tightened. “Just tell me.”
“It’s in my bedroom. In the nightstand. I rewired the electricity after the tree came down, and lately I’ve been having issues with it. Sometimes the light shorts out back there. I keep a candle and the lighter in my nightstand just in case. You can go up and check if you don’t believe me.”
Annie sat back on her heels. Shewouldcheck. As soon as she left here. She had to be sure. So much hinged on it.
She deliberated for a moment, then quickly told him about finding the lighter in the woods, and about her interaction with Ian. Then she leaned forward, hesitating, her face almost touching the bars. Her next words would come as a shock.
“I’m wondering if it could have been Jake.”
Daniel’s mouth fell open, and he coughed the word:
“Jake?”
Annie nodded, and Daniel stared at her as though she’d just suggested that Christ himself had taken human form again to commit the crime.
“Annie, come on… of all the men in this town, Jake is thelastperson who’d be capable of something like that. And then to lock me up for it?” Daniel shook his head with conviction. “No… no, he wouldn’t do that. We may be at odds right now, but that’s only because he’s a good cop, and a good man. He… cares about me.”
“Exactly.” Annie leaned close. “Why would anyone else move her body? Jake wouldn’t want you to be blamed for it, and he knows the lake like the back of his hand. He knew he could get her through the briars and into the woods where it would look like Justin Grimes had killed her, and he brought me straight there on a hike the next day to find her body.”
“But didn’t he know Justin Grimes had already been caught?”
“He didn’t find out until afterward. I was with him when he got the message. He seemed stunned, just… frozen. And I can’t help but wonder if part of that reaction was because his plan had just gone outthe window. He only took you in when he realized there were no other suspects left.”
Daniel’s gaze fell to the dirt floor, eyes roving back and forth as he thought. After a long moment, he sighed and shook his head again.
“No, Annie. Jake isn’t one of those people who pretends to be a good person. His faith is genuine. He’s a good, decent man, and there’s no way you could convince me he’s capable of something like this.”
Annie sat back on her heels, staring through the bars into the bleak cell where Jake had locked his best friend.
“Really?” She waved an arm around at the dark, dank surroundings. “That man just sent you to hell without blinking an eye.”
“Hell?”
To her great surprise, Daniel laughed, then sank into a silence through which he smiled softly.
“I’ve been to hell, Annie,” he said, shaking his head. “This isn’t it.”
But Annie could not move past the darkness, and the earthen floor, and the bitter smell of mice.
“How can it even be legal to lock you up somewhere like this?” she said, voice rising. “There are standards, laws.”
Daniel shook his head. “He had nowhere else to put me. Besides, it’s just for today. He said I’ll be transferred down to Vancouver tonight to wait for the trial.”
Annie sat back, blinking at him. “I don’t get it. Why aren’t you angrier?”
Slowly, Daniel reached an arm through the bars and took the end of her braid in his hand, running the copper strands through his fingers. Annie did not pull away.
“I was angry last night. Really angry, but… it’s out of my control now,” he said with his eyes on the fine ends of her hair. “And I realized that no matter what, even if this is my fate, even if this is how my story ends, it still can’t take away what you’ve given me.”
Annie swallowed, and the hand holding the end of her braid moved to her cheek, stroking her skin.
