A Deadly Row Read online

  “I’m the one who got you in, remember?” I said.

  “He’s right,” Zach said in a voice that didn’t allow argument. I had one of those myself, but neither one of us used it unless the situation was dire.

  I walked outside, and saw the look of incredulity on Davis’s face as I accepted the situation. Little did he know that I wasn’t finished snooping, though it might appear that I was.

  The patrol officer was gone, so I walked over to Grady’s vehicle, a nice-looking pickup that to my knowledge had never been used for its intended purpose. Grady liked to say that he had the common touch, and driving the truck was just one way he showed it. I tried the driver’s side door, but it was locked. As I peeked in through the windows, I noticed that the rear pass-through window was unlatched.

  There was only one thing I could do. I hopped up into the truck bed, not with a great deal of finesse, I’ll grant you, but I managed it. After I slid the window open, I tried to imagine how I was going to get in far enough to open the door. There was no way I was going to fit, and seeing me stuck there was not an image I ever wanted in my husband’s mind.

  I might not be able to fit in all of the way, but I could still reach inside. The truck interior was as neat as Grady’s living room had been, but there might be something under the seats, not that I could reach them from where I was squatting.

  I was trying to extend my reach when I heard my husband’s distinctive cough behind me.

  “Have you taken up breaking and entering, Savannah?”

  “No breaking, and not much entering,” I said. “I noticed that the back sliding window was unlatched, so I thought I’d check it out. Did you have any luck inside?”

  “We found this,” he said as he held up a bagged cell phone. “There are about forty messages on it, but no sign of Grady.”

  “That’s a relief,” I said. “It must have slipped out of his pocket.”

  “And he didn’t notice instantly that it was missing? I’m not happy about this,” he said.

  As Zach helped me out of the back of Grady’s truck, I noticed a man on foot approaching us. He had on a cap with the Carolina Panthers logo on it, and he wore running shoes, shorts, and a knit shirt. I didn’t even recognize him until he was twenty paces away from us.

  “You’re a hard man to track down,” I said.

  “That’s funny, I’ve known where I was all along,” the mayor replied.

  “SINCE WHEN DID YOU TAKE UP RUNNING?” ZACH ASKED Grady as we joined him inside. Davis had left us the second he knew the mayor was safe, and Grady had promised us a ride back to the station when we were ready to go.

  “It’s something new,” Grady admitted. Though he was five years younger than me, the weight of his office had aged him somewhat over the years. His face had too many added lines, and not enough caused by laughter.

  Grady patted his stomach. “If you want to know the truth, I’ve put on a few pounds since you two left.”

  “At least a few,” Zach said, and both men laughed. If either one of them had made that comment about me, there would have been bloodshed, and none of it would have been mine, but they seemed to find it acceptable enough between the two of them.

  “So, you were never in any danger at all,” I said. Grady’s smile faded. “I wish that were true, but I have been getting some threats lately.”

  “More than the usual ones?” Zach asked him. Though he was trying to keep his tone light, I could tell that there was an undercurrent of concern for his friend there.

  “Yeah, I seem to have acquired a couple of real kooks.”

  “Shouldn’t a police officer be guarding you, then?” I asked.

  “I’m not the president, or even the governor,” Grady said. “I don’t exactly have the budget for police protection.”

  “Then find the money,” I snapped.

  “Are you sure you want to use that tone of voice with the mayor?” Grady asked.

  “When he’s being pigheaded, I am,” I said.

  Grady laughed. “I miss you both.”

  “You should at least have an officer run with you,” I said.

  “Does she ever let up?” Grady asked my husband.

  “You know her better than to ask that,” he said. “But she’s not wrong.”

  Grady shook his head. “I’m not about to have somebody looking over my shoulder all of the time. It would feel like I was in jail.”

  “Better there than the hospital; or worse, the morgue,” I said.

  “I’ll think about it.”

  Zach handed him the telephone he’d found, still safely ensconced in its evidence bag. “Then you should take this with you wherever you go, and I mean it. If you can’t call out on it, we can still use it to track you.”

  “Yeah, I admit leaving it wasn’t the smartest thing I’ve ever done. I just wanted to get away for a while, you know?”

  “Is the pressure getting to you?” I asked softly.

  “It’s been pretty bad lately, but I can handle it.” It was clear that he wasn’t happy with the serious tone of our conversation. “Let me grab a quick shower, then I can take you back to the police station so you can get your car. You don’t mind waiting, do you?”

  “If the alternative is to have you drive us like that,” Zach said, “I think we can spare the time.”

  “Hey, a runner sweats, you know?”

  “Then you must have run a marathon,” Zach answered.

  “When you two boys are finished with your routine, I’d like to check in to the hotel,” I said. “It was a real strain thinking that something might have happened to you.”

  “Don’t worry about me. I’m too tough to get hurt,” Grady said.

  Zach answered softly, “That’s what I used to think, too.”

  That sobered Grady instantly. “Okay, I’ll look into it. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

  While he was showering and getting dressed, Zach paced around the living room. “I don’t like his attitude.”

  “It sounds the same to me as it always has,” I said.

  “That’s the problem, isn’t it? He’s not taking this threat seriously enough for my taste.”

  “Then you’ll convince him that he needs to,” I answered.

  “He’ll listen to you, Zach. You’ve been friends forever.”

  “I think you’ve got a better chance of persuading him than I do,” he said.

  “Why do you say that?”

  “I don’t know, it’s just something I sense about him. Will you take a shot at it? I honestly am worried about him.”

  “I’ll try, but I can’t imagine how I can do any better than you could,” I said.

  “Just do what you can,” he said. “I’ve got to make some calls, and I’m going to step outside to make them.”

  “Who are you calling that you need privacy from me? Are you letting your girlfriend know that you’re back in town?”

  “No, she doesn’t live here anymore.”

  He was smiling, but there wasn’t much humor in it.

  “Really? Where exactly did she move to?”

  “She’s living with me in Parson’s Valley, you nit.”

  “Just checking,” I said.

  “How about your boyfriends?”

  “Maybe it was a little premature, but I gave them all up when we got married.”

  “I feel their pain,” he said with a smile.

  “All kidding aside, why are you going outside to make your calls?”

  “Savannah, sometimes you drive me crazy. How are you going to get some time to talk to Grady if I’m always with you? There’s a lot better chance that he’ll listen to you if I’m not around.”

  We heard the door start to open from the bedroom area, and Zach ducked outside, but not before he stopped to wink at me. I didn’t like the pressure of trying to convince our old friend to do something he clearly didn’t want to, but I really had no choice.

  “I thought I heard voices out here,” he said as he rubbed a towel t
hrough his hair. He’d changed into blue jeans and a crisp T-shirt, his casual mayor look. He glanced at his bare wrist. “You haven’t seen my watch anywhere, have you? I lost it, and it’s driving me nuts.”

  I looked around the room. “I don’t see it.”

  He shrugged. “Have you been talking to yourself since you moved to the hills? It hasn’t made you crazy, has it?”

  “No more than usual,” I said with a smile. “Zach had some phone calls to make.”

  He sat across from me. “And he couldn’t make them in here?”

  “He said he wanted some privacy.”

  Grady shook his head. “For us or for him? Come on, I’ve known you too long for you to lie to me.”

  “I’m not lying,” I said. “That’s exactly what Zach told me.”

  “No ulterior motives?” Grady asked.

  “I wouldn’t say that. We’re both worried about you.”

  “I’m fine,” he said, trying to brush off my concern.

  “That’s not the way Davis tells it. I have a feeling that he’d like to bring in the state police on this.”

  “Trust me, you aren’t telling me anything I don’t know. I told him he could handle it, or he was the wrong man for the job. It took some arm-twisting, but we finally agreed to call Zach as a compromise.”

  “Which one of you didn’t want him?” I asked.

  “Take it easy, Savannah. It’s not like that.”

  I stood. “If Davis doesn’t want us here, we’re leaving. Zach can’t help unless he gets the chief’s full cooperation. Stay safe, Grady.”

  I headed for the door, but he stopped me with one small phrase. “It was me.”

  “You? Have you lost confidence in Zach’s ability? That bullet tore into his body, but his mind’s as sharp as ever.”

  “Would you sit back down and hear me out? Please?”

  I thought about it, and then reluctantly did as he asked.

  After I was settled back down, Grady said, “I fought Davis on bringing anyone into this, but he has more confidence in your husband than he does the state police. For now, I’ve gotten permission from Raleigh for us to handle this ourselves, but if there’s one more body, they’re going to take over.”

  “Then Zach had better get started. But there’s one condition, or we’re going straight home.”

  “This used to be your home,” Grady said.

  “That was before.”

  “It wasn’t that long ago.”

  “Trust me, it feels like a lifetime, and I don’t have any interest in ever coming back.”

  He sat there and mulled it over, and then finally asked, “What’s the condition?”

  “You have to take this seriously.”

  “Okay.”

  I looked closely at him. “What’s going on? We both know you don’t give up that easily.”

  Grady shrugged. “Not unless it’s a battle I don’t want to win. I’ll ask Davis for protection, but it’s not going to be around the clock.”

  “Then I’m sorry we couldn’t help.”

  As I got up, he did, too. “Are you serious, Savannah? You’d just walk out on an old friend when he needs you the most?”

  “I don’t have much choice. If you aren’t going to take steps to protect yourself, it puts even more pressure on Zach to figure out who your killer is, and it’s going to be hard enough for him to do without worrying about you.”

  “Okay, I didn’t think of it that way.”

  “Brighten up,” I said. “That’s why I’m here. Now, let’s go find my husband so we can tell him the good news.”

  “I didn’t have a chance, did I?” Grady asked me as we went to the front door.

  “That’s not true at all. You nearly lost us, but you managed to redeem yourself at the last second.”

  “What can I say, I’m a clutch player.” He tossed his towel onto the kitchen counter and ran a comb through his hair as I opened the door. Zach was on the porch, in deep conversation with someone.

  He held a finger up to us, and then said, “We’ll be right there.”

  Before he even looked at Grady, he glanced at me and asked, “Did he agree?”

  “Around the clock police protection until you find the killer,” I answered.

  “Good enough. Let’s go.”

  “Are you ready to go to the hotel?” Grady asked.

  “No, there’s been another note from the killer. He put a picture in this one, too.”

  If we’d had any chance of a pleasant conversation on the way to the police station, that information ruined it. I didn’t have any facts about the case, or how the killer operated, but then again, it wasn’t my job to solve the case. I was there for moral support, along with a prod every now and then if I thought my husband’s investigation was going off course. I considered myself Zach’s unpaid and extremely unofficial consultant.

  And I liked that just fine myself. I had no desire for the limelight, or any credit for solving one of my husband’s cases, any more than I wanted his name on one of my puzzles, even if he did spot mistakes from time to time. Zach liked to solve puzzles, claiming they helped distract him from the cases he worked on, and he was my tester when I wasn’t sure about a puzzle I was ready to submit. Most of them went straight to my publisher, but every now and then I had Zach solve one to make sure I was playing fair. We were a team, both in our professions and in our marriage, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

  And now we were going to try to find a killer before he had the chance to strike again.

  Chapter 3

  “YOU NEED TO SEE THIS,” DAVIS TOLD ZACH WHEN WE walked into the police station. “It just showed up four minutes ago.”

  “What is it?” I asked. Grady had waited around just long enough to be assigned a police officer as a bodyguard, and then he’d taken off for his office. We couldn’t convince him to lay low until Zach caught the killer, but he had to be safer at city hall than in his house, or worse yet, jogging alone on the streets of Charlotte.

  “This is official police business,” Davis said.

  “Zach’s not a cop anymore, either.”

  “It’s different. He’s on the payroll.”

  I looked at my husband, who was clearly getting impatient with this particular conversation. Zach just shrugged as he reached into his wallet and handed me a five dollar bill.

  “What’s that for? Lunch? You’re not buying me off with a five, you know that, don’t you?”

  “Don’t be thick, Savannah. That’s your fee as my assistant. You are now officially on the payroll.”

  “Is this all I’m worth to you?” I couldn’t believe he’d handed me just a five. I was worth at least twice that.

  “It’s just to cover our bases in case someone asks,” Zach explained.

  “The five’s fine, then,” I said as I folded it and tucked it into my jeans. “Would you like a receipt for your tax records?”

  “You can mail it to me,” he said as he turned to Davis. “Are you satisfied now?”

  “She shouldn’t be involved in this, Zach. It’s too dangerous.”

  I was about to reply when I saw my husband bite his lower lip. He was about to handle things just fine without any interference from me. “We’re a matched set, and you don’t break those up. I’ll protect her.”

  “Hey, I can protect myself,” I protested.

  No one even acknowledged that I had spoken.

  “Maybe you’ll think twice about it after you see this,” Davis said.

  He pulled a Polaroid snapshot out of his jacket pocket and showed it to Zach. It was safely tucked into a plastic evidence bag, and I steeled myself for whatever grizzly scene it portrayed. I could handle most things, but I still wasn’t thrilled with seeing graphic acts of violence captured on film.

  Zach studied it for a long time, and then handed it back to Davis.

  “Hey, I want to see that,” I said.

  Zach thought about it, and then shrugged. “Show her.”

  “I
want to go on the record right now. This is not a good idea.”

  “She has a right to know,” my husband said. At that point, I wasn’t sure I wanted to see what was in the picture anymore.

  “Suit yourself,” Davis said as he handed it to me.

  In an instant, I realized why Davis hadn’t wanted me to see the photograph, and my husband had.

  It showed me crouching in the back of Grady’s truck, my arm extended through the open sliding window and vanishing behind the seat.

  Whoever had taken it had been close enough to reach out and touch me.

  WITHOUT REALIZING I’D DONE IT, I DROPPED THE PHOtograph, and it fluttered to the floor.

  “Are you okay, Savannah?” Zach said as he wrapped one arm around me. “I should have warned you.”

  “I’m fine,” I said, though I clearly wasn’t. I couldn’t shake the belief that I should have seen whoever had taken that snapshot. Why hadn’t I turned to see someone taking it? Could I have identified the killer, if I’d only had the foresight to look?

  “Are you sure?”

  “Zach, it’s okay. He just wanted to prove that he saw us looking for Grady. It’s not like he’s threatening me. Is it?” Another thought jumped into my head unbidden. Was it possible that whoever had taken that photo knew how close my husband and I were to the mayor? Could it be that he was planning to use our relationship to come after Grady, or was it just a coincidence that he’d captured me on film? Either way, I wasn’t too happy about it.

  “How do we know this is from the killer?” I asked Davis.

  He flipped the photo, and I saw that someone had carefully lettered “3A” in red magic marker. “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “We were hoping your husband would be able to figure it out.”

  Zach took the offered photograph again, studied the sequence, and then shook his head. “I don’t have a clue.”

  “Why does that not comfort me?” I asked.

  “Give me time, Savannah. You’re welcome to go back home until I figure this out. As a matter of fact, it might not be a bad idea. You’d be safer there.”

  “Are you kidding me? I like to think I’m pretty self-sufficient, but I’m also pragmatic about it. If someone’s got me in his sights, I’d just as soon have you around, instead of being two hours away.”