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“Things stayed quiet for the rest of the school year and until they all graduated. Then we see the same kind of thing start about the time they all enter university together. Same deal. They don’t like to be separated from each other and end up attending the same university, though their majors are all very different.There were three more explosions that went unsolved during their tenure at university, and each of the victims had somehow done something wrong in their eyes or they’d felt they’d been slighted in some way.”
“But nothing was ever proven,” I said. “What happened with Boxer?”
“Every time he has leave he spends it with Spencer, and when his last tour was up he turned in his retirement papers and went to join her. They never married but they were together up until his death during the heist. She was questioned extensively, but it was postponed because she had to be hospitalized and sedated when she got the word of Boxer’s death. She spent more than a year in a mental institution, uncommunicative. Investigators never could get in to question her, and by the time a year had passed there wasn’t really any point because the case had been closed.”
“We need to talk to ParisSpencer.” I ran my fingers through my hair and blew out a breath of frustration.
“Yeah, we need to talk to ParisSpencer. But Carver says she’s in France and the chances of getting her here are slim. She hasn’t set foot in America since Boxer was killed, though fresh flowers show up on his grave once a month.”
“We need to go back tonight, Jack. Wake up Carver and tell him he can either drive us back or we’re taking a cab.” I pulled off the tank and boxers I’d put on to sleep in and grabbed clothes out of my bag.
“It can’t wait five hours?”
“I missed something. I need to look at those photographs again.”
He sighed and closed his computer. “You’ve got that look on your face, so I’m not going to try and argue. Let me call Carver and see what he wants to do.”
I nodded and put on jeans and a Georgetown University sweatshirt. I didn’t much care what Carver wanted to do. I was going back to Virginia tonight whether he wantedme to or not.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“My wife has some choice words to say to you, Jack,” Carver said once we were back on the road. “The baby was actually asleep and there wasn’t a toddler between us in the bed. Do you realize how rare that is? Not to mention she got her six week report back and she was all in the clear.”
“I don’t mean to let murder interrupt your sex life.”
“And if things get violent when she has those words with you I’m not going to do anything to stop it. I’ll just stand back and watch. And I’ll enjoy it, you bastard.”
“Would you be this cranky if you weren’t getting to have sex with me?” I asked Jack, curiously.
“I wouldn’t know. I haven’t had to go without, and the couple rounds we had earlier will probably hold me through tomorrow.”
“I hate you,” Carver said, making my lips twitch. “You just wait until you have kids. Maybe I’ll go poke holes in all your condoms just to help you along.”
“You’ve got issues, Carver. I have no idea what the FBI psych profiler would have to say about that.”
“He’d say I need to get laid. Why was it again that we needed to leave in the middle of the night?”
“There’s something that’s been bothering me about the autopsy reports on Jack’s men. I need to study them closer. In particular, I need to study the reports on Andrew Caine a little closer. Something isn’t right there.”
The drive back to Bloody Mary seemed to take forever and I tapped my fingers against my leg and stared out into the darkness while Jack and Carver talked up front. I noticed the tail as soon as we crossed into King George County.
“It’s Donaldson,” Carver said. “He’s going to follow us in. Greer was able to pin down a location for Jesse Tydell while we were gone. He’s got undercover agents keeping an eye on him. We’re hoping he’ll make contact with other members of the gang and we can take them all.”
“The gang members are the killers,” I said. “We know that without a doubt. But they acted as the weapons. They’re just a small part of the puzzle. The gang is the metaphorical bullet but someone else is pulling the trigger. Whoever that is is just as guilty of murder as the Vagos gang.”
Carver sighed. “Right. We just have to find them first. I’m going to see what I can do about bringing in Paris Spencer. We need to talk to her.”
Donaldson’s lights were bright behind us as we finally made our way into Bloody Mary. Nerves dampened the palms of my hands, and I dried them quickly on my jeans. I didn’t like the thought that there could be someone out there watching and waiting for Jack right now. Our home was supposed to be safe, but it didn’t feel that way anymore.I wouldn’t breathe easier until we were inside with the doors locked behind us.
It only took another ten minutes or so until the house came into view. Carver parked in the garage and we went in through the mudroom door, but I didn’t wait on them to do a walkthrough of the house. I went straight to the offices and to the table where I’d been combing through the autopsy reports.
“Just give me a minute,” I said, when they came in behind me. “I just need some quiet.”
“Carver and I will be in the kitchen making coffee.” And they left me alone.
I lined up the crime scene photos next to each other on the table and put the reports beneaththem, reading through them all again. I saved Caine’s until last and by that time I knew what had been bothering me.
“Jack,” I called out.
