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“Detective?” Talia said.
“Mrs. Ford?” Locke exclaimed. “I didn’t realize you were listening in. Are you all right?”
“If you’re asking if I came with Drex by choice, yes. There was no coercion on his part.” She paused. “But I feel badly about the awkward position I’ve placed you and Mr. Menundez in. Last night you treated me kindly through a difficult experience. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” he said stiffly. “What do you think about Easton’s conjectures?”
“I don’t disagree with anything. In fact, he’s opened my eyes to much that I chose not to see. With no offense intended toward your department or any law enforcement agency, I believe you should listen to him and act on his advice.”
The detective sighed. “Easton, you said there were three reasons why you think he’d stick around. What’s the second?”
“To kill Talia.”
Drex’s candor took Locke aback. He cleared his throat before asking her if Jasper had ever threatened her.
“No.”
“Did you ever feel threatened by implication or—”
“No,” she replied, interrupting him. “That’s what makes it so terrifying to me now. He had some odd habits, but I didn’t perceive them as aberrant characteristics or take them as the warning signs I should have.”
“We don’t have time for her to rehash what she’s already told me about their relationship,” Drex said. “Just take my word for it. He won’t leave here with her still living. It would be untidy.”
“He’s right, detective,” she said. “I’ve lived with Jasper. I know his habits. He won’t leave me as a loose thread.”
“To say nothing of her dough,” Mike said.
“Who’s that?” Locke asked.
“Mallory.”
“So the gang’s all there?”
“Hello,” Gif said.
“You know you’re all screwed,” the detective said. “Rudkowski has vowed to see to it. Is it true that—”
“Look,” Drex interrupted. “We’ll sort all that out when we have to. Right now, we’ve got to figure out a way to draw Jasper into the open.”
Locke said, “You didn’t get to the third reason why you think he’s still in the neighborhood.”
“Ego.”
Drex pushed himself off the bar and went to stand at one of the narrow windows on either side of the front door. He twirled the wand to open the blinds. “He knows I’m on to him. Doesn’t make any difference to him whether or not I carry a badge, he knows I’m after him and, because of the trouble I went to with that impersonation of a writer, he must have some inkling of my determination to nail him.
“But he pulled a fast one on me. He plotted and executed a humdinger of a murder. He duped Talia. He had me chasing my tail. He somehow swayed Elaine. None of us saw it coming. I didn’t see it coming, and I should have. He outsmarted me, and he’ll want to rub my nose in it.”
“Okay, but how?” Locke asked. “By killing Talia?”
That was the question that had tormented Drex that afternoon as he lay in the dark and focused on his quarry. If he were Jasper, would he want to dispatch Talia right away and be done with it? The game would be over. Where would the fun in that be?
“What I think,” he said slowly, “is that he’ll want me to worry about her, to fret over when and how he’ll strike. He’ll want to keep her on edge and afraid, too.”
“You’re contradicting yourself,” Mike said grouchily. “You just argued that he wouldn’t leave until he’d taken care of her.”
“But not yet.” Drex stared out into the rain. “In order to get my attention, to let me know that he’s not done with me yet, that he’s still pulling the strings, he’ll strike swiftly. But he’ll kill somebody else.”
Locke exhaled loudly. “Oh, shit.”
