“Well, I no longer think he’s going to kick in a door and start shooting.”
He laughed. “That’s an improvement. When I first met him, all I could do was wonder how we were going to restrain this tornado. Short of throwing him in a cell without charge.”
“I honestly think he could break out.”
“Maybe. Okay, get the files. Read them. I’m not even sure I know all the details myself.”
“Thanks. One other thing. I need to read Larry’s news stories, and there’s a paywall. Can I approach in official capacity?”
“Sure, or use the department’s credit card.”
She rose, then paused. “Any idea when we’ll get the autopsy and forensics?”
He shook his head. “They keep promising that it’ll be soon, but soon hasn’t come yet. I can’t nail them down to anything more specific.”
“Probably the most interesting autopsy they’ve done in a decade.”
“Maybe. Or maybe they just don’t want to chance missing something when this case is so gruesome and we’re short on clues.”
It was as good an explanation as any, she thought as she headed out front to grab a computer. She could read the articles from home. The files? Not so much.
She paused just long enough to leave a message on Duke’s cell. “I’m reading the files.”
And probably unleashing a whole mountain of questions from him. This was going to be fun.
Not.
DUKE WAS OUT running again when he got Cat’s message. The news quickened his pace without regard to endurance. He wanted to get back.
He’d stayed up late working with her weights. Then he’d added more repetitions. Trying to work through the maelstrom of emotions that wouldn’t do a damn thing except cloud his mind.
Finally he had grown sleepy and had started looking for the bed and the bath. No clean clothes, so now he stopped at the motel on his way back from his run to shower and change.
Then he was off again. Remembering Cat had said something about a bakery, he detoured and found Melinda’s Bakery facing the courthouse square.
“Hey,” he said to the dark-haired young woman behind the counter. She had her head mostly covered by something like a shower cap.
“Hey,” she answered with a smile. “Would you like lunch or pastries? At this point in the morning, the pastry levels have begun to shrink.”
He looked in the case. “I bet you can hardly keep them full.”
“For just as long as it takes me to fill the case and open the front door.” She grinned. “I’m very popular.”
He flashed her a smile. “Any idea what Cat Jansen likes?”
“Oh yeah. Turnovers and Danish.”
“Then load me up with Danish, please.”
She paused as she began to pull items out of the case and place them in a white bag. “I don’t think I know you.”
“I thought everybody within fifteen miles must know by now.”
She laughed. “You’ve figured this county out. But no, I haven’t heard about you.”
He paused, then said, “I’m Larry Duke’s brother.”
Her hand froze as she started to fold the bag to close it. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry! He was such a nice man.”
“He was.” Duke hurried to pay, then left with his bag of delights. He wondered if he should take them to Cat at the office, then figured it would be uncivil of him to walk in those doors without enough to share.
He jogged back to her house and made coffee, then settled in for the wait.
CAT FINISHED UP by ten. It was disturbing to realize how little information they had about either case. Plenty of details, but little that was useful in finding a suspect. Were they going to have to wait until some item showed up in a pawnshop?
Hell, they didn’t even know all that might be missing from Larry’s house. Ben had supplied what he knew, but it was soon clear that he and Larry had mostly met at Ben’s place. What was more, Ben was trying to cope with grief, they couldn’t let him in the house and he had to guess about things that might have gone missing.
They definitely didn’t want Ben inside that house. This was tough enough on him without adding nightmare images.
The Hodgeses’ place was more informative, but hardly illuminating. However, that scene had been released. Maybe she should ask the homeowners if they’d mind if she brought Duke over. There was nothing there he could mess up in any way, and maybe he’d feel like he was doing something. Or that she wasn’t trying to wrap him in a wall of silence.
Sighing, she finally gave up rereading for some nugget she had missed. She’d skipped breakfast this morning and just wanted to get home and eat.
She got one of the department’s credit cards from the front desk, then headed out, hoping that Larry’s articles might be more useful.
Maybe there’d be enough in one of them to kick-start an investigation at the other end of this trail.
Slim hope, because they’d have to offer some kind of link that wasn’t as vague as “Larry wrote an article about...”
Crap.
She wasn’t in the best of moods when she walked through her front door, but she saw Duke through the kitchen door, sitting at the table. Somehow that gave her a little lift.
She had a bigger lift when he held up the bakery bag, which always meant goodies.
He said, “Melinda packed it with your favorites. I made coffee. I know it’s late for breakfast, but...” He shrugged.
“I haven’t eaten yet. It’s time for me.” She felt a smile crease her face. “I hope you’re hungry, too. This is fabulous.”
Soon she had two dessert plates on the table, napkins and mugs of coffee. She was touched that he’d thought of such a thing, considering what he was dealing with.
“Did you go for a run?” she asked just before she bit into a raspberry Danish.
“Yeah. I needed it. I hope I didn’t keep you awake last night. I tried not
