Page 118 of Hard Heart

“So you know more about the case than you’re telling us?”

That was one secret I didn’t need to hide. “You haven’t exactly done much to earn my trust, and I know damn well you’re keeping things from me.”

“We’ll work on that. Trust doesn’t come easily to the rest of us either, but we need to work together to get Levi out of prison. Whoever is behind this, they’ve had a ten-year head start.”

“When you say ‘they,’ are you using it as a gender-neutral term? Or do you believe there’s more than one person involved?”

“The second one.”

“But Jessalyn killed two men, didn’t she? Her husband and one other? What if he was behind everything?”

“We believe he killed Amie, but not Ruby—remember the discrepancy with the stars? And we know there’s at least one woman tangled up in this, probably two.”

“How? I mean, how do you know that?”

Ari pulled a face. “Virginia is a one-party consent state, so…”

“You think I’m wearing a freaking wire? Don’t judge me by your own standards.”

“I’m not wearing a wire. But honestly, I wouldn’t put it past Alexa…” She glanced at the assortment of computers that took up two of the desks.

“I’m beginning to realise why she is the way she is. She fried her brain during her teenage years, didn’t she? Living in a server cabinet couldn’t have been healthy.”

“Her lifestyle is an effect, not a cause. We can talk outside.”

CHAPTER 35

SERAFINA

At a glance, the garden at Blackstone House hadn’t changed much since my last visit, but as we walked to a stone bench by the hole that would have been Ruby’s pond, I saw small shoots of green. Leaves waiting to unfurl. Flowers beginning to bloom. Jester was sitting on the back porch with Heidi, smoking. Not her, him. She was eating gummy worms. Oh, to have her metabolism.

I took a seat alongside Ari, and she passed me her tablet.

“What’s this?” There was a diagram of a body, back and front. Pen marked the injuries, and there were a lot of those. “An autopsy report?”

“Amie’s autopsy report.”

“But I thought there was no autopsy? She ‘disappeared’ before it was scheduled.”

“She wasn’t taken to prevent an autopsy. She was taken to make sure it was done properly. The police clearly fucked up one Blackstone-related investigation, and we didn’t trust them with a second.”

“So you…what? Arranged a private autopsy?”

“Exactly.”

Wow. If that was true, I actually couldn’t hate them for it. “I already told you we have concerns over Ruby’s autopsy. Both what was missing, and the interpretation of what was present. Levi said Ruby would have fought back if she were able, but fingernail scrapings were never mentioned in court. They made a big deal out of the DNA evidence, but semen and a pubic hair? Those could easily have come from consensual activities.”

“True. Or they could have been planted.”

“Well, the hair could, but⁠—”

“Keep reading.”

I did, and holy crap. Semen sample consistent with J Norquist, touch DNA consistent with unknown subject… “Justin did sleep with Amie.”

“No, he didn’t.”

“Then how…?”