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“That’s why it might be important.” She tapped the incoming call. “What’s wrong, Ashley?”
“Sorry to bother you, sweetie, but you wanted me to tell you if I remembered anything else about the time Tiff died.”
“I did.” Jessica’s heart, which had just started to slow down from Finn’s attentions, ramped up again and she put her phone on speaker, so Finn could hear. “What did you remember?”
Ashley coughed her smoker’s cough. “Something else was stolen from the apartment with that damned doll.”
“What was it?” She glanced at Finn, a stack of pillows propping up his head, his gaze sharp.
“Her knitting.”
“Knitting? Tiffany didn’t knit.”
“Crazy, I know, but she was trying to give up smoking and decided to learn how to knit. She was working on something—something for you at the time, and I swear it was taken with the doll because when you came over to collect her stuff, I asked you about it.”
“I don’t remember that at all.”
“You were kinda messed up, sweetie. You hadn’t found any knitting needles, so I figured they were taken like the doll. She worked on that damned red scarf every night.”
Jessica’s fingers curled into the bedspread beneath her. “Tiffany was knitting a red scarf at the time she was murdered?”
“That’s right. You can ask Denny. Click, click, click those damned needles. She was working on that red scarf for you…and somebody stole it.”
Chapter Eleven
“Sweetie?” Ashley’s raspy voice grated across the line, but Jessica seemed incapable of speech, her round eyes glassy in the dim light.
“Ashley, this is Finn Karlsson, a…friend of Jessica’s. You might remember me…”
“Oh, I remember you. Found our Tiff’s body.”
“That’s right. I’m helping Jessica.” He dragged a blanket up the bed and covered Jessica’s shivering body with it. “This scarf Tiffany was knitting, how long was it? I mean how far along was she?”
“Far.” She hacked again. “I’m not saying it was any good, but she was almost done with it. She knitted away with that thing curled up at her feet like some kind of red snake ready to strike. I told her one time, Jessie’s tall, but hell, that thing could wrap around bigfoot’s neck a few times.”
Finn winced and squeezed Jessica’s thigh beneath the blanket. “You never reported this theft to the police?”
“Like I told Jessie, I didn’t think much about it—a doll and a beginner’s knitting project. Didn’t see the point. Didn’t even make a connection with Tiff’s murder, but I remembered it tonight when Denny and I were talking about Tiff,you know, good times, and we were joking about her knitting.” Ashley sucked in a breath. “Jessie? Is Jessie okay?”
“I-I’m fine, Ashley.” Jessica pulled the blanket more tightly around her form. “I really appreciate your call. Anything else you remember, please call me anytime.”
“Okay. Didn’t mean to interrupt you and Finn. I know you always had a crush on that cop, but at least he’s not the po-po anymore.”
Finn rolled his eyes at Jessica. “Yeah, thanks for that, Ashley.”
Ashley ended the call after more assurances from Jessica that she was okay, even though neither one of them told Ashley the reason for Jessica’s shock.
Jessica sat, hunched over, the phone in her lap. “Something old, something dead, something stolen, something red. It’s the scarf, isn’t it? He stole that scarf from Tiffany at the same time he stole the rag doll, and he’s using it to strangle women.”
Did he have an answer for her? Did he disagree with her, as fantastic as it all sounded? “But he didn’t use that scarf to strangle Tiffany. The investigators are certain Plank—” Jessica shot him a look from beneath her lashes and he held up his hands “—or whoever killed your sister used a tie.”
“That’s right, even though Plank always used his hands, those big hands.” She pulled the blanket up to her chin and pinned it to her chest. “The person who killed Morgan and Missy knows too much about Tiffany—things nobody else would know—not to have been involved in her homicide. That sick poem says it all. Tiffany’s murder is old, she’s dead, he stole a red scarf from her. It’s all there, Finn.”
“It’s not all there. We have one person of interest. The cops can talk to Deke, and I’m sure they will after the infoI gave them about him, but you of all people know they’ll have to find evidence. And why now?” Finn scooped up his jeans and untangled his briefs. “Why did he start up again if he’s been living here all this time with access to plenty of young women?”
She pulled a pillow over her face and screamed into it.
That’s exactly how he felt right now. Would he ever be able to date this woman without a murder getting in the way?