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“If you say so.”
“It’s just—I don’t know. The girls have soccer practice. I have to go to work again. I never get to spend as much time with you as I’d like.”
“The boning,” Jem said.
“No. Sitting quietly on a couch. Watching TV. Not talking to each other while we fork down frozen dinners. Like normal, ordinary, healthy couples do.”
It looked like Jem was grinning, but it was hard to tell because he was deep into the Egg McMuffin by now. After he finished the next bite, he said, “Yard work.”
“I told you I’d mow the grass.”
“No, I have to do it.”
“You really don’t.”
“With my shirt off.”
“You really, really don’t.”
“And selling houses,” Jem said. “So I can be Daddy Warbucks.”
“That’s an interestingly dated reference.”
“And we’ve still got that murder to solve.”
Tean closed his eyes.
“Uh huh,” Jem said. “Nice try.”
“If I can’t see you, you don’t exist.”
“There’s a thought.”
“All sorts of animals do it.”
“How does that work for them?”
“The vast majority of them get eaten, I assume.”
A gentle tap at the center of Tean’s forehead made him open his eyes again. “It’s been a hard couple of days,” Jem said and proffered the Egg McMuffin. Tean took a dutiful bite. “But we’re closer to the truth than we were.”
“How is that, exactly?”
“Well, Una’s dead.”
Tean stared at his husband.
“I mean, that’s important, right? The killer had to act again. That tells us something.”
“I don’t know if it tells us anything, Jem. Even the murders are different—or seem to be. Let’s assume Yesenia’s dead. Let’s assume the blood-stained poncho planted in Missy’s room really did have Yesenia’s blood on it. That suggests a lot of trauma to the body. Physical violence. Enough of it for her to lose quite a bit of blood. Una, on the other hand—I mean, an injection, and then a blow to the head. Those don’t even sound like the same killer.”
“A blow to the head can bleed a lot,” Jem said. “So, it could be the same guy. In fact, I’m sure it’s the same guy. And I don’t think we should get hung up on how he killed them. He’s not a serial killer with an elaborate ritual.”
“I never should have let you watchThe Silence of the Lambsagain.”
“He’s an evil piece of shit who kills people. That means he’s going to kill people however he thinks he can get away with it. If we hadn’t interrupted him at the chicken ranch—”
“Poultry farm.”
