Don

He turned and ran back to his wife. After a murmured exchange she exclaimed, 'I'm not ruining one of my good blankets!' In measured strides they retreated to their house and firmly closed the door. In less than a minute their faces appeared at the front window.

'Love thy neighbor,' Natalie muttered as she sank down beside Jeff's body, suddenly dizzy. Three times in one week she had stood guard over the victims of savage violence. It was absurd. It was horrible. She felt as if she'd fallen off the edge of the world.

Mary Coombs dashed out of her house bearing a blanket that she tossed over the crumpled form of Jeff Lindstrom. Then she sat down on the pavement beside Natalie and poured a cup of coffee from a Thermos. 'Drink this, honey. You're shaking like it's thirty degrees out here.'

The coffee was thick with cream and sugar. Natalie liked her coffee black, but she drank obediently. Mary put her arm around Natalie's shoulders, and slowly the shaking began to subside. 'Did you know him?' Mary asked.

'Slightly. He wasn't a friend.' She shuddered. 'He was left here for me to find.'

'Now, Natalie, you're just scared.'

'I know what I'm talking about.' She looked at the pleasantly weather-worn face of the woman who'd offered love and sympathy ever since Kira deserted her so long ago. 'Mary, did you see his throat?'

'Yes, horrible. This is nasty business, Natalie, but it doesn't have anything to do with you. Not a thing in the world.'

But it did. Natalie knew with sickening certainly that it had everything to do with her.

She wasn't sure how long she and Mary sat silently beside the white car before the first police car arrived. Nick Meredith emerged, his expression grim, his eyes surrounded by bluish circles. Natalie doubted if he'd gotten a full night's sleep since the murder of Tamara. He looked at the blanket, then at Natalie. 'Know who it is?'

'Jeff Lindstrom.'

He drew in a quick breath. 'Okay, besides Natalie, how many people have trampled on the crime scene?' he demanded.

'Only me,' Mary returned indignantly, 'and I didn't trample.'

'The guy who lives in the gray house was here,' Natalie told him. 'He didn't come within six feet of the body, though, and I didn't see him touch anything.'

Nick looked around. 'Pretty boy standing at his window clutching a woman?'

'Yes. Gary didn't come over.'

'Who's Gary?'

'The locksmith gawking at you from the doorway of my house. He made the call after I found the body.'

Nick turned to a deputy hovering nearby. 'Get the tech team.'

'Runnin' them ragged lately,' the deputy muttered as he headed for the patrol car.

'And keep everyone else away from the area,' Nick added. He pulled on a clear, latex glove and lifted the blanket. After gazing at the neck wound for a moment, he withdrew a wallet from Jeff's pants pocket. He flipped it open and read from the driver's license. 'Jefferson R. Lindstrom. 2020 Madison Street, Cincinnati, Ohio.'

Mary looked at him sternly. 'Certainly you don't need Natalie to stay here and watch whatever you do with a body. She needs to go inside.'

'She does indeed.' Nick reached down and took Natalie's arm. 'Let's go in and you tell me what happened.'

Mary insisted on following, casting suspicious looks at Nick. He told Gary to go about his business, but Gary wasn't breaking any records. He worked slowly and quietly as he eavesdropped on Natalie's account of the morning up until she'd opened the door of Jeff Lindstrom's car.

As soon as she finished, someone began pounding on the front door and shouting, 'What the hell is going on? Are those home invaders back?'

'Oh, Lord, it's Harvey,' Mary groaned. 'He was fine when he went out to fish, but it sounds like he got into the liquor before he came over.'

'Would you mind taking him home, ma'am?' Nick asked politely. 'We have all the confusion around here we need.'

'Yes, I'll take him home,' Mary said with suppressed fury. 'If we hadn't been married since we were nineteen, I'd divorce him, the old fool.'

She marched off and, after a brief but loud altercation on the front porch, Natalie heard her leading away a protesting Harvey. 'Poor guy,' she said. 'He used to be brilliant and so charming.'

'Last week he spent the night in jail,' Nick told her. 'I thought Hysell was going to cry when I arrested him, but I can't have him sitting out in his boat yelling to a crowd of tourists that he hid a bomb on shore.'

Natalie smiled faintly. 'I appreciate the effort, but you don't have to keep prattling about Harvey. It's not going to take my mind off Jeff.'

'I know, but you're so pale I thought I'd give you a minute to recuperate.' Nick sat down and to her surprise took her cold hand in his. 'Where's your father?'

'At the hospital. He's always spent more time there than at home.'

'Even when you were a little girl?'

'Yes.' She looked at him. 'He couldn't help it. He's needed.'

'I wasn't criticizing. When I think of how little time I've spent with Paige lately… well, never mind. Are you all right?'

'I honestly don't know. I keep finding bodies. It's almost funny. I feel like a bloodhound.' Abruptly she started laughing. The laughter lasted for thirty seconds until suddenly it turned to ragged sobs. 'I just don't understand, Nick. I thought Jeff might have killed Tam, but now he's been murdered. I guess this blows Ted's theory. Lindstrom didn't have anything to do with Eugene Farley.'

'Yes, he did,' Nick said slowly. 'His mother is Constance Farley's sister. Eugene was Jeff's cousin.'

Natalie looked at him in disbelief. 'His cousin? How do you know?'

'I spoke with Mrs. Farley. She was really upset when she found out he was here. She said he was, and I quote, 'an awful boy' and 'crazy.' '

'Crazy how?'

'She didn't elaborate, but she was adamant that I not cooperate with him. She was especially freaked out over the possibility that I might discuss her or Eugene with him.' He smiled. 'She wanted me to run him out of town.'

'Tar and feathers?'

'I didn't suggest it, but if I had, she would have jumped at the idea.'

Natalie wiped at the tears streaking her face. 'What do you suppose he was really doing here?'

'I don't know. I considered the possibility that Mrs. Farley might have dispatched him to do her killing for her, but that seems too extreme. Then there's the possibility that he really was interested in doing a true-crime novel and in his investigation he found out more than I did. Maybe he thought he knew who the killer was.'

'And?'

'And he made the mistake of confronting that person. He could have had plans to triumphantly drag the killer into the headquarters of the stupefied police. Or he could have had plans to blackmail the killer. Lindstrom was cocky as hell, Natalie. He was the type who thought he could outsmart, outmaneuver anyone.' Nick looked into her eyes. 'But maybe he met his match.'

The door swung open and Mrs. Fisher looked at Nick belligerently. 'What is it now?'

'I need to speak with Dee.'

'I need to speak with Dee, too, but she's not here.' The woman clutched her flannel robe around her. She'd combed out her pin curls and her white hair formed a thin, frizzy halo around her wizened face. 'I haven't seen her since yesterday afternoon. No one to fix my dinner! No one to fix my breakfast! I could have died in the night and laid in my bed till I rotted'.'

Her face reddened and Nick feared she was working herself into another coughing fit. 'Is there anything I can do for you?'

Her gaze narrowed. 'Always tryin' to get into this house, aren't you?'

Oh, God, not this again, Nick thought. 'Mrs. Fisher, do you have any idea where Dee might be?'

'If I knew, I'd sure as hell tell you so you could drag her back by the hair to take care of me like she's's'posed