Page 394 of A Matter of Time

“Wow.” Sam chuckled, clasping the hand tight and gripping the other man’s shoulder. “Big gun.”

The other man nodded, the edge of his lip curling just slightly as he looked at him. “Enough’s enough, Sam. We are looking at a serial killer, after all.”

Sam nodded before the man let go and turned to the rest of us. His pale blue eyes roamed over us all before they settled on me.

“Jory Harcourt.”

“Yeah.”

He squinted at me. “Why’re you wearing a coat inside?”

“’Cause I’m cold,” I answered as the reason for my peacoat. It seemed like I was freezing all the time. Ever since Caleb and I had found Joyce Fain dead, I couldn’t get warm enough. Aja said it was psychological and not physiological, but I’d dismissed her rationale. And yes, usually Sam was home to hold me and sleep with me and imprint on my mind and body so that everything else disappeared…but I was sure I was really, actually cold. Neither she nor Dane were buying it, however.

“Hospitals are always cold,” the man assured me.

“Who are you?” I asked irritably.

He walked over to me and extended his hand as I stood up. “Special Agent Zane Calhoun from the field office in Dallas. Pleasure to meet you.”

“Special agent?”

He moved his badge from where it had fallen behind his tie. The letters were big and visible. “FBI. We’re helping the Chicago PD with the investigation, as you know, and I’ve been called in from Dallas since that’s Mr. Reid’s hometown. We need to get him into custody as soon as possible before he hurts anyone else or endangers you, your brother, or Detective Kage again.”

“But how can you be sure that⁠—”

“That what? That Mr. Reid is a murderer?”

“Yes,” Dane answered.

He turned and looked at Dane. “Dane Harcourt?”

“Yes.”

He walked around the table and shook Dane’s hand before taking the time to introduce himself to first Aja and then Sam’s parents. When his eyes flicked back to Dane’s, I saw him smile. “I can tell you, Mr. Harcourt, that we have seized hundreds of photographs of you from Mr. Reid’s home. His mother has verified that he knew who you were almost six months before he approached Mr. Harcourt at⁠—”

“It’s gonna get confusing,” I said, cutting him off even though he wasn’t talking to me. “Just call me Jory.”

His eyes were back on mine, and I saw how he was studying me. “All right, then. Jory it is.”

“So you’re saying Caleb was around for months before he let either Jory or me know who he was,” Dane said to clarify Agent Calhoun’s earlier statement.

“Yessir, that’s what I’m saying. At his home in Fort Worth, we found a crawl space in the floor where we recovered a knife. I’m confident that it will be a match to the one that was used on all the victims. We found a gun in the back of Ms. Fain’s car that, again, I’m confident will be a match for the bullet in Greg Fain’s head.”

I just stared at him as he turned and looked at me. “There was a box of college memorabilia in Greg Fain’s storage locker in Hyde Park that I’m guessing Mr. Reid didn’t know about, and I’m also guessing Mr. Fain was using it as an insurance policy. No doubt he never got to deliver the threat to Mr. Reid, as he killed him before he got the chance.”

“Why did he…”

“Kill Mr. Fain?”

“Yeah.”

“My guess is that Mr. Fain was highly agitated when he found out about Detective Kage’s involvement. Greg Fain had been arrested for selling marijuana to minors five years prior, and on that arrest record Dominic Kairov and Sam Kage are cited as the arresting officers.”

“Really? When I was working vice?” Sam said.

Agent Calhoun nodded.

“I don’t remember him,” Sam said quietly, and Agent Calhoun turned to look at him.