She looked out again and nodded. “I guess so. As long as there’s no need to go out in it. Scrabble?”
“Yup. It’s old, and I make no promises about whether it has all the tiles. Wanna give it a shot?”
She nodded. “Maybe we can limit ourselves to making words associated with the case.”
He arched a brow at her. “Do you ever stop working?”
“Not when I’m on a case. Do you?” She watched his dubious look gradually melt into that engaging smile.
“Not really,” he admitted. “But since we’re kind of mired at the moment, and I suspect I have the files memorized well enough that I could recite them off the top of my head, I’m thinking a change of perspective might be useful.”
“Like clearing the decks and then seeing where everything falls afterward.” She smiled back at him. “I’m game. Maybe whatever it is at the back of my mind will get jogged loose.”
“Still have that sense that there’s something in that mess you should recognize?”
“I can’t escape it.”
They brewed another pot of the inevitable coffee, then sat at the kitchen table with the game. They disagreed briefly about whether they should find out if there were missing tiles, but it was humorous and they knew it wouldn’t change anything in the end. If the tiles weren’t there, it wasn’t as if they could replace them somehow.
The game was from a time when the board had no guides to keep tiles in place, when the tiles were still made of wood and contained in a cloth bag. It all looked worn and well used.
DeeJay drew the highest-numbered tile and played the first word: cereal.
Cade laughed. “I thought we weren’t sticking to the case.”
An unexpected laugh escaped DeeJay. “Um...is that what you think we’re looking for? A cereal killer?”
“You should see what he did to my oat bran.”
“I hate to tell you that you’re slightly off track.”
They continued in the same vein for a while, joking lightly back and forth, in no hurry and not even keeping score. Cade proved to have a wicked talent for managing to hit triple-word scores, but as the tiles began to run out, the words became shorter. So did the distraction the game provided.
DeeJay looked toward the kitchen window and saw only swirling white. Even the neighboring Jackson house was invisible now.
She leaned back, forgetting the game, and cupped her mug with both hands. “I hate being stymied,” she admitted. “I hate it when I can’t do anything, when I’m missing important information, when I’m just plain stuck.”
“Me, too,” Cade said. Without asking, he began to gather up all the tiles and replace them in the bag. The break was over. “Unfortunately, nothing’s going to happen until tomorrow.”
“So we’re left running over the same tired ground.”
He didn’t answer, but what could he say? The storm held them prisoner, but she wasn’t sure it would have been any different if they’d been able to go out and about. Any information anyone had on this killer was already in their hands. Even reading it upside down wouldn’t change that.