Nancy Bush's Nowhere Bundle: Nowhere to Run, Nowhere to Hide & Nowhere Safe. Nancy Bush

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СКАЧАТЬ and gave him a resigned look. “No. I told you, it’s just a feeling I’ve had for a long time. All my life really, since my mother’s death. Like there’s something out there. Someone out there, who means me harm. Yes, I know. This could probably be the result of finding my mother’s body. I’ve heard it all before. It just doesn’t go away and it doesn’t matter how rational I am, or how much I try to talk myself out of it, it’s always there.”

      “So, if the strangler had something to do with your mother’s death, and the Zuma killings are related to that, you think he struck again now because you got the package?”

      “He came into Zuma shooting,” Liv said. “That doesn’t follow his m.o. I know. It doesn’t make sense.”

      “Been a lot of years,” Auggie said. “Anything’s possible.”

      “Are you playing devil’s advocate?”

      He couldn’t tell her that he’d seen a lot of criminals whose crimes morphed from one thing to another for various reasons.

      “He killed three more women after my mother’s death,” she said. “Most of them were prostitutes out of the Portland area, but not all. There was a woman from Malone, the town over from Rock Springs.

      “It just feels like someone’s after me,” she went on. “Maybe they think I now know something about my mother’s death. The doctor . . . if he knew what Dr. Yancy thought, that I’d repressed something, something I’d seen . . .” She worried her lower lip with her teeth. “And then the package contents scared him. Jump-started him, or her, or whoever. If it’s not the strangler who’s after me, it’s still somebody. That’s what I feel.”

      “Okay.”

      “Okay, what?” she asked suspiciously.

      “I know you’re not going to, and I’m not going to make you, but I still think you should go to the police.”

      “No.”

      “Then, I’m a part of your team. You chose me, and you’re stuck with me.”

      He could tell his declaration almost relieved her, but she said with ill grace anyway, “Sounds like I don’t have any choice.”

      “You could still hold me at gunpoint and threaten to shoot me.”

      She lifted her brows in that way people do that silently asks, “Really?”

      “Of the people who saw the package, which one do you think it is? The one who acted on it?”

      “None of them. I don’t know. Maybe it was someone at the lawyer’s office?”

      “Was the package opened?” he asked. She shook her head. “Move past the lawyers for a moment. Go back to the people you know who saw the contents of the package.”

      “Like I said, it’s none of them. I don’t like Lorinda at all, and my father’s a cold fish, but Della . . . or Hague . . . they just . . . wouldn’t. I mean, why? Hague was a baby when our mother died, and Della wouldn’t care. . . .” She trailed off and Auggie’s attention sharpened.

      “What?” he asked.

      “It’s nothing. It’s just . . . Hague orates. In a corner of the bar below his apartment. He holds court and just talks about everything. Rants, really.”

      “About?”

      “Political stuff, mostly. He has followers. They come and listen to him, or argue with him, or just come to feel like they’re part of a crowd.”

      “You think he brought up the package to his listeners?” Auggie was skeptical.

      “He said he did . . . but I don’t know if it’s true. I upset him and he reacted. Hague gets things confused.”

      “If you had to put a finger on what item specifically, from inside the package, would send a killer to Zuma, what would it be?”

      “The photo of the stalking man,” she said. “The zombie-doctor. That picture stands out. He stands out.” She made a sound of disbelief. “I’m sorry. I don’t know why it’s taken me so long. Do you want to see the package contents?”

      Auggie was happy with this show of trust. “Sure.”

      She dragged her backpack up from beneath her chair, dropped it on the tabletop, then dug inside it and lifted out a manila envelope. Wordlessly she handed the package to him. He slipped the contents onto the table and arranged each piece so he could see each one, feeling like an intruder when he read the personal note.

      “I think he was a visiting doctor at Hathaway House, but I have to wait to talk to Dr. Knudson. I don’t even know if that’ll work. Knudson wasn’t on staff when I was there, so will he even know him?”

      “There’s only one way to find out,” Auggie said positively. “We’ll go see him together.”

      “On Monday . . . today’s Saturday . . . ?”

      “I can wait.” He smiled and she just looked at him. Eventually, she nodded her agreement as she slid the items back inside the package and set it to one side.

      Now, he just had to figure out a way to talk to D’Annibal without Liv Dugan overhearing.

      Chapter 12

      Jessica Maltona’s boyfriend, Jason Jaffe, was exactly the piece of work Gretchen had said he was. He even looked the part with disreputable jeans and a wife-beater T-shirt. He was an artist who worked with metal and a welding machine and Gretchen and Nine found him hard at work in the garage of the small home he shared with Jessica, a blue flame spurting from his hand-held welder, melting metal into a bubbling liquid at the joint of something that looked like a large ball with rebar spikes that now looped down like limp spider’s legs.

      Such was September’s appreciation of Jaffe’s art.

      He looked up at their approach through his welder’s helmet; his eyes visible behind black mesh, the rest of his face hidden. Switching off the torch, he flipped up the helmet. He was good-looking in that lean, rawhide way with deep grooves beside his mouth and flinty eyes.

      “Who the fuck are you?” he greeted them.

      “We’ve spoken,” Gretchen said, whipping out her ID and getting bristly.

      As soon as he realized who they were he visibly pulled on a mask of geniality. September introduced herself and then explained a little about the general investigation, and their visit to the hospital to see Jessica.

      “She’s not doin’ so well, huh,” he said blithely.

      Gretchen’s eyes narrowed at his callous tone, but September sensed it might be a cover-up. She wasn’t in love with the guy, but he might have a lot of feelings buried down deep that he wasn’t willing to let them see.

      “Tell us a little bit about her,” she suggested.

      “Like what?”

      “How long have you СКАЧАТЬ