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CHAPTER 4

I STARED AT the dead man, but I didn’t believe what Claire had told me. I said, “This can’t be Jacobi. He … He … He’s retired.”

“I’m so, so sorry, Linds,” said Claire.

She put her arms around me. Her sobs released mine, and Claire and I both cried into the other’s shoulder until, somehow, I finally accepted the unimaginable.

When we let go, Claire asked, “Can you handle this?”

“No. But I have to.”

Another tidal wave of disbelief and grief washed over me. I loved Jacobi. He’d been my first partner in the Homicide squad. Everything I hadn’t learned in the Academy, he’d taught me by example at crime scenes or explained to me inside a patrol car. We’d bonded early, and our deep friendship had continued before and after he cut loose from his job, his career, his reason for being.

And now Warren Jacobi was dead, lying curled up at my feet. I leaned down and put my hand on his shoulder.

“I’m so sorry this happened to you, my dear friend,” I said, looking into my former partner’s face. “You have good friends working to find out who did this to you. And that person who did this will damn well pay. I hope that you know I’m here.”

I smoothed his hair and kept my hand on his forehead. I couldn’t be sure if it was true or my imagination, but I thought he still felt warm. Everyone around me was quiet. I took another moment to pray, and when I said, “Amen,” the little group echoed that solemn word.

Then I inspected Jacobi’s injuries, snapping photos with my phone. My vision was blurred by tears, but from what I could see of the degree and angles of his wounds, Jacobi hadn’t seen the attack coming. He hadn’t even pulled his piece. From what Claire had told me so far, this assault didn’t sound like a robbery.

But then why? What had been the killer’s motive? Had it been a personal beef? Someone who’d hated Jacobi? Or was my old friend a victim of circumstance?

I turned and asked Claire, “What do we know?”