'It wasn't a deep cut.' She was obviously puzzled as her gaze returned to his face. 'Her house. That's where you found her?'
'Yes. In the kitchen. Isn't that what you saw?'
Tension gathering in her voice, Cassie said, 'The kitchen. No, that isn't right.'
'He definitely killed her there, Cassie. There was blood everywhere, and the M.E. says that's where she died.'
Cassie closed her eyes for a brief moment, then opened them and looked at him almost beseechingly. 'Who died, Ben? Who was she?'
'Why – Ivy Jameson. Isn't that who – ' Ben watched her sit down abruptly as though the strength had left her legs. He drew a deep breath. 'You mean there's someone else?'
'Yes. There's someone else.'
Ben called Matt from the Jeep once they were on their way to town, and the sheriff got there before them. He came out onto the sidewalk so quickly that Ben had barely gotten his door open. It was dark by then, but the streetlights made the sidewalk nearly as bright as day.
'Don't go in there,' Matt said.
He hadn't really doubted Cassie this time, but Ben nonetheless felt a shock, and with it pangs of pain and regret. 'Is she,.?'
Matt nodded. 'The doc will have to tell us when, but I'm guessing she was killed while we were at Ivy's place. I'm sorry, Ben.'
Ben gazed blindly toward the open front door of Jill Kirkwood's store for a moment. 'I should have told her to be careful.'
'It wouldn't have mattered, you know that. I warned her when she came to tell me about somebody following Becky. And I'm sure she thought she was being careful. But even if the town had been under curfew, she wouldn't have hesitated to come into her store on a peaceful Sunday afternoon to catch up on paperwork.'
'I have to see her.'
The sheriff caught his arm. 'No. There's no reason for you to go in there, Ben. My team will be here any minute, and this time they're damned well going to get a completely undisturbed crime scene.' He paused, then added steadily, 'You don't need to see her. You don't want to see her.'
'How did he kill her?'
'Knife, same as the others. But either he killed her someplace else or she hadn't pissed him off as badly as Ivy had. Virtually no blood at the scene. Only one wound, as far as I could tell. Left breast.'
Ben half turned toward the Jeep, where the dome light showed Cassie's huddled posture and pale face. She hadn't said much at all since they had left her place. He returned his gaze to the sheriff. 'Cassie said Jill was tied with her back to something with a sharp edge.'
'Yeah, she's sitting up against a corner of her desk. He probably had her wrists tied behind her at some point but, like the others, he left her untied and with her hands in her lap.'
'The coin?'
'A quarter.' The sheriff paused. 'Mind if I ask a few questions now?'
Ben knew whom those questions would be directed to, and it wasn't himself. But before he could reply, Cassie got out of the Jeep and came around it to join them.
Quietly she said, 'Ask away, Sheriff.'
'Where were you today?'
'At home. Alone, until Ben arrived a little while ago.'
'You're saying you have no alibi.' The sheriff's voice was mechanical.
'For Christ's sake, Matt,' Ben snapped, 'surely you don't believe Cassie killed three women!'
The sheriff looked at him briefly, then returned his gaze to Cassie. 'And where is your car, Miss Neill?'
Matter-of-factly she said, 'So you're having me watched. I thought you might be. My car is here in town, Sheriff, as you obviously know. I had it towed in yesterday morning when I discovered it wouldn't start. It's at that garage one block back from Main Street.'
'And you refused a loaner.'
'I didn't need one. There was nowhere I wanted or needed to go in the few days the car would be here.'
As alibis went, it wasn't bad.
Ben said, 'She couldn't have walked that far, Matt, not if – not if Jill was killed in the last few hours.'
'Yeah, I know. Besides – ' Matt glanced at Ben as he broke off, and it was Cassie who finished the sentence.
'It's not likely I'd have the physical strength to drive a butcher knife in someone's chest to the hilt,' she said, still matter-of-fact.
'No,' the sheriff said. 'It isn't. Possible, but when I add that fact to others, it's very unlikely that you're our killer.'
Ben felt sickened. 'The knife. How do you know – '
'It's still in her, Ben. It looks like the missing knife from Ivy's kitchen.'
'Christ.'
The sheriff kept his gaze on Cassie. 'So you saw Jill being killed, but Ivy Jameson's murder was a complete surprise to you.'
'I never knew Miss Jameson, though I had heard of her. I met Jill once, briefly. It was enough for a connection, obviously, because I tapped into her mind, not his.'
'Why not his? He killed twice today, leaving a bloody mess behind at Ivy's. Why weren't you aware he was doing that?'
Cassie shook her head. 'I don't know.'
Whatever the sheriff might have said to that was postponed as a squad car and a black paneled van arrived, blue lights flashing.
'Take her home, Ben, while I get my people working on the crime scene. Tomorrow is soon enough to find out if she can tell us anything helpful.'
'She' went back around the Jeep and got in without another word.
Ben wanted to censure his friend for his chilly attitude toward Cassie but knew it wouldn't help matters. So all he said was 'I'll be back when I've taken Cassie home.'
'Don't rush. I said you didn't need to see this one, Ben, and I meant it.'
'It's my job to view crime scenes, Matt.'
'Not when you were personally involved with the victim. Bad idea.'
'We were not personally involved, not anymore. It was months ago.'
'Still.'
'I can handle it,' Ben said flatly.
'Will you, for once in our lives, take my advice and my professional opinion and stay the hell away from this crime scene?'
'And when I prosecute the bastard in court? You don't think I'll need details from this crime scene?'
'I think you can get what you need from photographs and reports. Ben, I am asking you, as sheriff and as your friend, to let us handle this.' Without waiting for an answer, Matt turned away and went to meet his team.
Ben watched them go into the store, then got into the Jeep and started the engine.
'He's right,' Cassie said.
'I can handle it,' Ben repeated.
'Probably. But why should you have to? Why put yourself through that if there's a choice?'
'Maybe there isn't a choice. It's my job, Cassie.'
She didn't respond until the lights of town faded into the night behind them. 'Ask yourself if Jill would have wanted you to see her like that. And if you have any doubts, the answer is no.'
She was right, and Ben knew it. 'All right.' He was silent for a few more miles, then said, 'I'm sorry about the way Matt treats you. He's just pigheaded. And all this is a lot more than he bargained for.'
'I know.'
'Don't let him get to you.'
'He isn't. I've run into the same kind of attitude before, believe me. It's perfectly natural for him to mistrust
