A sudden gust of wind stirred her hair and chilled her despite her sweater and jacket, and she thrust her hands into her pockets. In the right pocket, she felt a thin, flexible piece of metal, and her fingers probed it curiously. There was something familiar about...
"God, I'm wearing her jacket again," she muttered to herself. "And I didn't even notice."
It scared her, made her feel she wasn't in control.
She turned her back to the building and hunched her shoulders against the growing chill. Richardson was just coming through the gate, apparently having paused to reassure the bodyguard that he was no threat. He came straight down the rutted track toward her. The grim look on his face made her heart sink.
"Where's Kane?" he asked when he reached her.
"Around back with the inspector, checking out the foundation. What's happened?" He studied her, seemingly weighing her, then said bluntly, "We've found another body."
Faith thought the world tilted. But the dizzy sensation passed quickly.
"Do you know who it is?"
"That's why I'm here." Richardson nodded toward the building. "It's the foreman of the construction crew supposed to be working here. Jed Norris. He was shot. Two bullets to the back of the head. But this one is easy to figure out. We have the gun. It's registered to Jordan Cochrane."
Richardson thought Faith was nuts when she insisted they take further steps to identify the body. He pointed out that there had been a driver's license on the body and that two of his co-workers, including his boss, Max Sanders, had identified the body. Norris had had no family in the city to perform the gruesome duty.
"Fingerprints," she said. They were back in Kane's apartment, and she was walking the floor, more agitated than Kane had ever seen her. "You can check his fingerprints."
Richardson grimaced. "The body's been out in the woods for a couple of days at least, and the animals have gotten to it. Getting fingerprints might not even be possible."
"You have to try. Please. He's not who you think he is."
"I have a victim," Richardson said, counting off on his fingers. "I have a murder weapon. I have a suspect. My job is to gather up all three and present the evidence to the D.A."
Softly, Faith said, "And I'm telling you that neither you nor the D. A. will ever understand why that man was killed until you know who he really was."
Richardson looked at Kane, who said, "Max says Norris worked for him only a little over a year. Maybe we'd better..."
"What do you expect to find?" Richardson asked them both.
"Somebody else," Faith said.
Kane shrugged. "All I know is that the foreman of my construction crew turning up dead just as a building inspector informs me that somebody deliberately sabotaged the project sounds extremely convenient."
"How far does it put you off schedule?"
"Off schedule?" Kane laughed without amusement. "Guy, the sabotage is in the foundation, and the inspector tells me it sure as hell can't be patched. It was a subtle job but damned thorough. The whole structure is undermined. We'll have to pull it down and start over. That's if the project can even continue, and I don't know that it can."
Standing by the piano and staring down at the ivory keys, Faith murmured, "Want to guess who's going to get the blame?"
Kane nodded and told Richardson, "Max got me on my cell phone on the way back here, and he's already covering his ass, saying somebody obviously hired Norris to sabotage the building and then killed him to wipe out tracks. He doesn't know about your suspect yet, but his theory could still hold together. And if it happened that way, Norris just might be more than he appears to be."
"Who would want to sabotage an office building? Why would Jordan Cochrane, for God's sake?"
"I don't know, but it has to be tied in with the rest of this, Guy. Dinah was out there at the site the day before she vanished. Cochrane's name has already turned up more than once, since he owns the warehouse where we believe Dinah was held. And so far, nearly everything we've found ties in to construction in some way. Including the names on that list." He had told Richardson about that as soon as they had arrived at Kane's apartment.
The detective sighed. "Shit. All right, I'll put the forensics team to work to get us a useable print. But, listen, I meant what I said about you staying away from the men on that list, Kane. If they are being blackmailed it's because they've done something they want to keep secret or they'd be really pissed if you came stomping into their lives yelling about it. Are we clear on that?"
"We're clear."
"As for Cochrane, his people claim he's out of town, and has been for days, but they don't seem to know just where he is. Sounds to me like he slipped his leash, but we're checking on that. Maybe he'll have an alibi, and maybe the alibi will hold up. But it's my job to figure that out. Let me do my job, all right?"
"Just move fast, Guy." Kane's gaze was on Faith.
"I don't know how much more of this we can take."
"I'll be in touch," Richardson said as he left.
When Kane returned from showing the detective out, Faith was sitting on the piano bench. Her fingers rested lightly on the keys, unmoving. He thought she looked bewildered, lost somehow.
"Who would want to sabotage an office building?" she asked slowly.
"Who'd have something to gain? "
"I don't know. It's intended to be leased mostly by the city, but privately owned. There's a large group of investors, and they stand to lose a bundle if the project stalls too long or gets canceled outright."
She took her fingers off the keys abruptly and turned to face him. "The men on that list — are any of them investors in the project?"
"I didn't recognize any of the names — but there are a lot of investors. Wait." He got on the phone to his office, and within an hour they knew that Jordan Cochrane, through an investment company he partially owned, was in for a substantial sum in the Ludlow project.
Kane said, "It looks like so much of his personal capital is tied up in the project that if it goes bust, so will he."
Faith thought about that, then shook her head. "This doesn't make sense to me. Maybe Cochrane held Dinah captive in his warehouse. But only if he's the blackmailer instead of being blackmailed himself. Maybe he shot Jed Norris after ordering him to sabotage the building. But why? You just said he stands to lose an incredible amount if that building isn't completed on time."
"It doesn't make sense at all," Kane agreed reluctantly.
"We need to talk to him."
"We won't get a chance unless we find him before the police do."
"Do you think he really is out of town?"
"He seems to be out of touch." Thoughtful, Faith said, "The report Tim left here after he brought me back from Haven House, the one he worked up on Cochrane — I glanced at it last night."
"And?"
Faith went over to sit on the couch and began to leaf through the pages. "I remember reading something about Cochrane that made me wonder ..."
Kane joined her on the couch. "What?"
"He has a condo right here in Atlanta with the ownership run through so many holding companies it's sheer luck Tim found out it was his. Now why do you suppose Mr. Cochrane feels the need for a cozy little place with its own private entrance barely five miles from that big mansion of his?"
"Keeping a mistress?" Kane guessed.
Faith sent him a quick smile. "That's what occurred to me. The information here says he's been married for nearly twenty years to a fine, upstanding Catholic woman who's on record as saying in no uncertain terms that divorce is an evil practice of the state and that those whom God hath joined together..."