Stealing Shadows

'How do you explain it?' Ben asked.

'I can't explain it. Unless…'

'Unless?' the sheriff prompted.

Cassie gazed into the distance, thinking, then said, 'Unless someone else did that. Stood in the doorway only minutes after the murder. Someone I've connected to without realizing. Maybe I was… reliving someone's memory.'

The sheriff shook his head. 'You seem to have connected to an awful lot of people, if you ask me.'

Ignoring him, Ben asked, 'Was it Matt? You were able to read him earlier. Could you have picked up these images from his experience when he first arrived here in the house and saw her?'

'I don't know.' She looked at the sheriff. 'Except for her body being gone, is the room just the way you found it?'

'Almost.' He didn't elaborate.

Cassie got up. 'I need to see it again.'

'Are you sure?' Ben asked. 'The first time hit you pretty hard.'

'I'm sure.' She led the way back to the kitchen, stopping just inside the doorway as she had before. This time both men remained behind her.

Cassie concentrated on remembering what she had seen, comparing the details with the room as she saw it now. 'Her body was there, at the corner of the island nearest the stove. A foot or so away… there was a knife. A butcher knife, covered in blood.' Her gaze roamed slowly around the room. 'There were footprints in the blood near the back door, but… the footprints on this side of the room weren't there. That's the only other difference I see.'

'Then you weren't seeing Matt's first look into the room,' Ben said.

She turned to the two men. 'No?'

Ben was staring at the sheriff. 'No. The footprints on this side of the room were made by Ivy's relatives when they found her. Before they called Matt.'

'So I saw the room before they entered it.'

'I'd say so, yes.'

'Then someone else must have been here.'

The sheriff scowled at her. 'Why couldn't it have been the killer standing there? Assuming any of this bullshit is true, that is.'

'I don't think it was him. I didn't get a sense of him, the way I have before. As a matter of fact… I didn't get a sense of anyone. No personality, I mean.'

'Then what makes you so sure somebody else was here?'

Cassie thought about it but finally had to shake her head in defeat. 'I don't know. Just… by process of elimination. I've never been able to tap into a place, not like that. To see, so vividly, something that had already happened, I had to be seeing through somebody's eyes, through their memories. Somebody standing right here, just inside the doorway. After Mrs. Jameson was killed, but before her relatives got here.'

Slowly Ben said, 'In plenty of near-death experiences, people report being out of their bodies, hovering nearby and looking at themselves. Is it at all possible that you saw this room through Ivy's eyes after her murder?'

'That,' the sheriff said, 'is the creepiest thing I've heard yet.'

Ben was gazing at Cassie. 'But is it possible?'

'I don't know.' She agreed with the sheriff. It was a creepy possibility. 'If so, it would be a first for me.'

Sheriff Dunbar shook his head. 'Either way, I don't see that this is getting us anywhere. There's no evidence there was anybody other than the killer and Ivy in this house until her relatives arrived. In the meantime, I have three bodies and a town full of people beginning to panic. Unless you can tell me something helpful, I think I'll go back to my good old-fashioned police methods and try to find this bastard before he kills anybody else.'

Cassie nodded. 'Two things. Before he… before he killed Jill Kirkwood, he said something to her. He said, 'You'll never laugh at me again.' '

'Laughing at people wasn't Jill's style,' Ben said immediately.

'In his mind she had laughed at him, belittled him. Maybe they all had, at least as far as he was concerned,' Cassie said. 'For what it's worth.'

'And the other thing?' the sheriff asked.

'That may be more helpful. He held the knife in his right hand, and on the inside of that wrist was a scar. I think he's tried to kill himself, at least once.'

'Just when did you remember seeing that?'

'Last night.' Cassie shrugged. 'I would have called you, but I knew I'd see you today.' And she knew he was disinclined to believe her anyway. It was obvious.

Still, the sheriff was grudgingly pleased by something concrete. 'Okay, I'll add those details to what little we've got so far.'

'Are you going to call the FBI?' Ben asked.

'Not yet.'

'Matt – '

'Don't tell me my job, Ben.'

'Look, at least get in touch with that violent-crimes task force operating out of Charlotte. They have more resources, Matt. They can help.'

'Their resources don't mean jackshit.' The sheriff's jaw was set stubbornly. 'You know and I know that this killer is not going to be found in anybody's computer database, Ben. He's home grown.'

Cassie divided her attention between them. 'Then you're sure he's not a stranger, a newcomer in town?'

'Positive.'

'Matt, there's no way we can be positive.'

'I'm positive. Ivy's relatives swear she would never have opened a door to a stranger, much less invite one into her kitchen.'

'She could have let him in the front door.'

'And then put the chain back on the way her nephew and brother-in-law found it later? No. She knew him, Ben. She let the bastard into the house through her back door, and she felt so unthreatened by him that he was able to cross the room and pick up one of her own butcher knives.'

Ben frowned but shook his head. 'What about Becky? Cassie thinks she didn't know her killer.'

Cassie said, 'She didn't say his name at a point when she should have. So she probably didn't know it. But that's just an assumption on my part.'

The sheriff said, 'That doesn't mean he's a stranger to the area. Small town or not, none of us knows every one of our fellow citizens.'

Ben granted the point with a nod but said, 'Still, we can't be sure, Matt. And even if you're right about it, the task force has other resources we could use. They have experts – in forensics and behavioral science to name just two.'

'I can and will handle this investigation,' the sheriff said flatly. 'I'm not handing it off to the FBI, a task force, or to anyone else. Remember when they came cruising in here a few years ago, Ben? The FBI and DEA, tracking drug runners up from Florida and convinced the operation was based around here? I've never seen such a mess in my life. The rights of decent citizens trampled without so much as a by-your-leave, property destroyed, people up in arms. My father had a heart attack before it was all over and done with.'

Sheriff Dunbar shook his head. 'Unh-unh, no way am I going to let anything like that happen again, not in my town.' With barely a pause he added, 'Now, if you two don't mind, I say we get out of here. I need to lock up the place and get back to the office. And I'm sure both of you have better things to do with the rest of your afternoon.'

Cassie didn't protest, and Ben didn't say anything else until they got into his Jeep.

Then, watching the sheriff's cruiser drive away, he shook his head. 'I'm afraid it was a mess. And it left a bad taste in the mouth for most of the people around here. As nervous as this town is getting, Matt won't be criticized for not turning to outsiders for help.'