“How did you hear about that?” Davis asked.
“That’s not important right now. What matters is whether it’s true or not. Don’t hold out on me, Davis. I mean it.”
The new chief seemed to take it all in, and after a moment, he seemed to sink into his chair. “We were investors in a deal to develop some mountain land. I wasn’t the only cop in on it. Sanders had a stake in it, too.”
“But I’m willing to bet that it wasn’t anywhere near the amount you lost.”
Davis looked a little pale. “I sunk everything but my pension into it. When the planned resort went to Tennessee instead, I lost it all.”
“You must have been mad enough to kill someone,” Zach said softly.
“It was a blow, but we all took a beating on it. Sometimes in life you have to take a chance. I thought it was a sure thing, but I turned out to be wrong. A lot of people lost money on that deal.”
“Even Hank? I heard he protected himself somehow.”
Davis looked at my husband as though he had a crystal ball, or maybe even a Ouija board. “All I know is that he lost money, too. Not as much as I did, but he still felt it.”
Zach shrugged, and then made a note in his book. “How well did you know Cindy Glass?”
“What are you talking about? I didn’t know her at all.”
“Come on, Davis.”
Zach waited, and finally, the new police chief said, “I don’t care who you have as a source. I didn’t know the young lady.”
Zach nodded, made another note, and then asked, “Why did you want to get into this room? What was so important?”
“I’m getting a lot of pressure from high up. I wanted to see if you’d made any progress yet.”
“Who’s pressuring you? Grady?”
“You play things close to the vest, so I can, too.” He stood. “Are we finished here?”
“For now.”
Davis clearly didn’t like that answer, and it looked as though he was going to say something, but he thought better of it and left.
“What do you think?” I asked Zach the second Davis was gone.
“I’m still not sure. The fact that I can’t rule him out is bad enough though, don’t you think?”
“Were you really going to walk away?”
Zach grinned at me. “Not on your life. I was bluffing, plain and simple.”
“You had me fooled. I was starting to get excited about going back home.”
He touched my shoulder lightly. “Is it really all that bad here?”
“No, it’s been nice coming back, but it’s not home anymore, is it?”
“Not so much. I wish I could tell you that this will all be over soon, but I can’t. I’ve got a feeling this killer isn’t going to stop on his own.”
“Then you need to figure out who it is before he kills someone else.”
“I’m doing the best I can,” he said as he reached for the phone. “Send Sanders to the task force room,” he ordered, and then he hung up before he could have possibly gotten a reply.
“You’re good at giving orders; you know that, don’t you?”
“That wasn’t an order. It was a request.”
I laughed. “You might think you formed that as a question, but trust me, it was a direct order.”
“I guess old habits are hard to break.”
“Sometimes.”
He stood and started pacing around the room. “There’s something here. I can feel it. It’s so frustrating knowing that there’s a clue I’m missing out on completely.”
“It will come to you. Give it some time.”
“I’m afraid that’s one thing we don’t have a great deal of left.”
I saw the concern in his eyes. “Do you think he’s going to do something soon?”
“What do you think? You read the note, too.”
Zach walked over to the board, and then read the last communication to us aloud. “He’s taunting me. I can’t believe he threatened you, and I didn’t send you away.”
“Even if you could get rid of me, which you can’t, where could I go? He knows where we live, Zach. The only way either one of us will ever be safe is if you catch him.”
“Any luck with this code?”
