Mayes, Casey - A Deadly Row

I wondered what Zach and Steve were doing at that moment, and though I knew it was too soon for my husband to investigate anything outside the command center, I was still uneasy not knowing if he was safe. I was going to have to get over that impulse when Zach was working on a case, but I hadn’t managed to do it so far.

Garrett handed me the keys, and as we left the suite, I took a second to gaze once again at that skyline view. My husband was going to be thrilled, if he wasn’t already in the muck and mire of a killer’s mind.

Chapter 4

“SAVANNAH? WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN TOWN? DID YOUand Zach move back to Charlotte?”

I was in the lobby heading for my car when I turned to see who was talking to me. “Lorna, how are you?” I hugged my old friend, and then I explained, “We didn’t move back. Zach and I are just visiting.” I wasn’t about to tell her why we were really here.

“How have you been? We really miss you around here.” Lorna Gaither had gone out with Grady for nearly a year before he’d broken the relationship off shortly before we left town.

“Thanks for asking. I’m good. How are you?” Lorna and I had become friends when she and Grady had been dating, and after the breakup, we’d stayed in touch. Right after things had ended with Grady, I’d had the distinct impression that Lorna blamed me for her relationship woes, though I hadn’t had anything to do with it. If she still held it against me though, I couldn’t tell by her demeanor.

“I’m doing fine,” she said, and I could see in her eyes that it was true. “I owe you more thanks than I can say. Breaking me up with Grady was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

“I thought you knew that I didn’t have anything to do with it,” I said. “I was as surprised as you were when he broke it off with you.”

“Then I take my thanks back,” she said with a hint of laughter in her voice. “However it happened, it worked out for the best. After Grady dumped me, I took a long, hard look at myself, and I didn’t like what I saw. I started going to the gym, working with a shrink, and I finally realized that I’d been sabotaging things all along.”

“Good for you,” I said, not really knowing what else I could say. I glanced at my watch, and then I added, “I’m truly sorry, but I’ve got to meet up with Zach, and I’m late as it is.”

“I have a wonderful idea. Let’s have dinner tonight, just the two of us.”

“I wish I could, Lorna, but I can’t.”

“Lunch tomorrow, then. Come on, it will be fun.”

“I’m honestly not sure what our schedule will be like while we’re here,” I said.

“Then we can make it breakfast. You have to eat sometime, don’t you?”

“Breakfast sounds good,” I agreed.

“I’ll see you here tomorrow in the hotel restaurant. Eight o’clock on the dot.”

“Eight it is,” I said. I wasn’t sure why Lorna was so insistent about sharing a meal with me, but I’d deal with that tomorrow. At the moment, I just wanted to get back and see what Zach had been up to.

I FOUND MY HUSBAND DEEP IN THOUGHT WHEN I GOT BACKto the task force headquarters at the police station. There had been a note on his door that said, “Quiet. Genius at Work,” and I pulled it off to show him.

“Please tell me you didn’t write this yourself,” I said as I showed him the notice.

“What? No, it’s just probably somebody’s idea of a joke.”

The rigid sheets of insulation—once empty silver—were now filled with copies from the files. A nice-sized copier sat in one corner of the room, and the original documents were on tables in different sections of the space, making it feel like some kind of weird maze. No doubt there was some kind of order there, but I knew no one else would be able to see it but Zach.

I avoided the area where the photographs were displayed, then studied the montage of the backs of the communiqués from the killer. Numbers and letters were interposed in the oddest arrangements, but if they made any sense, I couldn’t see it, and I prided myself on my orderly mind.

I’d been focusing so intensely, I hadn’t realized that Zach was standing right behind me.

“It’s odd, isn’t it?” he asked.

“I’m sure it means something, but who knows what the killer’s mind is like? This could be a recipe for cereal, for all we know.”

“It’s significant, I know that much,” Zach said as he shook his head.

“How can you be so sure?”

“I can’t explain it. It’s something in my gut,” he told me, and that was good enough for me. My husband’s years as a police officer had given him instincts based on experience that I would stack up against anyone’s intuition. Added to that was his uncanny ability to cut through the fog to see what was really happening, and it was no wonder that his consulting business was starting to pick up. The problem with that was that the cases he got were only the very hardest, and that put a strain on him that I didn’t like.

“Where’s your minion?” I asked as I looked around the room.

“Steve had to take care of a problem with his landlord,” Zach said. “I’m having him reassigned to me, so at least there’s that. He’s going to be my gopher so I don’t have to run all over Charlotte tracking things down.”

“I like the sound of that,” I said as I hugged him.

“What was that for?”

“You looked like you could use a hug.”

“Thanks, but we should probably keep that to a minimum around here. We don’t want people talking.”

I laughed at him. “Zach, it’s okay. We’re married.”

“You know what I mean. This is serious business, and I don’t want anyone to think I’m treating it otherwise.”

I broke free. “Message received.”

“You’re not mad, are you?”

“Why should I be mad? My husband doesn’t want to hug me, but other than that, I’m just dandy.” I smiled at him to show that I was teasing.

“Thanks. Did you get us set up in a room?”

“You might say that.”

“Savannah, what’s with that smile?”

“We’re in a suite on the top floor,” I explained.

He shook his head. “And you let them put us there? We’re on the taxpayer’s dime here. We don’t need a suite.”

He reached for his phone and I put a hand over his to stop him. “It’s compliments of the hotel’s owner, so it isn’t costing the people of Charlotte a dime.”

“Why on earth would the owner of the Belmont put us up for free?”

“I asked him that exact same question, and he told me that he had a personal stake in this.”

Zach nodded. “Barton Lane.”

“How did you know that? It’s supposed to be some kind of huge secret. I’m fairly certain that he’s not going to be happy that you figured it out so quickly.”

Zach tapped a copied photograph, and though I didn’t want to look at it, after a second I drove back my queasiness and examined it. At least it wasn’t a crime scene photo, or one from the killer. The photograph appeared to be from an employee ID badge, and even though the conditions weren’t ideal, it was a decent picture of a pretty young woman with a nice figure and coppery hair.

“She’s really pretty,” I said. “Was, I mean.”

“Grady thought so, too.”

I stared openly at my husband. “How could you possibly know that?”

“They were dating when she was murdered,” Zach said.

“Is that why we’re here?” I asked my husband. “Did someone kill her because she was close to Grady? It sounds like a pretty big coincidence, otherwise.”