“We still don’t know how he abducted Jenna that night, or where he buried her body.”
“He saved a few trophies. Maybe there’s a journal or sketchbook, a marked-up map as his own keepsake . . . something else? Or we just accept the fact that Jenna’s body will only be discovered when a curious dog or a backhoe crew locate the bones someday. We’ve seen any number of ways a gravesite gets opened up and made visible.”
“I’ll start taking your advice and pray about the problem in an actual faith-filled, God-will-answer-this kind of way,” Evie remarked.
David smiled and glanced at his watch—two a.m. Sunday morning. No wonder he was blitzed. “You need to find a place to crash for a few hours, Evie.”
“Rob is picking me up within the hour.”
“Yeah?”
“I canceled dinner and a movie last night with a text, telling him ‘the case is breaking open, sorry.’ I owed him further explanation, so about midnight I sent one that said Turn on TV. Rob likes my pithy conversation starters.”
David laughed, liking them too.
“He doesn’t want me driving this tired, and I wouldn’t mind twenty minutes with him just to put his mind at rest. His first reply was, David, Maggie, you, okay? I like his short and sweet notes too.” She stood and stretched her arms. “I never want to drive on ice, siren and lights blazing, ever again either. That was idiotically scary.”
He laughed once more. “I’m glad you were my wingman, Evie. We couldn’t do much but follow in the wake of everyone else, but it mattered that we saw this all put to bed tonight.”
“I’m sorry for the ending, that he’s dead and we can’t get all our questions answered, and that Maggie has to pay the highest price for everything. But I’m also stepping back enough to see the bigger picture. Only twelve days and we’ve run him to ground—it may be the best hit the task force does. It feels really nice.”
“That it does.” He looked at the video of officers finishing up at Andrew’s home. “That it does.”
Evie Blackwell
Evie slid into the passenger seat of Rob’s warm car just after 2:30 Sunday morning, feeling disoriented from fatigue and from all the cups of coffee she’d downed in the last few hours. Her day was finally wrapped. Time for the hotel and ten hours of sleep.
Rob clicked on the interior lights, and his hand covered hers. “Look at me for a moment.”
She did and found him studying her carefully.
“One dead, and you weren’t involved in that, David and Maggie are okay, your case is wrapping up. On the scale of endings, how’s this one?”
She appreciated his summary. “Compared to last fall and Carin County, this one’s more sad than satisfying.” She turned her hand to squeeze his. “I’m good, Rob, honestly. Most cases are like this. They end after finding the right name, catching the criminal—most of the time with an arrest rather than a call to the coroner—and then doing a lot of paperwork. That’s the job . . . although this one had more tangles and personal ties than you would expect by the time it concluded.”
“Your first case has made the national news.”
Evie laughed at the way he said it, for they had indeed made a splash on all the cable networks. “I am so glad I’m not Sharon having to deal with the press tonight. She’s welcome to that spotlight. Thanks for coming to give me a lift—this is nice.”
“You’re quite welcome.” Rob clicked off the interior lights and backed out of the Bishops’ driveway, lifted a hand to the security officer. “I wanted the pleasure of seeing you in person, and it doesn’t hurt to have the firsthand story when people start calling, beginning with business, but mostly wanting to turn the conversation toward you, David, and Maggie and the case on the front page of the paper. You’re making me famous merely by association since the charity event.”
Evie leaned back against the headrest, amused by the fact he was right—her world was bumping squarely into his by how the case played out in the papers and television newscasts and among his friends. “How much would you like to know?” she asked.
“Whatever you feel like telling me now. The rest can wait.”
She told him briefly about Andrew Timmets, those details that would already be on the news with the FBI’s statement, but mostly she told him about Lynne and Jim, the story behind the story.
“I’m not at all surprised to find you sympathetic toward the two who might have been your leading suspects,” Rob replied when she finished. “You’ve always liked the ones who’ve had the harder road to climb, and their relationship sounds as though it has potential to be something very special.”