Luke’s blood ran cold. “Shit.”
“Yeah. The next second Kate drops like a rock. She was dead before she hit the ground. Like you said, somebody was a damn good shot.”
“And had a gun with a silencer.”
“Right again.”
“Then the other shooter got away.” Luke refused to let the panic in his gut rise to choke him. She’d missed and Susannah was unhurt. Gretchen’s injury was minor. “I’m glad you’re handling the brass. This is going to make us look like fucking monkeys.”
“That about sums it up. You don’t have to stay, Luke. Ed’s got the scene and I’ll manage the press.” He grimaced. “They all got some great video for their newscasts.”
“I’m glad we were here,” Luke said pointedly, and Chase rolled his eyes.
“You were right. This was no babysitting job.”
“Thank you. I’m going back now. I have to meet Kasey Knight’s parents at two. You know, the parents of the first dead girl we’ve identified. I’m not looking forward to this.”
“Wait,” Chase said. “Weren’t you going to check to see if Granville had a safe deposit box at Davis Bank in Dutton?”
“I went by before the service, but the bank is closed,” Luke told him. “Rob Davis, the bank manager’s grandson, is being buried up in Atlanta today.”
“Because Rob Davis pissed off Mack O’Brien who then killed his grandson in retaliation.” Chase sighed. “Now his nephew Garth is in jail, Garth’s wife and sons are missing, and Kate is dead. I don’t think it’s healthy to be a member of that family.”
“Or a Vartanian for that matter,” Luke said quietly.
“Or a Vartanian,” Chase agreed.
“Excuse me.”
Both Luke and Chase turned to find a pale Pastor Wertz standing behind them. “Yes, Reverend?” Chase asked. “What can we do for you?”
Wertz looked stunned. “I have another funeral this afternoon. What should I do?”
“Whose funeral is it?” Luke asked.
“Gemma Martin,” the pastor replied. “Oh, dear, this is not good. Not good at all.”
“Mack O’Brien’s third victim,” Chase muttered. “Are you expecting a large crowd?”
“The family hired security to keep the media out,” the pastor said. “But they’ve been flying overhead, sneaking through. It’s been horrible. Horrible.”
“We’ll be cordoning off this whole section of cemetery,” Chase said. “It’s a crime scene now. The funeral and burial will have to be postponed.”
“Oh my. Oh my.” Pastor Wertz wrung his hands. “I’ll tell Mrs. Martin, Gemma’s grandmother. She won’t be happy about this. No, not at all.”
“If it’ll help, I’ll tell them,” Chase offered, and the pastor nodded.
“It would, indeed.” He looked down with a sigh. “Poor Kate. She was the last person I would have expected to do this. But I suppose even clear heads can get muddied in times like these, with Gretchen accusing her brother of rape. Her parents would have been so disappointed to see how Kate and Garth turned out. So sad. So very sad.”
Dutton, Saturday, February 3, 12:45 p.m.
Luke glanced at Susannah before returning his eyes to the road. She’d had her eyes glued to her computer screen since they’d left the cemetery. “What are you doing now?”
“Checking runaway sites for Jane Doe. I spent about three hours on this last night.”
“We have people checking all those sites. Why don’t you sit back and go to sleep?”
“Because she’s mine,” Susannah said quietly. “Besides, your people only have pictures of her face all bruised up with her eyes closed. I saw her eyes open. I might see something they don’t see. And I’ll go crazy if I don’t have something to do.”
“That I understand. What did you find out about swastikas this morning?”
“Not much earthshaking. The swastika is used in Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism. In all cases, it’s a religious symbol and can represent anything from evolution of life to good luck and harmony. It can mean something different depending on whether it’s right or left facing. Mine faces right, which is strength and intelligence. Facing left,” she said wryly, “it means love and mercy.”
Luke considered it. “None of the brands faced left.”
“I didn’t think so. The Nazi swastika does point right, however.”
“So this could still be tied to a neo-Nazi group.”
“Possibly, but I don’t think so. The Nazi form is very straight and almost always presented at a forty-five-degree angle. The ends are never bent.”
He glanced at her. “Why did you never get yours removed?”
“Penance, I suppose.” She hesitated, then shrugged. “And nobody was ever going to see it, so it didn’t matter.”
He frowned. “What does that mean?”
“It means I don’t plan to show it to anyone ever again.”
His frown deepened. “At the beach, or in a relationship?”
“Either.”
There was a finality in her tone. “Why not?”
She made an annoyed noise. “You’re a very nosy man, Agent Papadopoulos.”
“Luke,” he said, more sharply than he’d intended, and she shrugged again, making him angry. “Earlier I was kind. Now I’m nosy.” He waited, but she said no more. “Is that all you’re going to say?”
“Yes. That’s all.”
He was relieved when his cell buzzed in his pocket. He’d been about to lose his temper, and that was the last thing either of them needed right now. “Papadopoulos.”
“Luke, it’s Leigh. I have some phone messages for you. Is this a bad time?”
Yes. “No, it’s a fine time,” he said. “What is it?”
“First is from the Knights. You’re supposed to meet them at two, but they won’t be here until three-thirty. Second, I got a match to your Ashley C-s name. A Jacek Csorka in Panama City, Florida, filed a missing-person report on his daughter. She’s been missing since this past Wednesday. She’s not quite eighteen.”
“Can you give me the number? Actually, give it to Susannah.” He handed the phone across the car. “Can you copy down the phone number she gives you?” Susannah did and Luke took his phone back. “What else?”
“Alex called. Daniel’s awake.”
He took his first easy breath in hours “Excellent. What about Jane Doe?”
“Still asleep.”
“Can’t have everything, I guess. What about tips on the hotline?”
“Hundreds of calls, but nothing credible.”
“Thanks, Leigh. Call me as soon as Jane Doe wakes up. No change on Jane Doe,” he said to Susannah when he’d hung up. Her eyes stayed locked on her computer screen. “Maybe Jane Doe’s not in there, Susannah.”
“No, she asked for her mom yesterday. Her mother must have loved her. I can’t see a mother not doing everything she can to find her daughter.”
There was yearning in her voice he wondered if she heard. It cut at his heart. “I have another nosy question.”
She sighed. “What?”
“Have you ever had a boyfriend?”
She frowned. “That’s not funny.”
“I didn’t mean it to be. In college, before Darcy, did you have a boyfriend?”
“No,” she said coldly, but he was undeterred.
“In high school, before Simon and Granville, did you?”
“No,” she said, angry now.
“And since Darcy?”
“No,” she thundered. “Will you stop? If this is what I have to listen to so I can stay alive, then just throw me to the evil Rocky and be done with it.”
“Why didn’t you?” he asked, ignoring her tantrum. “After Darcy, why didn’t you?”