“Jem, he’s a serial killer who wears a latex wolf mask and howls.‘Super weird’ doesn’t even begin to cover it.”
“I’m telling Amy,” Jem said in a hurt tone.“I’m going to tell her he was beating it to the boobies that fed him—”
“Oh my gosh,” Tean whispered as he made his way toward the door.
“—andthat he wanted to bang his mom while he was pretending to be his dad.”
“How about instead you go downstairs and take another look around?I’m going to stay up here.”
With a shrug, Jem bounded down the stairs.He caught the banister at the bottom, jumped, and swung himself around.When he landed, his ROOS squeaked on the floor boards, and he took a few stumbling steps before he caught his balance.Then he looked up at Tean.
“Ten out of ten,” Tean said.
Grinning, Jem trotted off toward the back of the house.
Tean caught himself looking at Kai’s doorway again.He gave up and made his way back into the room.He looked at the cowboy poster taped above the bed.At the desk, he thumbed through the scriptures.Maybe the verses were important.Maybe Kai had highlighted something that, in context, would be significant.Maybe there’d be some insight into Kai’s mind like—
The peephole.
The missing clothes.
The rumpled bedding.
The dried stains.
—like that verse of scripture he’d convinced Zeb to get as a tattoo.
But Tean’s eyes went back to the poster again.
Before he could think about it too much, he climbed onto the bed—aware that he, like Kai, was leaving impressions in the fabric.From this new position, though, he could reach the poster.The cowboy’s sinuously muscular body was right above him, toned stomach on display, the stubbled jaw and ruggedly attractive face only inches away.A thumbtack at each corner held the poster in place.Tean removed them and caught the poster as it fell.
Thumps on the stairs announced Jem’s return.
“Look at this,” he said.He was carrying a calendar.“Right before Christmas, she wrote River’s name on here.”
“So, theyweregoing to meet,” Tean said.
“The appointment was for after that weekend at the lodge,” Jem said, “so it never happened.But yeah, she was definitely going to talk to River.”
“But what was she going to say?”Tean asked.“That’s what I don’t understand.She wouldn’t have told River what we’ve found today.And even if she had, it’s not exactly incriminating.”
“Yeah, but nobody wants everybody saying you wanted to drill your own mom while you were wearing your dad’s boxers.”
“But why kill her?”
“Tean, helikeskilling people.Remember?Serial killer?”
Tean didn’t respond.Instead, he worked the poster down and climbed off the bed.With Jem’s help, he laid the poster flat.He didn’t see anything new, so they turned it over.
Written on the back in thick black marker were the words,For Kai, because he’s your favorite.You’re still my favorite cowboy.Themywas underlined three times.Love you, love you, love you.And then a swooping capital S.
Jem rubbed his jaw.“Who the hell is S?”
11
The next morning, Tean was at work.
Trying to work.
