“What do you mean?” Luke asked.
“You and Zane were the only people in the area when you were attacked. Those shots couldn’t have hurt anyone else. Michael Weaver was jogging on a quarter-mile track with only three other people, and none of them were close by. If this guy had blown up Gil’s house the way he did Jared’s, he would have run the risk of killing children. Based on the toys I saw in the yard, there are toddlers in the houses on either side of him. The bomb at Jared’s was designed to destroy his place but nowhere else. The lady who lived in the unit beside him wasn’t there.”
No one else was hurt. That bomb. There was something about the bomb. It was there, on the edge of her thoughts. She blew outa breath and forced herself to relax. It would come. She couldn’t force it.
“Well, the bomb that killed Thad wasn’t a tactical strike. It blew up his car and the two beside it,” Luke said. “Six people were injured that night.”
“That brings me to my other question. If the purpose was to kill a bunch of Secret Service agents, why wait eleven weeks to kill the rest of you? Maybe the connection we’re looking for between Thad’s death and this week’s attacks isn’t there.”
“It’s there.” Luke spoke with confidence, but when she cracked an eye open to look at him, she saw the doubt. “It has to be.”
14
IN THE DARKNESSof his hotel room, Luke woke Thursday morning to the smell of coffee and the murmur of distinctly feminine voices in the next room. He’d jerked awake more than once last night, heart racing, muscles tense, the sound of gunshots echoing in the fading dream. Each time, he’d fallen asleep with a prayer on his lips. He had no idea what was going on, where the threat was coming from, or how they were going to survive this mess. So, he prayed.
It was a lifeline.
He pulled his phone from under the pillow beside him.
8:20 a.m.
The last time he’d checked the time, it had been 4:47. Maybe sheer fatigue had finally pushed him over the edge and into the oblivion of sound sleep. Regardless, he was awake now.
He took a deep breath, clenched his jaw, and forced himself to roll over. Pain pierced his abs, his biceps, his quads. But pain beat being dead.
As his eyes adjusted to the dim light coming from the now-closed door separating their room from Faith’s, he could make out Zane lying in a heap of blankets.
“You awake?”
Zane grunted.
Luke used the nightstand as support and pushed himself to a standing position. He shuffled to the door to Faith’s room, tapped, and pushed it open.
Faith and Tessa sat at the small table—a coffee cup, a Cherry Coke, and a plate of pastries between them.
“Did we wake you?” Faith gestured to the insulated box of coffee by the sink, and it drew him to it like a three-year-old to chocolate milk. He didn’t answer until he poured himself a cup and took his first sip.
“No. I was ready to get up.” Or more precisely, glad for the night to be over. He helped himself to a cinnamon roll the size of a Frisbee and bent his head over it.Lord, bless this food and please keep us alive today.
Tessa’s phone rang, and she stepped to the far corner of the room to answer it.
Faith stood and waved her fingers in Tessa’s direction. “I’ll see y’all later today.”
Luke almost dropped the cinnamon roll. “Where are you headed?”
“The office. They’re pleased with the security around my office and yours. So we can get back to work.”
“What’s on your agenda?” The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them. Why did it matter to him? She was trying to solve the case, which would ultimately keep him alive. He was in favor of her doing her job. Why did he need a play-by-play of events?
If Faith was annoyed by his question, it didn’t show. “First I’m going to sort through all the information we’ve gathered so far and get a time line of what’s happening with forensics. Then I’m going to review the security for the funerals. Then I’m going togo over every piece of evidence we have on Thad Baker’s case to see if I can find anything that ties them together.”
Funerals. Luke’s mouth went dry. “I had forgotten about the funerals.”
“I can’t imagine why,” she said.
“When did they decide about everything?” Luke had no idea when the funerals were scheduled or where they would take place, and he had no clue how Faith knew.
“Jared Smith’s family requested his body be sent to Milwaukee, and the medical examiner’s office is slated to release it later today. They haven’t nailed down the funeral arrangements, but it will probably be Saturday or Sunday.”
