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“It wasn’t locked.”
Patton and Mehrtens exchanged a glance.
“When you saw her, what did she say?”
Mendel squirmed in his seat. “She was scared. She wanted me to leave. I asked her to hear me out.”
“Then what happened?” Patton leaned forward, his tone becoming firmer. “Did she refuse, and when you got angry, you stabbed her?”
“No!”
“Then what?” Mehrtens asked, more softly.
He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “It was like all of my muscles went rigid at once and everything hurt.” He dropped his hand onto the table. “I think I might have been tased.”
I cocked an eyebrow. Tased? It was just strange enough to be the truth.
“What happened next?” Patton prompted.
“I heard voices, but I wasn’t able to move. It felt like I was just on the edge of blacking out. When it stopped hurting and I got up, Grace was already on the floor, bleeding.”
Mehrtens made a thoughtful sound in the back of her throat. “Would you mind me looking at your back?”
“Um, sure.” He stood and held his chin high as she circled the table and lifted the back of his shirt.
“Turn around, please,” she said.
He did.
Mehrtens pointed to a pair of small red marks on his back. “These could have been left by a taser, although we’ll need an expert to examine them to be sure.”
I got up and went over to study them, then cursed. She was right. We’d all had to practice with tasers at police college, and this looked a lot like the mark I’d had after one of my fellow trainees had tased me.
I scanned Mendel and something else struck me. “There’s not enough blood.”
“What?” Patton asked, but Mehrtens seemed to know what I was thinking.
“If he’d been the one to stab her, he’d have been covered in blood,” she said. “This is more like what you’d expect to see on a first aider or a first responder.”
I gritted my teeth. It seemed Mendel was being honest, which meant we were back to square one.
55
NATE
After we’d got allthe information we could squeeze from Ezra’s hazy memory, Patton arranged to have his clothing collected for evidence and for him to be checked over by Max in case he had any underlying injuries as a result of being tased. Meanwhile, Mehrtens and I returned to Grace’s house to see if there were any clues that could help us identify Grace’s assailant. Mehrtens was driving, which I was grateful for when my phone began to ring.
“Sergeant Braddock,” I said into the receiver.
“Nate, it’s Summer.”
I dropped the formality. “How’s Duke doing?”
“He’s going to recover just fine.” I could hear the smile in her voice. “But I have news that might interest you. Duke had traces of blood on his teeth. It’s possible it’s from Grace, but based on where I found it, I think he might have bitten the person responsible for this.”
For the first time since I’d seen Grace lying prone on the ground, my spirits lifted. “What a good dog.”
“Such a brave boy,” she agreed. “Don’t worry, I’m giving him plenty of treats. I’ve collected as much of the blood as I can. Should I drop it off at the station?”
