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“All we’ve got is time.” Carter’s cell phone beeped and he answered it as they all filed into the den. Critter yawned, stretched his legs, then walked stiffly over to sniff Carter’s boots, but Allie’s eyes didn’t so much as flutter.

Cassie was slumped on the opposite end of the couch from her sister and she, too, had finally let exhaustion take its toll. Head cradled in one arm, she was snoring softly, dead to the world.

Jenna’s heart twisted when she remembered her horrid dream. How had she and Cassie drifted so far apart? As a child, Cassie had been so effervescent, so happy, delighted with all new things from puppies to ice cream to airplanes, and then, as she’d headed into pubescence and her parents’ marriage was falling apart, she’d lost that beautiful, whimsical joie de vivre that had been her essence as a child. Had it been a natural progression into adulthood or the slow erosion of happiness caused by her parents’ inability to work through their problems after the accident?

Back to the tragedy.

Always the tragedy.

Carter clicked his phone off. “Larry Sparks is on his way,” he said, “but the State Police are knocked flat with this storm. We’ll all have to be patient. Looks like it’s gonna be a long night.”

“Already has been,” Turnquist grumbled.

“Okay, so let’s go into the kitchen there,” Carter nodded to the open doorway, “and you two can tell me everything that went on here tonight.”

CHAPTER 40

The next few hours seemed to go on forever. Larry Sparks and a detective from the Oregon State Police arrived and, with Turnquist, searched the house and grounds. Meanwhile, Jenna explained what happened in the last few days, naming everyone who had been on the grounds, when she had last noticed the jewelry box had been opened, when anyone could have possibly been in the house, what enemies she might have made who would want to do harm to her. The police searched her room again, dusted for prints again, removed the fake finger and were going to test its composition against alginate, the substance that had been found at the site where they discovered Mavis Gette’s body. Sparks had already called Reverend Swaggert about the rings and would have the preacher verify if they had belonged to Lynnetta.

“So you think the person who’s doing this killed that Gette woman and abducted the others,” Jenna said, once the police were packing up to leave.

“Looks that way.”

“But how? Why?” She shook her head and bit her lower lip in frustration and fear. “I don’t understand why this is happening to me.”

“Neither do I. You’ve got someone obsessed with you,” Carter said. He was seated on the raised hearth of the fireplace, warming his back, his clasped hands hanging between his knees.

“A lunatic.”

“Close enough.” His eyes held hers. “A lunatic who’s possessive. He thinks he owns you, that you’re his. Remember the line ‘My woman’ in the poem?”

“Hard to forget.” She rubbed one arm. “Damned hard.”

“The FBI is working on a profile.”

“And that will automatically point to whoever this monster is?”

“Unfortunately, no.” He shook his head, stretched his back. “But we will get him, Jenna. We’re closing in.”

“God, I hope so.” She sat next to Carter on the hearth, felt the heat of the crackling flames, felt a little stronger being close to him. “It seems like he’s trying to force me to leave. Like he’s trying to scare me out of my house. Why would he want that?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “Do you have any ideas?”

She shook her head, searched for answers she didn’t have.

Lieutenant Sparks had squared his hat on his head and was pulling on thick gloves. “You staying?” he asked Carter.

“Yeah.”

“And the bodyguard?”

“He’ll be outside. He’s out there already, got a bird’s-eye view of the place and won’t sleep until daylight. I’ll be inside.”

Sparks nodded, flashed his smile. “Good luck. I’ll call you in the morning, let you know what the lab comes up with on the finger and if we’ve got a match on the rings.”

“Thanks.” Carter stood and shook the bigger man’s hand. “And I want you to check on something for me.”

“What?”


Tags: Lisa Jackson West Coast Mystery