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“No,” Jack said.
“Interesting.”
“My thoughts exactly. Somebody didn’t do their homework when they killed Reverend Oglesby. Either that or they wanted to add their own flair.”
I wasn’t quite grasping what Jack was saying, but I could tell he’d come to some conclusion in that sharp brain of his.
“What am I missing?”
“I don’t think Daniel Oglesby has anything to do with this. Not really. He might have seen or overheard something, which is why I need to talk to Vaughn again, but he wasn’t the intended victim. I think George was the one they wanted right from the beginning. So that’s where we’re going to focus. There’s something there. And now with the photo you found in George, I need to know everything there is to know about that garage.”
His frustration was starting to show, and it was easy to see the exhaustion and the weariness in his shoulders.
“You’re doing what you can, Jack. It’ll come together. It’s early yet.”
“We’re going on day three. You and I both know the chances of catching whoever did this decrease every day.”
He went over to his desk where his crime scene bag sat, and dug out a pair of gloves, pulling them on with practiced ease. He slid the photograph I’d found inside George out onto his desk, touching it as little as possible.
“Let’s see if we can clean this up a little,” he said.
I watched in fascination as he booted up the sleek little laptop on his desk and then fed the photograph into a scanner. I could tell you about every organ in the body, but I couldn’t work my way around any kind of technology. I loathed technology. And it didn’t like me much either. I leaned over so I could see what he was doing better, and the photograph showed up on the screen. Jack hit a few buttons and the creases disappeared and the colors became sharper and more in focus.
“You’re pretty handy,” I said as he printed out a new copy and resealed the original in the evidence bag.
“It’s nice of you to finally notice.” He took the new photo and attached it to the board under George’s face.”
“Who inherits the auto shop now that George is dead?” I asked. I stood next to Jack and tried to see something that wasn’t there in the picture of the garage.
“The will is sealed at the moment until your ruling of homicide can be formally filed, and I’ve already got a warrant started so we can look at it before it goes into probate.”
“Who’s that standing behind Jesse Fife and Carlton Fisk?” The face was a little fuzzy, but it was still familiar.
Jack grabbed a magnifying glass and held it over the spot I’d pointed to. “Well, well. If I’m not mistaken, that looks like Mayor Glass. Before he was mayor of course. I can add him to my list of people to talk to tomorrow. You and me, babe. It looks like we’ll both be looking for new jobs if things keep heading in this direction. The mayor is not going to be happy to see me.”
“I’ve always thought it would be nice to live on the beach. It’s always warm.”
“We’ll have to go some time. It’s been a while since I’ve seen you in a bikini.”
“Hmm,” I said for lack of anything better.
“There still hasn’t been any sign of Oglesby’s car. There are a lot of places to hide something that size in this area. I’m also no closer to finding the place where they tortured him.”
A thought occurred to me and I said, “You found a red bandana near Oglesby’s body, right?”
“Yeah, and three cigarette butts. They’ve been sent to the lab in Richmond for testing.”
“The mechanics at the garage all carry bandanas in their pockets. I saw Wormy wiping the oil off of his hands on one just this morning.”
He nodded. “I’ll give the lab a call in the morning and see if they can tell me if there’s anything on the bandana that can be found in an auto shop.” He looked at the clock on the fireplace mantel and shook his head. “I mean this morning. It’s already past midnight. We need to get some sleep.”
I dropped back onto the sofa and had to fight to keep my eyes open. I was due for a quick twenty minutes of sleep before I faced another long night of staring out the window, but I didn’t want Jack to know about my sleep problems so I just mumbled out an agreement.
I pulled the throw from the back of the couch and lay down, burrowing into the soft leather beneath me and the warmth of the blanket on top of me. It smelled of Jack, and I nestled deeper into the cushions, letting my eyelids flutter closed.
They popped open again the moment Jack put his arms around me. I jerked against him as he lifted me in his arms and headed to the stairs.
“I can walk it,” I murmured against his neck.
