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CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

J acob had slept for a couple of hours before hunger brought him to wakefulness. He’d hit the kitchen and found ramen he’d been able to make in the microwave. Sitting hurt, he ate it standing up in the kitchen before heading back down the hall, not sure where he was going.

Russ was in his office. Jacob kept on down the hall.

Mona’s door was open.

Jacob glanced in and saw the teen leaf through a magazine but not reading it.

She glanced up. “Hey.”

“I’m up. Need anything?” He wasn’t sure how she felt about him being here or if she cared at all. Jacob was more than aware this wasn’t his home, and being around people felt different than having just his cats for company.

Mona shrugged.

“Doing okay? I mean, if you want to talk about it.”

Another shrug.

“Okay…” He left one final door open, about to leave.

“Russ took my phone,” she began. “But before he did, everyone was talking about how you killed Celia Jessop.”

Jacob turned to leave, unwilling to have this conversation.

“I’m glad she’s dead.”

He frowned. Turning back hurt. He did it, anyway. “I didn’t kill her. You think your uncle or your sister would let me stay here and put all of you in danger if I had?”

“Maybe you convinced them you’re innocent.” She lifted her chin.

Since it was the first sign of life she’d given anyone in a couple of days, he decided to dig in there. See if he could draw her out. “Celia’s dad thought I did it. The police seemed to think so—maybe they still do. But I’m telling you I had nothing to do with it, and that’s the truth.”

She stared at him. The skin around her eyes flexed.

He wasn’t going to beg and plead for her to believe him. Jacob didn’t have the energy for that. “What did you mean when you said you’re glad she did it?”

Sure, it was a clear deflection back to her, but it wasn’t like he wanted to talk about him.

Jacob leaned on the door frame.

Mona shrugged. “Celia…she was Austin’s ex. Just as crazy about what happened to you and Addie as he was.”

“How long were they together?”

Mona made a face. “It’s not like they were married or anything. But they talked about it like it was forever.” She shrugged one shoulder. “Maybe a few months.”

His “chat” with Celia. The one that had turned into an altercation with the guy he presumed now was Austin? It had happened nearly three months ago now.

“That must’ve been frustrating, with you and Austin trying to make something work.” Even though it had been morally questionable, technically illegal, and just plain a bad idea, he wanted to connect with her.

Mona said, “They still hung out all the time. Celia’s new boyfriend didn’t know. She bragged about him all the time like he was this big shot.”

“Any idea who it was?”

“Not that guy everyone said she was with.” Mona made a face. “She dumped him like a month ago.”

Jacob thought back on the conversations he’d had with Celia at the retirement home where she worked. Mostly they talked about patients there he wanted to interview. They’d barely strayed into small talk beyond asking about each other’s weekend, like two coworkers on a Monday. Benign stuff Celia couldn’t possibly have read into—or anyone else that might’ve overheard.

But maybe he couldn’t be sure of that.

It would be far too obvious for Jacob to ask if Celia had ever mentioned him.

“For a while, I thought she was talking about you.” She paused. “Like you were her boyfriend. But we saw you on the street once, and she made this comment.”

“It’s okay if it was bad.” He wanted her to tell him. “I’m not going to get mad.”

“She thought you were creepy. I don’t get it, but she made it sound like she knew something.”

Jacob frowned. “If she did, she kept it to herself.”

Why hadn’t she come across as nervous or scared of him in person? Had there been an ulterior motive in her talking to him at the retirement home? Maybe it had been about feeling him out. Getting to know him, he let down his guard.

Jacob didn’t like the idea he’d been played.

He wasn’t the best at reading people and might be better if he didn’t spend so much time alone. But he hadn’t needed the skill. Now Celia was dead, and he might never find out what she’d been up to—if she’d been up to anything.

“Maybe she was afraid of you,” Mona said. “But it didn’t seem like it. She was just wary.”

Jacob wasn’t going to let that go. “You don’t have anything to worry about from me. Okay?”

“Like I’m supposed just to trust whatever you say?”

“Russ teach you that?”

“He taught me not to be na?ve or make assumptions.” She made a face. “Guess it didn’t work.”

“I’m sorry about Austin.” Regardless of the merits of the relationship, she had lost someone she cared about.

“Yeah, me too.” Mona sighed.

He wasn’t sure what he’d expected. Maybe teenage hysterics? She seemed levelheaded. Or the storm had passed, and another wave might hit her in the future, but she was in a calm spell for now.

He wasn’t a cop. “Do you know who might kill Celia or Austin?”

“Aside from her new boyfriend? Celia said he was crazy possessive.” Mona shifted. “It didn’t sound good, and Austin was weird about it. Asking her who he was. She wouldn’t say, but maybe he followed her, and the guy found out. Maybe he killed them both.”

Jacob sent Addie a text. Asked if she knew who Celia’s mystery boyfriend was. He couldn’t remember if she’d mentioned anything about it to him, but it wasn’t like they talked through her case.

He wouldn’t have anything at all to do with it if McCauley didn’t think Jacob was guilty of something . Too bad the police captain didn’t feel the need to base those assumptions on actual evidence.

He didn’t need to get into the middle of a police investigation. But since Celia’s death would be pinned on him unless the cops found another suspect—preferably the actual murderer—he figured it might be down to him to ask a few questions.

“Does your sister know that you knew Celia?”

Mona shrugged. “Maybe not.”

Jacob wondered if the cops knew she was associated with Celia. “Did anyone from the police department talk to you after she died?”

“Geez, questions.”

“Sorry,” Jacob said. “I’m just trying to get things straight in my head, you know?”

“Cause everyone thinks you did it?”

“The important thing is that I didn’t.” And yet Celia’s dad had been convinced like everyone else, so much so that he’d tried to kill Jake. He swallowed. “Her death can’t go without someone finding out who was responsible. That’s why I’m asking.”

Pretty soon he was going to have to lie down. His energy level was tanking fast, even with the food in his stomach.

Maybe the energy it took in digesting that was more than his body could handle and sleep would claim him again. It seemed like that was all he’d done for days. Sleep and dream of Addie kissing him until he wondered if it had even been real and not just a dream.

“I’d be surprised if the police don’t come by and ask you about Austin.”

Mona nodded. “I think Russ is making them wait.”

“He shouldn’t put it off forever. Not when you could help them find out who killed Austin, and maybe Celia too.” Jacob wondered if the cops had Celia’s phone. Surely that would show them who she was in a relationship with. People used their phones for everything these days, no matter their generation.

It was an electronic record of a person’s life, for good or ill.

“Don’t you have a friend that’s a cop?” she asked.

“I haven’t spoken to him in a few days.” Jacob winced. “I think he might’ve gone after the person who stabbed me.”

Then again, he had no idea where Hank was. Neither did anyone else. Their guess was as good as Jacob’s since Hank did what he pleased. He showed up when he wanted to. They hung out when it worked for Hank since his schedule was harder to plan around than Jacob’s photography sessions and the interviews he’d been doing at the retirement home.

It was just how things had gone over the last few years. Not bad, just what they’d fallen into.

Hank would come back around eventually. Jacob could only send so many texts before he had to face the fact his friend could tank his career singlehandedly, and there was nothing he could do to help Hank with that.

Down the hall something clattered, dropped on the floor in another room.

He was about to call out to Russ when Hank stepped into the hall.

“Hey,” Hank muttered.

Instinct had Jacob turn and lean the front of his right shoulder on the doorframe. Then he realized what didn’t seem right—Hank’s hair was mussed as though he’d run his hands through it. Scratches marred his face and forearms where his sleeves rolled up. Split skin on his knuckles.

He prowled down the hall at a slow pace. “Hey.”

Hey?

“Is everything all right?” Jacob heard Mona move behind him and lifted his hand back there. Hopefully she saw him wave for her to stay out of sight.

Behind his back she gave his hand a slight squeeze, and he heard a whisper of clothing, then nothing.

“Yeah, yeah.” Hank sniffed. “Where’s the girl?”

“Addie?” Surely he meant the FBI agent they both knew, and not the teenage girl Hank had no business talking to unless it was as a cop. Hank’s badge was nowhere in sight.

“Nah, the sister.” Hank wouldn’t meet his gaze.

Jacob had never seen him like this. “Mona went out. Needed some air, you know?”

His friend wasn’t here to check on Jacob and see how he was doing after the stabbing. Nor was he here for any other good reason. Where was Russ? Surely the old marshal had figured out someone was in the house.

Russ wasn’t the type to leave something like that to chance and risk the people he cared about being unprotected.

“Wanna tell me what this is?” He needed a way to contact Addie without Hank knowing. Could he tell Mona to do it, again behind his back? He wasn’t sure how to get that done but he’d have to figure it out fast if he was going to make it work. Hank moved toward him.

Kept coming.

Jacob braced. “Tell me what this is.”

Hank stopped right in front of him. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“I think I’m beginning to.”

They’d been friends for years, survivors of the same tragedy. Jacob had been blind to the truth beneath the surface all that time. He and Addie had considered themselves patient zero with the ripples affecting the entire community.

Maybe that wasn’t true.

It seemed as though the origin might lay with Hank and the truth Jacob hadn’t ever wanted to face. The thing right in front of him.

Hank shifted, then rammed his fist into Jacob’s stomach before Jacob could move out of the way. Or brace. Either would have been good. But Hank’s power hammered him.

Jacob cried out and doubled over. Pain eclipsed everything. Tears burned in his eyes.

This was wrong. So wrong. “Why are you?—”

Hank grabbed Jacob’s arm, pulled it behind his back, and slammed him on the floor.

Jacob roared out all the pain. “Mona, run!”

Handcuffs slapped on his wrists behind his back. But this was no arrest.

The pain overwhelmed him, and everything went black.