Dead Ringer. Sharon Dunn

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СКАЧАТЬ feet, swayed slightly and trudged across the floor to flip the dead bolt. She checked the kitchen clock before falling back asleep. It was nearly 3:00 a.m.

      His car started up. The rumble of the engine was loud at first but faded into the distance. Lucy pulled the blanket around her; the sense of security she’d felt while he was in the house vanished. Just as she was slipping into a deeper level of sleep, she’d wake with a start, thinking she had heard a noise. She slept fitfully until the phone rang at six.

      Even though the phone was on a table by the couch, she didn’t pick up until the third ring. She mumbled a hello.

      Heather’s chipper voice floated through the receiver. “Don’t tell me you forgot.”

      The memory of the robbery made her shiver. “Forgot what?” She should tell Heather.

      “Your second date with Greg Jackson, breakfast at Lydia’s Café. You told me about it a few days ago.”

      Lucy winced. She had agreed to let Heather create her profile on the online dating service, but now that actual dates were involved, she wasn’t so sure it was a good idea.

      Heather must have sensed Lucy’s hesitation. “Everything okay?”

      Why was it so hard to share with her best friend? Christians were supposed to bear each other’s burdens. “It’s just that—”

      “Do you like Greg?”

      “He’s seems like a nice Christian guy, but I…” Lucy gathered the blanket around her as the memory of last night invaded her thoughts.

      “You only had one date. You do this every time, Lucy. You’ve got to give him more of a chance.”

      “It’s not that.” She had no trouble helping other people, but it was so hard to be the one who needed support. She paced through the house. Finally, she stopped, took in a deep breath and blurted, “I was robbed last night.”

      “Oh, Lucy, are you okay? Were you hurt?” Heather’s concern was evident even through the phone line.

      “I wasn’t hurt or anything.” She stood in the doorway of her bedroom, looking at the dumped drawers, the empty boxes and clothes tossed from the closet. Her hand fluttered to her neck. Detective Hawkins had advised her not to do this alone.

      “I’m sure Greg would understand if you need to cancel. He’s probably already in town. Do you have his cell number?”

      Lucy’s hand gripped the frame of the door. She couldn’t stay here…not alone. “Actually, I think I need to get out of this house. I’ll go on the date. It’ll get my mind off of things.”

      “Are you sure?”

      “I am.” Anything to get away from being reminded of the robbery. She should have taken Eli’s advice and not spent the night here.

      “I’ll meet you right after your breakfast and then, Lucy, I’ll stay with you as long as you need.”

      She pivoted and pressed her back against the wall, so she didn’t have to look into the bedroom. “It’s nice to have a friend who reads my mind.”

      “No, it’s just that I know you. Quit trying to do everything yourself. But you’ve got to do something for me.”

      Lucy pressed the phone against her ear. “What is that?”

      “I know you are not crazy about this online thing. I’m doing it because I love you and don’t want you to be alone. For me, could you be a little more open-minded about Greg? You’re twenty-eight—I hear a clock ticking.”

      Lucy’s jaw tightened. Heather was well-intentioned. The little old ladies at church who kept telling her about their handsome grandsons were well-intentioned. She just couldn’t picture herself in a relationship, let alone married. What man would put up with her constantly being gone on her guide trips? “I took the batteries out of that clock a long time ago.”

      Heather didn’t laugh like Lucy had expected. Intense emotion saturated her friend’s voice. “Sometimes friends see things that you can’t see. I care about you, Lucy. I want good things for you.”

      Lucy said goodbye and got ready for her date with Greg Jackson. Because she was in a hurry, she opted to hide her hair with a baseball cap rather than take the time to fix it. The bonus of the baseball hat was that it sent Greg the message that she hadn’t spent hours getting ready. For Heather, she would go on this second date, but she didn’t need to knock herself out.

      On the porch, Lucy pulled her house keys from her purse. She never locked her door unless she was going to be gone for days. Now she was going have to lock it all the time. Renewed fear made her hands clammy as she fumbled with the key. What if the thief came back?

      TWO

      Eli had caught only a few hours’ sleep in his motel room when someone banged on the door. Still bleary-eyed, he pulled himself off the bed and swung the door open.

      “Wake up, Susie Sunshine.” Detective William Springer flashed a smile. “We got work to do.”

      While he leaned against the door frame of the motel, Eli shook his head, trying to clear the fog of sleep. He hadn’t showered. His stomach was growling, and he couldn’t stop thinking about Lucy. He hadn’t met someone like her before, an intriguing mixture of strength and vulnerability. Plus, her resemblance to the other victims made him concerned for her safety. “Are you kidding me?”

      “One of our suspects is in town.” William rocked back and forth on his feet. He was a short man with blond hair so curly it almost looked like ringlets. “We’re on surveillance in about twenty minutes.”

      With the exception of three undercover female officers, William Springer was the only Spokane detective Eli had been authorized to bring with him for the investigation. Right now he wished he had left him at home. “I need shut-eye.” Of course, William was exuberant; he was functioning on a full night’s sleep.

      William tilted the paper bag he was holding in Eli’s direction. “I brought breakfast.”

      The sticky-sweet scent of doughnuts woke Eli up a bit. “Which suspect?”

      “Greg Jackson is going through town. He has a breakfast date at a place called Lydia’s Café. Just got word of it. I didn’t want to miss the opportunity.”

      They’d narrowed the suspects down to four men who fit a profile, used the same online dating service and lived in this area where the murders had taken place. A woman who was a friend of one victim and a relative of another had brought the online dating service to police attention. Local police had submitted the specifics of the two murders to the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime and found three similar murders within a day’s drive of one another. Eli had picked Mountain Springs as a base of operation because it was central to all the other small towns where the murders had taken place.

      William shoved the doughnut bag toward him again.

      Eli held up a hand of protest. This time the smell made his stomach churn. “I need protein.”

      “Suit yourself.” William strode across the motel parking lot and yelled СКАЧАТЬ