Chapter Twenty-Four
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After a long morning of looking at houses, Leann was ready for a late lunch. Preferably with Zach. He was sitting in his office looking over some papers when she stuck her head in.
“Come on in.” He stood and greeted her with a small kiss. Nothing too outrageous because this was his work, after all, but enough to let her know he was happy to see her. “Did you have a good morning? Where’s Dizzy? I thought you two were looking at houses for her.”
“Me and my two shadows dropped her off at her house. But I would really like you to get to know her. Maybe we can all have dinner together tonight?”
“That sounds like a great plan. Dizzy sounds like someone I need to meet.”
Leann settled into a chair. “But I’m starved right now. How about lunch? Have you eaten yet?”
“I haven’t,” Zach grimaced. “I’ve been busy with Darrell’s murder. West and I talked to Darrell’s widow this morning and she said she thought he had a girlfriend. How about I fill you in over a couple of cheeseburgers?”
Leann wanted to hear all the details, especially about this mysterious girlfriend. If he’d had a woman in his life, why had he been so bitter the night of the dance?
“Perfect.”
They’d barely made it to Zach’s office door when Leann’s phone buzzed insistently. Dizzy.
“Do you mind if I take this? It’s Dizzy.”
“Sure. Do you want some privacy? I can–”
Leann shook her head and accepted the call. “No need. She probably just forgot to tell me something this morning. Hey, Dizzy. What’s up?”
“I think you and your attack dogs should come back to the house.” Dizzy sounded slightly breathless and her voice shook. “Someone has been in here. I can tell. Specifically in the guest room where your things would have been if you were still staying here.”
Clearly Zach had overheard Dizzy’s words because his expression turned from pleasant and happy to dangerously dark. He held out his hand for the phone and Leann gratefully gave it to him. It was at times like this she was glad she had him and her brothers in her life. They had experience with these sorts of situations. Her own heart had sped up and she could see the tension in Zach’s shoulders.
“Dizzy? Are you still there?” he asked, putting the phone on speaker and holding it so Leann could hear as well. “Don’t touch anything. Just quickly walk out of the house and go across the street. I want there to be some distance between you and the house, okay? I’m going to call the police and then I’m going to come to where you are. Are you walking out?”
“I am,” Dizzy confirmed. “I’m closing the front door now.”
“Just move away from the structure and wait for me. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
He ended the call and handed her the phone. “We need to tell your brother and call the police.”
They were already rushing toward Jason’s office. “Why did you tell her to cross the street and get away from the house?”
Pausing at the entrance to Jason’s office, Zach took a moment to answer. “We don’t know what this guy did or why he was there. I’m sure I’m overreacting but I want to be on the safe side. I asked her to move away from the house in case there’s any sort of explosive device.”
Leann almost fainted and the meager contents of her stomach rose into her throat. A bomb? If something happened to Dizzy because of her, Leann would never forgive herself.
Never.
* * *
Despite Dizzy’s somewhat flighty reputation, Zach found her to be level-headed and calm when he and Leann arrived at the house. Jason and his partner Logan Wright, who had shown up just as they were leaving the office, followed along but they left the other two new investigators back at the office. The firm was still combing through the backgrounds of the victims, looking for any possible connections other than high school.
Two cop cars and a couple of firetrucks greeted them and Zach was happy to hear that the bomb squad was already inside sweeping the house. Leann had given her friend a huge hug and Logan had planted himself right next to the women as a human guard dog. No one was getting near them without going through him. That left Zach and Jason to talk strategy.
“Do you think they thought Leann was staying with Dizzy?” Jason asked as law enforcement directed traffic around their vehicles. This was definitely going to be on the evening news. Zach was shocked the local news station’s van hadn’t beat them to the scene.
“I do,” Zach confirmed, stealing a glance at Leann. She looked a little shaken, though her concern wasn’t for herself but her friend. She seemed stubbornly resistant to the idea that her own life might be in danger. As a psychologist she would have been having a field day with the denial if it had been in anyone else but her own head. “But why were they here? When Leann wasn’t home why didn’t they turn and leave?”
“Maybe they wanted to confirm she was staying there,” Jason said through gritted teeth. The man looked livid, the veins on his neck visible. “So they knew if they came back that she would be there.”
“You’re thinking this was just a recon mission?”
It made sense. If the killer was unsure whether Leann was staying with Zach or Dizzy, they would want to make sure which it was. Zach had gone out of his way not to publicize that Leann was staying with him. For all the town knew, she was still at Dizzy’s, but some people might have figured it out. They weren’t hiding it, either. There was no point in a small town like Tremont where his neighbors knew his every move.
“I doubt he came here to kill Leann in broad daylight with the possibility of Dizzy being home too. No, I think he knew the house was empty. Dizzy uses her garage as an art studio so she parks in her driveway. All the killer would have had to see is the car gone.”
The leader of the bomb squad strode over to where Jason and Zach were standing. “House is clear. You can go in.”
Zach wanted to know exactly what the killer had touched. It might give him a clue as to what he was after.
“Dizzy? The house is clear and we can go back inside. Can you show me what you saw when you came home that let you know that someone had been in the house?”
“Sure, it was really obvious.”
Leann hadn’t said a word but she was watching Zach closely, perhaps trying to gauge his level of concern. She wouldn’t freak out unless he was.
All five of them entered the home and Dizzy pointed to the large picture window in the living room that looked over the street. “That’s the first thing I noticed. The curtains had been pulled closed but I had opened them this morning to let the sunlight in.”
“Probably didn’t want anyone outside to see them moving around in the house,” Logan observed. “But they didn’t put them back when they left. Maybe they were in a hurry?”
“It was the middle of the day,” Leann reasoned. “With the position of the sun how much could passersby have seen?”
Jason pointed out of the window. “Shade trees in the front yard might make shadows visible.”
“Who would think it wasn’t me?” Dizzy asked, shaking her head. She’d been quite pale when Zach had shown up but now her color had returned. “I’m home in the summer during the day.”
“Killer might have been in a hurry and didn’t think it all the way through,” Zach explained, moving deeper into the house. “What else was moved or changed?”
Dizzy led them down the hall. “My bedroom door was open. I always keep it closed because of the way the vents work but it was wide open. But it was the guest room that was the creepiest.”
The door across the hall was also open and Zach entered the room, seeing what Dizzy meant. The drawers on the bureau looked like they had been hastily opened and then shut poorly. The lace runner on the top was askew and almost falling off the furniture. The closet door was open and there were only a few garments hung in it, mostly clothes that looked off-season. Dizzy probably used it for storage.
Leann lifted up a throw pillow from the floor and placed it back on the bed. “They were looking for signs of me living here. Clothes, personal items, anything that indicated that I was staying in this house.”
Jason had turned a peculiar shade, a cross between nauseous green and furious red. It appeared he didn’t know whether to be pissed as hell or sick to his stomach. Logan, on the other hand, had a smile playing on his lips. An instinctual lawman, he was known for listening to his gut. According to those who knew him well, he was never wrong.
“You want to tell us all why you think this is a happy event?” Zach invited. “I’d love to hear something positive right about now.”
Logan grinned sheepishly and shrugged. “It’s just that I think this is good. If he didn’t know where Leann was staying that means he hasn’t been watching her. That gives us the advantage. He doesn’t know her routines so he’ll have to improvise if he wants to get close to her.”
“I don’t have any routines,” Leann pointed out with a sigh. “I’m here on a long vacation.”
“But you probably have fallen into habits even in the last few days,” Logan replied. “You and Zach get up and have breakfast. Maybe you go into the office with him. You come home in the evening and sit down to dinner. On Sundays you attend the Anderson family dinner. Do you see what I’m saying? This guy doesn’t know any of that. We can use this.”
Zach was afraid of where Logan was going with this. “We are not using Leann as bait.”
Jason started speaking as well, but Logan put up his hands in surrender. “I’m not suggesting that we do that. I’m saying that we can mix up her schedule on purpose every day. Keep this guy from getting too comfortable. I want him to feel like he never quite has a handle on where or what Leann will do at any given time.”
Jason grunted. “That makes sense and we can totally do that. Or we can just send her back to Florida where she’ll be safe.”
That was a huge admission from a brother who was plotting to fix her up with a man just to get her to stay in Tremont.
“We don’t know that will work,” Leann said sadly. “They might just follow me. Besides, we don’t want this killer to go underground, right? We want to catch them, and my presence can help with that.”
“We are not using you as bait.”
Jason’s voice was loud and even Logan winced.
“I hate to say this out loud, bro, but her very existence is bait,” Logan said with a grimace. “As long as she’s here, they’re going to try.”
“Unless the killer is only in town for the reunion,” Zach replied. “If he has to leave soon it’s good for Leann but not so good for the case.”
“Doesn’t mean a thing.” Logan shook his head. “He’ll find a way. He’s waited fifteen years, he can wait a little more. We have to find him now.”
It was Leann’s turn to look sick at the thought of having this hanging over her head for months or even years. No way was Zach going to allow that to happen.
“Do you think they’ll come back?” Dizzy asked. “Should I put extra locks on the doors?”
“I doubt they’ll come back,” Zach answered. “They know Leann isn’t staying here and we have no reason to believe that you’re in danger. But I don’t want to take any chances until we have this guy locked up. Is there somewhere you can stay where you’d be safe? You can stay with me and Leann at my house.”
“I can stay with her,” Logan piped up. “But first we need to make a trip to a hardware store. No offense, ma’am, but those are some of the flimsiest locks I’ve ever seen. We need to beef up your security for no other reason than your general safety. You’re just begging for someone to rob you.”
“This is Tremont,” Dizzy giggled. “Half of the people don’t even lock their doors.”
“Then fifty percent of the residents have lost one hundred percent of their minds,” Logan shot back. “If they knew what was out there…”
He didn’t have to say any more. The town had seen too much death in the last few days.
Everyone seemed happy and satisfied with the arrangements except Jason. His brows were pinched and Zach could only describe his expression as glowering. Apparently his employer didn’t like it when his plans were foiled.
“Now wait just a minute,” Jason spit out. “This was not the plan at all. The plan was–”
“Yes, brother dear?” Leann crossed her arms over her chest, her toe tapping on the floor impatiently. “What was your plan?”
His throat working, Jason couldn’t seem to get an answer out, which seemed to amuse Logan greatly. The grinning man slapped Jason on the back. “Looks like it’s settled then. Since Leann is already comfortable at Zach’s place, she stays with him. I’ll move in here with Dizzy just to make sure she’s safe as well. If Zach needs to work the case during the day, I can give him a break with Leann’s protection. It’s all good.”
Shoulders slumped in defeat, Jason shook his head. “That wasn’t the plan.”
“Plans change. Roll with it,” Logan chuckled, giving Zach a covert wink. “Now, where’s the nearest hardware store?”
Leann linked her arm with Zach’s. “A few doors down from the diner, which was where Zach and I were headed for a late lunch. Is anyone hungry?”
Dizzy’s eyes lit up. “I could eat.”
“Hell, yes,” Logan said.
A small silence and then Jason sighed. “I missed lunch too. We can talk about the case and where we go from here.”
So far they had dead bodies and little concrete evidence. The murderer was working cleanly but was overdue to make a mistake. And when he did? Zach would be right there to catch him. All he needed was one little break in the case.