“Who are the other two?” Charlie asked, clearly interested in her answer.
She started to tell him, I could see it in her eyes, and then she waved her hand in the air. “It’s not important. What really matters is whether you’ve seen someone leave something by my front door lately.”
“The UPS man came by two days ago,” Charlie volunteered. “Didn’t you get the package he left?”
“Yes, it was an autographed book I ordered from Poisoned Pen in Arizona,” she admitted. “Have you seen anyone else hanging around the place?”
“No, no one who didn’t belong,” he said. “I’m assuming you don’t mean your friend here, or the man staying with you now.”
He hadn’t missed that much. “I’m Savannah Stone,” I said as I offered my hand, “and that man is my husband, Zach.”
Did Charlie seem a little relieved to know that Zach was with me? I couldn’t really tell, and I’d been looking for a reaction.
“Sorry, I forgot to introduce you,” Jenny said.
“You work too hard,” Charlie said.
“How could you possibly know that?” I asked.
“I see lights coming on late at night when she gets home,” he explained. Realizing how that must have sounded, he quickly added, “My TV room faces Jenny’s front porch. I can’t help noticing when the lights come on.”
“It’s fine, Charlie. If you see something odd, would you do me a favor and call me? You’ve got my cell phone number, don’t you?”
“I don’t think so,” he said.
She reached into her pocket, pulled out a business card, and then scrawled her number on the back of it. “There you go.”
I added, “But just call if it’s suspicious.”
Jenny must have realized what she might be letting herself in for. “That’s right. You know me, I’m working all of the time.”
“Don’t worry about a thing. You can trust me. I’ll be your eyes here,” he said. Inside, we could hear his telephone ringing.
“We should be going,” I said.
Charlie answered quickly, “It’s fine. The machine can get it.”
Jenny said, “We do really need to be going. Thanks, Charlie.”
“What are neighbors for?” he asked.
As we were leaving, I said, “That was odd.”
“Charlie’s a bit of an acquired taste,” Jenny said. “But he’s not that bad once you get to know him.”
“I’m not talking about his behavior,” I said. “He kept calling you Jennifer. Don’t tell me you didn’t notice.”
“Of course I noticed. He’s been doing it since I first moved in. It’s just his way.”
“Who are the other two men who call you Jennifer?”
She frowned, and then said, “I should learn when to keep my mouth shut, shouldn’t I?”
“It wouldn’t be a bad trait for a lawyer to have,” I admitted. “Who are they?”
“You’ve met one of them,” she said. “Shawn always used to call me Jennifer before we broke up.”
“And who was the other man?”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” she said abruptly. “It didn’t end well.”
“All the more reason to tell me,” I said.
“If you must know, it’s another lawyer from the firm. We dated a few times just before I went out with Shawn, but nothing ever developed between us. He wasn’t exactly thrilled when I turned him down.”
“I need to meet this man.”
“Honestly, Savannah, just let it go.”
“I can’t do that, and you know it,” I said as we got in Zach’s car, an oversized SUV.
“What are you two talking about?”
Jenny started to tell him when I beat her to it. “There are three men in her life who call her Jennifer, but she doesn’t think that it’s significant, even given the notes she’s been getting.”
“It could be the most important clue we’ve gotten so far. I need names,” Zach said as he took out the small notebook he always carried with him.
“I really don’t think any of them are involved.”
“Be that as it may, we’re not going anywhere until I get those names.”
She sighed, and then finally said, “Shawn Murphy’s one of them, Charlie’s another, and Mason Glade is the third.”
Zach nodded. “I know the first two, at least indirectly. Who’s the last one you mentioned?”
“He’s from the office. He’s a partner in the firm where I work.”
“A man she used to date,” I added.
“I was getting around to that,” she admitted.
“It’s so much more efficient this way though, isn’t it?”
Zach frowned, and then instead of starting the car, he opened his door and said, “I’ll be right back.”
Before either one of us could stop him, he started up Charlie’s steps. I wondered if the man would even open the door when my husband approached, but he did. After a brief conversation, Zach came back, scowling about something.
“He had a cake in the oven,” Zach said. “I’ll have to speak with him later.”
Jenny put a hand on his arm. “Zach, trust me. He’s harmless.”
“He could be,” my husband said. “But seven women thought the same thing about the Slasher, and look where it got them, all on slabs at the morgue.”
“Fine, I won’t try to stop you, but in the meantime, can we go get these security cameras so we can get on with our lives?” I asked.
“We’re on our way,” Zach said as he started the car and drove off.
I wasn’t sure which side of the argument I agreed with, and no one asked. Until I had more evidence, I was going to assume that everyone we talked to was up to something. It might not be the healthiest way to look at the world, but it was the only way I was going to find a killer and now, a stalker, too.
“WHERE EXACTLY IS IT THAT WE ARE GOING, ZACH?” Jenny asked as we drove into Raleigh.
“I know a place where we can get what we need.”
Jenny’s voice made it clear that she was skeptical about his selection as she looked out the window. “I usually don’t go to this section of town.”
“You’re with me,” he said. “You’ll be fine. I can’t find what we need on Edenton Street, you know?”
“Trust him,” I told Jenny. “He knows what he’s doing.”
Jenny nodded. “I don’t have much choice, do I?”
Zach glanced at me and said, “Thanks for that vote of confidence.”
“It isn’t misplaced, is it?”
He laughed. “Savannah, have I ever gotten you into so much trouble I couldn’t get you out of it again?”
I took longer to think about it than he clearly would have preferred, but I finally replied, “No, but you have to admit that we’ve had some close calls in the past.”
“Think about it. How many times was it because of me, and how many times were you the reason we were in the jam in the first place?”
“What can I say; I like life to be interesting.”
Zach parked the car in front of an older building on the outskirts of town, a dark redbrick facade with high windows and no real signage out front.
“Where exactly are we?” Jenny asked.
“If you have to ask, you won’t ever know.” He turned off the engine and handed the keys to me.
“What are these for?”
