CHAPTER ELEVEN
Sam was in his workout room, pounding the hell out of a punching bag. He couldn’t sleep. Couldn’t turn off for the night. Hours later, he could still see Paige in his mind, her eyes tormented, her face ravaged by pain.
While he’d been talking about Martin Hendershot’s murder, it was apparent that Paige was talking about something else. And whatever it was, it was shredding her. She’d looked as if she was coming apart. Hanging on by a thread. The pain in her voice staggered him.
He was in a position of authority over her, and he’d crossed a line by taking her into his arms. Paige was one of his agents. But he’d be damned if he regretted it. In that moment, he’d wanted nothing more than to take on whatever was causing her pain. To stand between her and whatever had brought her to this point.
And now?
Seeing her laid so low had gutted him. He cared. Yeah, he cared.
Her desire to put distance between them had been in her eyes even if he hadn’t received that message when she’d stepped out of his arms. While his gut was telling him he needed to get to the bottom of whatever it was that was a ticking bomb ready to explode, he’d seen her eyes had been full of shadows, mistrust, and fear, and he knew he’d never learn anything if he continued to push her. And so he’d backed off. Gave her room to come to him. He hoped to hell he was right and she would.
She couldn’t go on like this. She was a strong woman, but everyone had their breaking point, and it slayed him to see Paige reaching hers.
His cell phone rang. According to the clock on the wall, it was a few minutes after one in the morning. Paige? He snatched up the phone he’d left on the floor, but the caller ID showed Deputy Director Wallace’s name. “McKade.”
“Agent McKade, this is Director Wallace.”
Sam used the towel he’d slung around his neck to swipe sweat from his face. “Director.”
“We have a situation. A woman’s body was found in Kirk County Park a short while ago. We need you to claim jurisdiction.”
In most cases, the Bureau needed to be invited into an investigation by local authorities. They couldn’t simply claim jurisdiction, and the discovery of a dead woman wouldn’t trigger a jurisdiction claim. Sam put the phone on speaker and returned it to the floor, then began to unwind boxing tape from around his hands. “Can you tell me anything more?”
Director Wallace spoke in his usual crisp tone. “The woman is Janet Glaxton Lambert. I believe you’ll recognize the name.”
Sam paused in the act of unrolling the tape. “Yes.”
Hugh and Janet Glaxton Lambert lived in a prominent section of Kirk County. Sam had spoken with the couple briefly at a Christmas fund raiser for Kirk County General Hospital that he’d attended in his official capacity for the Bureau. Hugh Lambert was a wealthy industrialist and a strong supporter of the hospital, and Janet Glaxton Lambert had chaired the event. Her brother was a state senator.
“Senator Glaxton received notification of his sister’s death a short while ago,” the director continued. “It is being regarded as a suspicious death pending further investigation, and the senator has requested that we take over the investigation. Call me with an update, Agent McKade, when you’re on scene.”
Sam finished with the tape and picked up his phone. “Will do.”
He ended the call, then dialed Kirk County Police Chief Harmon.
The chief answered with a harsh “Harmon.”
In the background, Sam heard shouts and bits of conversation. Someone started a vehicle. Sounded like Harmon was at the crime scene. “Pete, Sam McKade.”
“I figured I’d be hearing from you once I found out the identity of our dead woman,” Harmon said.
Sam didn’t address that. It was always a sore point with Harmon when the Bureau became involved in what he considered local business. “Has the body been moved?”
“No. We got here ourselves just a short while ago. You found out about this fast. Nobody wasted time bringing you in.”
Pete’s tone sounded defensive. Sam ignored that, too. It fell to him to smooth any ruffled feathers. Some local authorities resented what he’d heard called “the Bureau’s high-handed tactics.” Sam hated when he was forced into the role of diplomat and had zero patience for it. His tone more clipped than it should have been, he said, “Our people will be there to relieve you shortly.”
“Anything else for now?”
Sam would get a full report once he was on scene, but for the moment all he needed to know was where in the park the body had been found. After Harmon provided the information, Sam went still. Janet Lambert’s body had been found on one of the trails. Countless people frequented those trails, but all Sam could think was that Paige had been on them. Logic told him she was a trained agent and could have protected herself if attacked. But logic had nothing to do with the fear that grabbed him by the throat thinking of her at risk.
“Sam?”
Sam brought himself back from that edge. “Yeah. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
Sam ended the call, then phoned the Columbia office to dispatch a crime scene team to Kirk County Park and agents to relieve Harmon’s officers. Next he called Harry to round up Dom, Mike, and Riley to meet at the park. On his way out of the room, as he passed the bench press and barbells, he made a fourth call, this time to Ginny.
“Sam?”
He heard alarm in Ginny’s voice and said quickly, “Jonah’s all right. I’m calling because I need to bring him to you. I’m going to work.”
“Okay.” Ginny’s voice became strained as it always did whenever he mentioned his job. “I’ll meet you at the back door.”
Sam showered quickly, then grabbed fresh jeans, a T-shirt, and his phone to call Paige. Again, he thought of her as he’d last seen her. He rubbed a hand down his face, then called her.
“Hello?”
She sounded as wide awake as he was. “Paige, it’s Sam.” He could all but feel her stiffen across the airwaves. She was closed up tight. Again, he felt at a loss about how to reach her, but he had to put that aside for now. That wasn’t why he’d called her. “We’ve been called in to investigate a suspicious death in Kirk County Park. I’ll tell you what I know when I see you. I can be at your place in twenty minutes.”
There was a pause, then she said, “I’ll be waiting.”
He made his way to Jonah’s room. Sam called his son’s name softly and placed a gentle hand on the boy’s shoulder, but Jonah didn’t stir. In Sam’s experience, once Jonah was asleep, he slept deeply. Sam watched Jonah, just watched his son sleeping. The simple act of watching Jonah sleep was particularly comforting tonight when Sam was on his way to a crime scene.
He didn’t try to wake Jonah again. Sam wrapped his son in the blue comforter with the race car pattern that Jonah had kicked to the end of the bed, then scooped the boy into his arms. Jonah was still asleep, buckled in the backseat, when Sam pulled into Ginny’s driveway. A sedan was parked there. The sedan didn’t belong to Ginny, who had a compact she parked in the single-car garage. Sam figured the sedan was Herb’s.
An instant later, Sam’s suspicion was confirmed. With Jonah in his arms, Sam left the truck and headed for the house. As he did, a man came out of the back door, taking careful steps that minimized the sound of his shoes on the walkway. In the back porch light, Sam recognized Herb.
Herb drew back. “Sam.”
“Herb.”
“I’d planned to be gone before you got here.” Herb rubbed his hand across his mouth. “This is awkward.”
“Not for me.”
Herb moved his stooped shoulders in a show of discomfort. “Well, I’d better skedaddle.”
As Herb scooted by Sam, he reached out and gave Jonah a soft pat on the shoulder. Sam gritted his teeth at the gesture. Herb’s affection for Jonah grated.
As promised, Ginny was standing at the back door in a cinched blue robe. She held the door open while Sam entered the house. “I’ll take him up,” Sam said.
With Ginny trailing him, Sam set Jonah in his bed. Jonah mumbled something but didn’t move. Sam kissed the top of Jonah’s tousled, dark head, then, with a nod to Ginny, left the house.
Paige was waiting by the door when Sam pulled up in front of her apartment building. After being in his arms yesterday, she’d gone through all manner of emotions. The most upsetting of all was the sense of rightness that she felt being there.
But that was yesterday. In the cold light of a new day, Thames was still part of her life. After Sam’s phone call, the words she’d said to him about having nothing to give him were never as true.
Since he’d told her a woman had died a “suspicious” death in Kirk County Park, Paige’s nerves had spiked. Her mind was whirling like a hamster on a wheel, the thought racing through her brain that the person responsible for this woman’s death might be Thames.
Since Thames’s release, Paige had expanded her search of the databases to include new cases. She continued to come up empty. Was that because Thames had chosen to start a new trail of bread crumbs in Kirk County?
If Thames had chosen Kirk, Paige did not believe it was a coincidence. That of all places, he’d chosen this one. No, just as he’d revealed to her at his murder trial that he knew her New York address, murdering this woman would be his way of letting Paige know that he was here. A woman would have died because of Paige, just so Thames could leave Paige his calling card. A coldness seeped through Paige right down to her bones.
Paige climbed into Sam’s truck. The overhead light flashed on, then off, and she caught Sam’s grim expression. Fearing her own expression was too readable just now, for so many reasons, she looked away from him. “What do we know so far?”
Across the dark interior, she could feel his gaze burning into her, but all he said was, “The woman is Janet Glaxton Lambert, a prominent figure in Kirk. Her husband, Hugh Lambert, owns several companies across the United States. She was the sister of Georgia senator Richard Glaxton and was found on a trail.”
It was clear Sam did not yet have answers for the other questions that had Paige’s nerves vibrating like tuning forks, and she said nothing more.
Due to the lateness of the hour, traffic was largely nonexistent. They reached Kirk County Park quickly. The park hadn’t fully recovered from the sunny spring weekend, when families flocked there, or the fund raiser the previous weekend. Grass was trampled, and trashcans were overfilled and in some cases had spilled over. Paper cups, napkins, and other assorted debris littered the ground.
Lights had been set up, and the park was as bright as day. Sam parked the truck, and Paige was out of the vehicle before it had fully stopped. She scanned the area. The crime scene unit van was parked in the lot. A squad of male and female agents wearing vests emblazoned with FBI pulled up in another van. Sam acknowledged the agents. Paige tuned him out as he had a word with them.
Harry, Dom, Mike, and Riley were also on the scene. Sam went to speak with them next. Paige did not accompany him but continued to take in her surroundings. Yellow crime scene tape fluttered in the slight breeze. Strung from tree to tree, it cordoned off the body that had been found at the head of one of the jogging trails. Located close to the entrance of the park, the trail was impossible to miss. It was the one Paige had been on herself.
Sam came up beside her. “Whoever left the body wasn’t looking to hide it.”
Paige had been thinking the same thing. Tight-lipped, she walked by Sam’s side. She could feel her posture stiffen as they got closer to the body.
Cops in uniform and in plainclothes stood against trees, some sipping from paper cups, some gathered in pairs or in groups. Others blocked the path to the crime scene. Even dressed casually, as she and Sam were, Paige saw a couple of the officers straighten their posture as she and Sam approached. Paige’s ID was in a back pocket of her jeans. She reached for it, but her hands felt as useless as catchers’ mitts. Sam held up his own ID and cleared the way for Paige as well.
Sam clipped his ID to his belt, then said, “That’s Harmon by the cop car with the roof light flashing.”
Paige followed his gaze to a tall man, beanpole thin, his face as lined and cracked as old leather.
“Pete,” Sam said when he reached him.
“Sam.” Harmon swatted at a mosquito at his temple.
Sam turned to include Paige. “This is Special Agent Carson. Paige, Kirk County Chief of Police Harmon.”
Harmon nodded to Paige. She could feel waves of hostility coming off him but didn’t spare a thought about the reasons for his chilly reception. She returned his nod absently and honed her gaze on the crime scene unit grouped around what was presumably the body. They’d arrived quickly, and judging by the progress they’d made, they’d been here awhile and would be here longer still. In addition to the crime scene, Paige knew the team would widen their scope to include a good portion of the park.
While Sam spoke with Harmon, Paige separated herself from the men, intent on reaching the body. Her hands were shaking as she dug out her ID. She held it up and, without waiting to see if anyone even glanced at it, made a path for herself through the group until she was standing directly over the dead woman.
The first thing that struck Paige was that Janet Glaxton Lambert was fully clothed—right down to her designer sling-back sandals.
Paige cataloged other characteristics, like the deceased woman’s toned figure; her age—roughly early fifties; that she was lying on her side—by chance or design would be determined; and that Janet Glaxton Lambert was a redhead.
Paige hadn’t realized she’d been holding her breath until it whooshed out. Not Thames. Not Thames.
Then she saw it—a postcard by the body.
Sam claimed a spot over the body beside Paige. His meeting with Harmon had been short. He didn’t have time to turn this into a pissing contest over jurisdiction. A woman had lost her life.
The photographers were packing up their gear. The crime scene agents had moved in. Sam knew these agents and left his ID on his belt. “Bob,” Sam said to one, “what can you tell us?”
Bob squinted at Sam over the blue lenses of rimless glasses. “Hey, Sam. Pending autopsy, so far it looks like cause of death was a cervical fracture.”
A broken neck, Sam thought.
“We won’t know how many of the vertebrae were broken until we get her on the table,” Bob added. “I’d loosely peg time of death between five and ten hours ago.”
“Could a fall or another accident have caused the fracture?”
Bob shook his head. “No way. The bruising on her neck indicates she was grabbed, and grabbed hard. Someone did this to her.”
“Walk us through what else we know so far,” Sam said.
Bob crouched over the body and began to point with his gloved hand. Nicotine stains on his fingers showed through the transparent gloves. “She was found like this, on her side. Fully dressed as you can see, right down to her shoes. And she’s wearing those.” He made a gesture with his hand. “What do you call ’em? Those shoes women wear that don’t have any straps or anything but that stay on their feet anyway?”
“I call them strapless sandals.” Jill, the woman on their team, volunteered the information without looking up from bagging something so small Sam couldn’t see it and that had been retrieved with tweezers.
Bob raised an arm in a wave. “Thank you, Jill, we’ll go with that. Hell, the woman is still wearing makeup—all that jazz. Even her hair is undisturbed. Not a strand out of place.”
Sam said, “The police chief told me the woman was identified from the personal effects. They were left with the body.”
Bob held up a clear plastic bag. “Our unknown subject left her purse with her wallet and all her IDs inside, including credit cards. There’s about a grand in cash in her wallet and”—Bob touched the tip of his index finger to the woman’s hand—“a rock on her ring finger that goes almost all the way to her first knuckle.”
“Not a mugging, then.”
“We’ll need a closer look, of course, but I’m going to go out on a limb here and tell you what I think: The woman died of a broken neck. Looks like the unsub snapped it.” Bob gestured, twisting both hands lightning fast. “My impression? She was killed right where she stood. Our guy came up behind her, did the deed, then just dropped her where he found her.”
“Thanks, Bob.”
Bob waved.
Sam turned away, but Paige held her ground.
“What about the postcard?” Paige asked.
Sam faced Paige. Her features and voice were strained.
Paige asked her next question on the heels of the first. “Where did you find it exactly?”
Sam’s gaze sharpened on her.
Jill held up the now bagged postcard. Sam saw there was a photo of the South Carolina state map on one side, and on the other side there was the typical blank space for a note and the address. Nothing had been written.
“I didn’t move it until the photos were taken. It was near the body.” Jill pointed to a spot by the woman’s head. “Don’t know where it came from at this point. Could have just blown here.”
Sam was thinking the same. There was a lot of garbage blowing around after the weekend that would further contaminate the area. “Paige? Something?”
“No.” She shook her head once quickly, then wrapped her arms around herself and stepped away from the body.
“You sure?” Sam prodded.
Paige shook her head again, and Sam stepped away as well. But he stopped. His gaze returned to the spot where Janet Glaxton Lambert had been alive one moment, if Bob’s theory was correct, and dead the next. “The park is heavily populated on weekends. Any trash found at the scene could have come from anyone who was here.” Sam was thinking out loud. “A crime of opportunity? The ground is hard. We won’t get any shoe prints. The earth around the body shows no sign of having been disturbed at all.”
Sam stared without blinking, committing what he was seeing to memory. “We’ll soon know if any hair or fibers were found at the scene. Though why kill a woman for a zero payoff? No cash. No rape. There has to be a motive. Gratification from a quick kill?” Sam shook his head. “Janet Glaxton Lambert’s brother is a sitting senator. We can’t rule out that her murder could be politically motivated. Harmon said the body was found by a guy on a bike on his way home from his girlfriend’s. The guy’s shaken and still with paramedics. Let’s see what he can tell us.”