Page 318 of A Matter of Time

I shook my head, raking my fingers through my hair. “It’s just weird, Sam, nothing else. I think everyone is looking for things that aren’t there. I mean, some guy who lived in my same building but not when I was there, some random waiter at Dane and Aja’s engagement party… It’s crap, don’t you think?”

“The FBI profilers don’t think so. The only connection they can find between the murders is you.”

“So am I a suspect, then?”

“No, they believe you’re the target.”

“And how come none of this was in the papers or on the news?”

“The murders all made the news and the papers, J, but they’re so spread out—again, three years between the first and this last—no one in the press has made the connection.”

I nodded. “But they might.”

“They might.”

“Okay, but have you checked out all the⁠—”

“Baby, it’s not my case. It’ll never be my case because you’re my partner. If it’s true and it is, somehow, all about you, then I have to stay on the outside looking in. All I can do is ask Hefron and Moore what they’ve got and what I can do. If they hadn’t called me this morning, I would still have no idea what was going on.”

“Will they talk to you?”

“They will. We’re all detectives, and they’re friends of mine.”

“Will they still be your friends once they find out about you and me?”

“They already know about you and me, J, that’s why they called me. And yes, they’re still my friends. You’re not the only one with good people in his life.”

“I didn’t say I was.”

We were quiet for several minutes.

“Sam.”

“What?”

“I do remember you saying when Trey was killed that whoever did it wrote something on the wall. What was it?”

“A word.”

“What word?”

“Just… It doesn’t matter.”

He really didn’t want to tell me. I felt like my stomach had dropped out of my body. “What was the word written in?”

He just looked at me.

“Was it written in blood? In Trey’s blood?”

“In his blood and something else.”

“What?”

“I don’t wanna talk about this,” he almost yelled. “Just help me figure out who would wanna hurt you.”

“I dunno, Sam. It still seems like it could all just be a weird coincidence. I’m not a superhero or a crime boss; I don’t have people in my life who want me dead.”

“Jory—”