“If it were, would he have bothered to set up this call?” came Keira’s terse reply and Jay realized he was on speaker.
“Fair point,” he said after the other four greeted him too. It took Jay a moment to realize what he was feeling before deciding it was relief. For once, he was talking to people he was one hundred percent sure were on his side. He hadn’t noticed the stress building until their voices cleared it away.
“So what do you have for me, Hector?”
Hector called him a name but answered in the next breath. “Before the explosion, I had been working on something. I took it up again here with Ruby and Frank to help.”
“I saw the prints. It is a pity you weren’t able to finish, Natalie. I think it might have been helpful.”
“I wasn’t talking about prints. You gonna let me finish or not?”
Jay bit his lip on another laugh. “Of course. Apologies.”
“I was running a broad check. Stumbled across a strange news clipping, so I dug into it.”
“And?” Jay pushed when Hector fell silent. He could feel the tension even across the miles that separated them and braced for the blow.
“And I have to ask. Just how well do you know Dave Tiller?”
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Jay returned to the house a full hour later than normal, yet even so he found himself hesitating at the door. Hector’s voice and Keira’s confirmation was still looping around his skull.
Jay shuddered. The man he had silently thanked all the gods for since this mess began. Yet Dave was not what his background check made him out to be. He hadn’t yet seen the news article Hector had referenced. Dave had not grown up in Louisiana at all, let alone be able to claim Shreveport as his home town. Elliot had promised to send Hector’s research on to Joe so that he could send it to the server Jay’s laptop was linked to.
Jay unlocked the door and entered the house. Dave glanced up from the cutting board where he appeared to be making a dozen sandwiches for an early lunch. Given his morning’s deluge, Jay couldn’t help but notice the fact that Dave was toting a large and sharp knife.
Jay shook himself and smiled in return. “I hope some of those are for me too. They look amazing.”
Dave considered him for a second. “As this,” he gestured at the platter, “is the direct result of worrying about you, I hardly think you deserve any.”
Jay chuckled. “Sorry.”
Dave scowled then sighed. “I know I nag, but can you blame me? Deadly attacks have followed you since you started this hunt. Your reputation is not of someone cautious or careful.”
“I decided I needed a sauna stay today. Exercising only helps so much.”
Dave sighed but made no comment. Jay emptied his supposedly sweaty gym gear into the washing machine and turned it on. His longer stay at the gym had not gone unnoticed by his tail either. The man had been inside the gym when Jay exited the sauna.
“So, you going to leave me some, or are you actually going to eat that all?”
Dave smiled softly. “Like I actually could.”
Jay couldn’t help but smile too. Dave was simply a likable guy.
Dave turned, and his smile faltered slightly at the look on Jay’s face. “You know, I’m not sure the gym is helping at all. Maybe you should take a break from it for a few days?”
Jay ran a hand over his hair, using it as an excuse to break eye contact. “Maybe you’re right. I’ll leave it tomorrow and see how I feel.”
Jay switched to the colder, calculating side of his nature as he thought over Hector’s news.
***
“So instead of heading out to the gym, you’ve decided to carry furniture around the house?”
Jay looked up from the large desk he had been trying to get a good grip on to find Dave leaning on the doorway looking bemused.
Jay felt his lips turn up in a grin, “I want to take over the third bedroom.”
“Whatever for? Not that I mind,” Dave added, waving Jay to one side of the desk as he took hold of the other end.
“So that I can start putting out all the puzzle pieces we’ve found.”
They lifted the desk together and began carting it up the stairs to the empty bedroom.
“I’m not sure I follow. Isn’t that what the reports you always make me write are for?” Dave asked as they dropped the desk off in the corner.
Jay nodded. “Yes, but we’ve been here for weeks with nothing to show for it. No new leads, no new hints. Nothing. I’m shaking things up a bit.”
Dave cocked an eyebrow as if wondering if Jay had finally cracked under the stress. “What do you mean, no leads? Lloyd and Gary are our leads. I’m sure something will come of it.”
Jay shook his head. “I’m not talking about the leads we’ve been presented. I mean for ourselves. Here. Help me pin these in chronological order. On the wall there.”
Dave took the folder he was handed and flipped it open. The moment was tiny, a second at most, but Jay hadn’t removed his eyes from Dave’s face. The reaction to the head shot of Miranda Williams’ corpse had not been shock or any other usual reactions. It had been annoyance.
***
The digital clock on the wall told him that it was one in the morning.
“I need to head back in three hours. Did you bring me more powdered sedative?”
His accomplice nodded. “Don’t you worry, they’re both awake so this won’t take long. And of course I have the drugs. I watched that man for four
