Rook might be one of them. He or she might be behind the Collective or apart from it, pulling strings for someone else. There were too many unknowns behind Rook, except that the individual had intelligence, strategic foresight, and connections.
No, she had to focus on what she knew right now.
And who better to talk to than David Duvall?
She hoped to get to him before he disappeared to France. But when she called his phone, the number refused to connect. She called Sherry for help and got the same thing. Thinking hard, she made a few more calls and knew she had to move.
Jane dialed Detective Ray Ryan.
“Good morning, Jane. What can I do for you?”
“David Duvall’s number has been disconnected. He never boarded his flight to Paris. I’m not getting through to Sherry Duvall either,” she said as she rushed to her desk, grabbed her piece and her keys, and hustled out to her car.
“I’ll send a car to Sherry’s house. Where are you headed?”
“To David’s house.” She had his address from the file on her desk. “I have a bad feeling.”
“I’ll bring backup and meet you there.”
She put on her lights and made the drive in half the time it would normally take her. A sense of wrongness pervaded, and she knew even before arriving she wouldn’t find David alive.
The front door of his home stood ajar. She had her gun out as she approached. “FBI. Is anyone here? David?”
Jane cautiously entered, weapon at the ready, and said again, “FBI. Is anyone home?” She paused in the doorway and listened.
The house felt empty.
More, it felt dead.
Even as she heard approaching sirens, she ventured deeper inside for a quick run of the house.
Upstairs, David Duvall lay in his bathtub, fully dressed, his wrists and throat slit while blood pooled on the shiny, white tile on the floor.
* * *
Ray Ryan rubbeda hand over his head and pacedin David Duvall’s kitchen, out of the way of the forensics team, while swearing.
“Ray?”
“Sorry.” He came to stand by her, his anger palpable. “My guys found Sherry and her mother dead. Gunshots to the head. Simple and quick, but damn. We just talked to her Friday! She didn’t know anything.”
“No, but David did. Someone obviously worried he might tell her what he knew.” Jane sighed. “We couldn’t have known they’d go after him. Maybe if David had been more open when we did talk to him, we could have helped. But it’s too late now.”
The Rook at work? The killer? Or were they one and the same?
“What now?” Ray asked.
“What about the dog?” Jane had a feeling Bubbles had been taken somewhere else.
“We found her running around in the backyard, covered in blood. She must have run through the mess left by Sherry and her mother’s bodies. She’s freaking out. Officer Thomas has her.” Ray looked ill. “I really hate this.”
“Me too.”
“Sherry seemed like such a nice woman.”
People thought LEOs grew so used to death and crime that they weren’t affected by tragedy, but Jane knew the opposite to be true. It took effort to disconnect, so she waited while Ray got himself together. She’d already locked down her feelings on the matter, letting the rage build, tired of being a step behind their killer.
“Ray, I need us to mobilize. We need to visit the other names on the list. I don’t give a crap how high and mighty our suspects might be. They’re going to talk to us, or we’ll take them to your precinct and question them there.”
