The Finnegan Sisters

CHAPTER FOUR

JACK FELT A sense of ease the moment he saw the Welcome to Riverton sign. Its billboard proportions, depicting an old Mississippi paddle wheeler plying the waterway while a pair of majestic bald eagles soared overhead, might be disproportionate to the size of the population, but never its allegiance. Even people who’d left for the bright lights and busy streets of cities like Chicago were proud to call Riverton, Wisconsin, home.

Jack swung his Jeep onto Main Street. The two-story, redbrick buildings flanking the wide thoroughfare were as familiar today as they had been when he’d worked Saturdays as a stock boy at Henderson’s Hardware, bought sodas at Baxter’s Pharmacy and had his hair cut at Morris’s Barbershop.

He’d eaten his share of burgers and fries at the Riverton Café, which still existed, but was now under new ownership and called the Riverton Bar & Grill. He’d made that discovery the last time he’d been home because he and Emily Finnegan had gone to the restaurant for dinner. And there, in the back row of the Big River Theatre, he’d made it to first base for the first time with...? Huh. He’d been sixteen or thereabouts. She’d been hot, blonde, that year’s Riverboat Queen, if memory served. Why couldn’t he remember her name?

Did it matter? Not even a little bit. What mattered was this unexpected homecoming gave him a chance to see Emily again. He slowed as he drove past the Riverton Gazette office, glanced up at the windows of her second-floor apartment and told himself he was being an idiot to feel disappointed he didn’t see her.

He shook his head. “What? You expected her to be standing by the window, waiting for you?”

Now that he was here, he deeply regretted not calling her. In some ways, it seemed like a lifetime ago. In reality, it had been—what?—six weeks. Or was it longer? Maybe eight? Too long to expect her to simply pick up where they’d left off. She probably thought he was a first-class jerk.

Would she understand when he explained how he’d been catapulted into the most bizarre triple-homicide investigation of his career, sometimes working more than twenty-four hours before realizing he hadn’t slept? And when he did nod off, usually for just a few hours, his dreams were crowded with images of three innocent people, their cold, bruised flesh cut so deep, he wished they’d already been dead by the time the wounds had been inflicted.

Slapping cuffs on the killer should have provided some satisfaction. It hadn’t. Instead, he had hoped the guy would resist arrest, give him a reason to pump a couple rounds into his chest. Jack hated himself for wanting that, but not as much as he’d hated the narcissistic sicko who had held his head high and smiled widely, preening for the TV cameras on the day of his arraignment. That’s when Jack knew. He was bitter, burned out and he needed a change. He wanted a normal life. He wasn’t sure what that was, but he wanted a woman like Emily Finnegan to be part of it.

She was bound to be irate with him for not calling and he couldn’t fault her for that, but he would make it up to her. As soon as he finished interviewing Rose Daniels this afternoon, he would take Emily out for dinner. Pasta with marinara sauce, coffee and a lemon meringue tart for dessert. He never forgot details like that, and he remembered other things, too. The way she’d smiled when he’d reached across the table and covered her hand with his. The way she’d sighed after their first kiss, the way that kiss had led to another, and another, and...

He remembered, all right, and he would put those memories to good use tonight. He grinned at his reflection in the rearview mirror, ran a hand over the stubble on his jaw. He should probably get cleaned up before he interviewed this witness. From what he’d read in Rose’s file, he had a better shot at getting her to open up if he used his good cop routine. His current five o’clock shadow and too-long scruff were more in keeping with the bad-cop version of Jack Evans. Besides, the longer this witness languished in a cell, the more likely she’d be to spill the details once he had her sitting in the interview room.

He had a hunch that Emily preferred the good cop, too.

He swung right on Second Avenue, circled the block and angled into a parking spot in front of Morris’s. Again, he glanced up at Emily’s apartment across the street, relieved this time she wasn’t by the window. Better to wait and catch her unawares. He would use the element of surprise to get her attention, apologize and then tell her about the case that had consumed him for the past however many weeks.

Jack strode between the red, white and blue striped poles that flanked the barbershop door, wondering if Chicago had any old-fashioned barbershops like this one. It must have, but he couldn’t remember having seen one. He certainly hadn’t looked for one. Morris’s was...normal. Familiar.

Fred Morris sat in one of a pair of ancient barbershop chairs, facing the mirror, reading a newspaper. Jack pushed the door open, the sound of the bell causing Fred to glance up. There was no mistaking the flicker of deer-in-the-headlights surprise in the man’s eyes, but it was gone by the time he swiveled around and stood up.

“Jack. Ah, good to see you. What...ah...what brings you to Riverton?”

The guy was a bundle of nerves.

“A case I’m working on.”

“Right, right. So...ah...what can I do you for you?”

Seriously? “Shave, haircut.”

“Right, of course. Here, sit.” He moved around to the back of the chair and held it while Jack shrugged out of his jacket. “Here, I’ll take that.”

After he sat down, Fred swung the chair to face the mirror, and Jack watched the man’s reflection as he scurried about, stuffing his hastily folded newspaper into a wall-mounted magazine rack. He hung Jack’s jacket on an old coat tree.

Jack didn’t know Fred well, admittedly, but he didn’t remember him being this jumpy, acting as though he had something to hide. Besides, what could he be hiding? Come to think of it, Fred was a longtime friend of Emily’s. Would she have told him about the night she and Jack had spent together?

Awkward. Not to mention unlikely. He was jumping to conclusions for which he had no evidence. He watched Fred take his cell phone out of his pants pocket, tap out a quick message and put it back.

“Okay. A shave and a haircut.” Fred, suddenly all business and apparently recovered from his case of nerves, shook out a black plastic cape and draped it over Jack’s chest and shoulders.

* * *

MABLE POTTER LIVED in a quaint one-and-a-half-story house on Cottonwood Street, in the middle of a block of identical dwellings. Over the years, the homes had been personalized with a picket fence here, a glassed-in veranda there, window boxes, skylights and paint colors that spanned the rainbow. The clapboard of Mrs. Potter’s house was salmon pink, the trim snowy white. In the back corner of the yard was a garden shed. Mable’s husband, who’d passed away more than a decade ago, had designed it to look like a miniature version of the main house, capturing every detail right down to the lace-curtained windows.

As a child, Emily had daydreamed about playing house in the Potters’ garden shed. Today, her current reality made her wonder how in the world she was going to manage a baby on her own in her cramped one-bedroom apartment over the newspaper office.

Emily followed the elderly woman through the gate and up the steps. Mrs. Potter opened the front door and stooped to unfasten the dog’s leash. Instead of going inside, though, the scruffy, wiry-haired dog of indeterminate breed let out a yip, raced back down the steps and disappeared around the corner of the house, a black-and-white blur in pursuit of a squirrel.

“I don’t know why he chases them,” the woman said. “He’s never caught one. And I think they come in the yard on purpose, simply to torment him.”

Emily laughed at the idea of a ragtag scurry of squirrels plotting to outwit a hapless predator. Possibly something she could work into a story for her blog. “Where would you like me to put the groceries?” she asked.

“Would you mind carrying them into the kitchen for me?”

“Of course not.” Emily noticed Mrs. Potter hadn’t used a key, which meant she hadn’t locked the door when she’d left the house to go shopping. Not usually a big concern in Riverton, especially during the daytime. Still, the woman did live alone, and things around town had mysteriously started to disappear. “Did you forget to lock the door when you went out?” she asked, deciding to play it low-key.

“Oh, I never bother. This is Riverton, after all, and Banjo’s a good watchdog.”

“I’m sure he is.” Except Banjo hadn’t been here, and Emily suspected his watchfulness extended only to keeping small rodents at bay. Still, everything in the house looked as it should, not a doily out of place.

Emily set the bag of groceries on the kitchen table and glanced through the window to the backyard where the dog ran in circles around the trunk of an oak tree, tormented by the squirrel chittering at him from an overhanging branch. Instinctively, she pulled her camera from her bag, zoomed in on the scene and snapped a series of photos.

“Are you going to put those pictures in the newspaper?” Mable asked.

“No, but I’d like to post them on my blog if that’s okay with you.”

“A blog? I don’t know what that is, but it’s fine with me.”

Emily watched with amusement and mild curiosity as the woman carried the kettle to the sink, filled it and then put it in the refrigerator.

“Would you like to stay for tea?”

“Ah...” Emily did her best not to laugh out loud. “I’d love to stay, Mrs. Potter, but not today, thanks. I have to get back to the office and catch up on a few things.” Now that she had talked to Fred, she needed to set her sisters straight and then plan an unwelcome trip to Chicago. “But I’ll be happy to drop by early next week,” she was quick to add, noting the woman’s disappointment. The weekly edition of the Gazette came out every Wednesday morning and she always had a little breathing room after that.

“That’ll be nice, dear. I’ll save you a slice of my red velvet cake.”

“I wouldn’t miss it.” She left Mable to put away her groceries, wondering how long it would take the poor woman to figure out why it was taking so long for the kettle to boil. Outside, the standoff between dog and squirrel continued to play out in the yard. Not able to resist, she followed the stepping-stones that meandered from the back porch to the garden shed and walked up onto the narrow veranda. The lace curtains were drawn in the shed’s windows, and the interior was dark. Emily wasn’t sure why, but she reached for the doorknob. It was locked. Interesting. Well, no one would be able to steal the old woman’s wheelbarrow and watering can.

Her cell phone buzzed as she was making her way around the side of the house to the front gate. It was a text message from Fred.

The jig is up. Get over here. Now.

What? How? Had one of her sisters gone into the shop to talk to Fred, even though they had both promised not to utter a word about this to anyone? Or had one of them told their father? If anyone had blabbed about this, it would be CJ. Ugh. The little busybody. Emily was going to wring her neck. As for her father, was he at the barbershop now? Annie had said he’d be driving Isaac into town for a birthday party that afternoon. Emily shoved the phone into the side pocket of her bag and set out for a brisk walk back to Morris’s. Time to face the music, again.

* * *

SOME OF THE tension that had knotted in Jack’s neck and shoulders during the drive from Chicago loosened a little.

“How long are you in town for?” Fred asked.

“A couple of days.”

“Nice. You’ll see your family, I guess.”

“Plan to.”

“Your dad was in for a trim last week.” Fred tucked a towel around the neckline of the cape. “Haven’t seen your mother in a while, though. How’s she doing?”

“Oh, you know, she’s the same as always.”

Jack didn’t actually know that, although it’s what he assumed. Norma Evans would always do the things she’d always done. Keeping the house where he and his sister had been raised, which was far too big for her and his father, as neat as a pin. Reminding his father that salads were good for him and pipe smoking was not. Volunteering at church bazaars and literacy book drives, organizing care packages for troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Walter Evans was retired from his lifelong career as maintenance supervisor for the Town of Riverton. It used to be his job to keep the fire trucks, police cars and snowplows running and on the road. Now he spent most of his time in his workshop at the back of the garage next to the house, tinkering with his twenty-year-old Ford F-250, fixing bicycles and repairing broken appliances and old lawn mowers for everyone in the neighborhood. The shop was the only place where Walt could listen to NPR uninterrupted and puff on his pipe without censure.

Jack stared up at the tin-tiled ceiling as Fred applied pre-shave cream to his face. The question about his parents was a harsh reminder that Jack had been doing a lousy job of staying in touch with them. He needed to figure a way around the tunnel vision he developed every time he worked a major case.

“And now for the towel,” Fred said.

Jack heard the steamer open, then gave an inward sigh as Fred placed the hot towel on his face. The heat seeped along his jaw, up his cheeks and across his brows.

“There we go. Give that a few minutes, and then we’ll get started.”

Jack’s thoughts drifted from his family to the interview he needed to do this afternoon and then to Emily, to seeing her again, to holding her, to...

The clang of the bell on the barbershop door cut into his thoughts.

* * *

EMILY WAS BREATHLESS by the time she returned to the barbershop. Fred met her at the door and shushed her with a quick finger to the lips as he escorted her across the floor and sat her in an empty chair. The other chair, she noted, was occupied. Fred unceremoniously returned his customer to an upright position, peeled back the towel and swung him to face Emily.

“Jack?”

He blinked, clearly as startled to see her as she was to see him. “Emily.”

She blinked back.

“You two need to talk,” Fred said. And then he walked out and locked the door behind him.

CHAPTER FIVE

JACK HADN’T REALIZED how much he’d been looking forward to seeing Emily until he opened his eyes, and there she was. Glossy dark hair, intelligent brown eyes behind the black, square-framed glasses she sometimes wore instead of contacts, a perfectly shaped nose with a dusting of freckles, luscious lips that appeared to be calling out for a kiss.

Or maybe not. She did not look happy to see him, not even a little bit. He had meant to have the element of surprise work to his advantage. Instead he found himself at a distinct disadvantage, and he hated that. He snatched the towel from around his neck and used it to swipe the pre-shave off his face, then cast it aside along with the cape.

He had planned to show up at her place later that day, unannounced. He knew she’d be surprised and most likely a little—or a lot—ticked off that he hadn’t called. He had a knack for picking up on a person’s emotions, for reading their body language, and right now, Emily was both surprised and irritated. He hadn’t expected this third emotion, though, something akin to fear.

“How did you know I was here?” he asked, sitting up straighter. It was a dumb question, a question he wouldn’t have asked, and in a tone he wouldn’t have used if he felt more in control.

“I had no idea you were here.” She narrowed her gaze. “Why are you here?”

Wasn’t it obvious? “A shave, a haircut.”

She rolled her eyes. “Here in Riverton.”

“Oh. I have to interview a witness at the police station this afternoon.”

“Okay.” She looked as though she didn’t believe him.

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

“I live here.”

His turn for an eye roll. “Here, in the barbershop, not here in Riverton.”

“Oh...I...um...”

But he already knew the answer. “Fred texted you I was here, didn’t he?”

Emily shook her head. “He didn’t say anything about you. He just said I needed to get over here.”

Jack did not like the sound of that, not one bit. “Why would he do that?”

She started to say something, seemed to think better of it and closed her mouth.

“Why did he say the two of us need to talk? Did you tell him about us?”

She was blushing furiously and looking guilty as all get-out. He could understand that she’d maybe talk to a girlfriend or her sisters about their night together. He knew women shared those kinds of details, but would she talk to another guy about them?

Unless...for a few seconds, his doubts got the better of him. Were she and Fred more than friends? Or was Fred more of a girlfriend type of friend? Not that Fred’s relationships were any of his business, but there was obviously something going on here that involved Jack, and that was his business. There had to be a reason the guy had been so jumpy when Jack had walked into the shop. He planned to find out what it was.

Jack stabbed his fingers through hair that was evidently not going to get cut after all. “Why would you do that? And how many other people know about us?”

“Us? There’s an us? Huh. You could have fooled me.” Her tone was defensive, and he could hardly fault her for it.

Not only had he started out on the wrong foot, now he’d made her mad. Who was he kidding? She had probably been mad for weeks. Now there was every chance he’d messed up a good thing, possibly the best thing that had happened in a long time. To make matters worse, if she had talked to Fred about their night, she would have told her sisters, too, and possibly any number of other people. This might be all over Riverton by now. No. It couldn’t be. If it was, his mother would have heard about it, and then he really would have heard about it.

At this point, it didn’t matter who knew and who didn’t. He needed to come clean with Emily, make her understand how intense this triple homicide investigation was and explain he was an idiot who wanted a second chance. Maybe grovel a little.

“Look, I’m sorry,” he said. “Not calling you was a stupid move. Or maybe lack of a move is a better way to describe it. I meant to call, wanted to see you again. I never meant to take this long to get around to it.”

“Technically, you still haven’t.”

Ouch. She was more composed now. She wasn’t going to make this easy for him, and he could hardly blame her.

“That’s true, but I was going to.” To prove his point, he jumped up and crossed the shop to where his jacket hung and then returned to the chair with her business card in his hand. “I was planning to call this afternoon, as soon as I finished my interview.”

He glanced at the wall clock. He was going to have one antsy witness on his hands by the time he finally made it to the station, but this thing with Emily couldn’t be rushed.

“You were?”

“I was. I...” He considered his options before he continued. Pour on the charm? Shoot from the hip? Knowing she would see right through the first option, he decided on the second. “Look, the truth is, I’m not very good at being in a relationship when I’m working a case.”

Her eyes widened at his use of the R word. Confident he was on the right path, he continued.

“Really lousy at it, actually.” He’d been hauled on the carpet by several former girlfriends, and one had used far more colorful language than that to describe his single-minded absorption with a case, but this was not the time to share those kinds of details with Emily.

“Within a few days after Eric’s funeral, there were three murders in Chicago. Different parts of the city, different times of the day over three days. Three victims who at first seemed to have no connection to one another. The only similarity was the MO. All three victims were stabbed multiple times and with the same knife.”

Emily paled. “I remember reading about them. Didn’t pay attention to the details, though. Those kinds of news stories give me the willies, which is why I prefer human-interest stories. You had to investigate the murders?”

“I did.”

“I’m sorry. “

He shrugged. “It’s what I do. It took some time, but we eventually figured out the connection. A social worker, a foster parent and a street person, all with a past connection to a young woman.”

“She killed them?” Emily sounded incredulous.

“No, her boyfriend did, and then she disappeared. He’s in custody now, but he’s not talking. Until this morning, we had no idea if she was dead or alive.”

“And that’s who you’re here to interview?”

“That’s right.”

“Why would she come to Riverton?”

“I guess I’ll find out when I talk to her.” He checked the clock again. He really needed to get to the station, ASAP. “Anyway, none of this is an excuse for not calling you. It’s just how I am when I get caught up in a case. Until it’s solved, it’s 24/7. And since it looks like I’m not getting that shave, I need to get to the station and get this interview over with. They’re holding her on a suspected DUI, but they can’t keep her there forever.”

Emily studied the card he held. He couldn’t tell if she was avoiding eye contact or if she had something else on her mind. She took a deep breath, let it out in a rush. “There’s something else.”

He had no idea what she was about to say, but he had a pretty good idea he wasn’t going to like it.

“That night when we were...together. Something sort of...um...unexpected happened.”

An uneasy sensation pooled in his gut.

“What do you mean by something un—” But his question wasn’t even fully formed when the answer hit him like a commuter train. Emily didn’t say anything. She simply waited as his scattered emotions became a single, coherent thought.