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“I killed him.”
“Recently or a while ago?”
“Last month,” he replied.
A squeaky toy interrupted her thoughts. Loki was awake and ready to play.
“I’ll take him out to pee.” She whisked him into her arms, kissed his soft fur. “Loki, let’s go outside and empty.”
She collected the leash and headed for the front door. Prescott was by her side in seconds. Together, they stepped outside.
She walked Loki around the yard, waiting for him to pee. While he did, she said, “Empty, Loki. Good boy.” When he finished, she gave him some love.
Back inside, Prescott said, “Computer, alarm the house.”
“House alarmed, Prescott,” replied the computer.
Jacqueline collected all the squeaky toys that could wake Ethan and put them out of the dog’s reach, then she sat on the floor playing tug with a rope toy.
Prescott put on a pot of coffee, before joining her in the family room. Rather than sit on the floor, he eased onto the sofa.
“With Gloria and Bert, it’s personal,” she said. “He wanted them to see him before he killed them. But with Addison, Hawk, and Luther, he didn’t want to reveal himself. He wanted to kill them from a distance. For them, it wasn’t personal. From a profiling perspective, they don’t mesh, but maybe he couldn’t get near them.”
“We can split the list up and do a deeper dive,” he said. “Of your list of eleven—now ten because Maul’s dead—there are five who are former ALPHA Ops, three who are current employees, and Gloria and Bert’s spouses.”
They returned to the kitchen. Prescott held up the coffeepot. “Can I fill you up?”
She stifled a moan.With you.
“Do you have unsweetened almond milk?” she asked.
“I’ve got two percent milk for Ethan.”
“Black is fine.”
He filled two mugs, sat beside her.
She sipped the hot drink. “I’ll do a deep dive on Gloria and Bert’s spouses.”
“I’ll take the three current Ops,” he offered. “Bert told us his wife was visiting her sister in Florida the night he was killed.”
“That’ll be easy to confirm,” she replied.
The minutes ticked into hours. It was almost three-thirty in the morning when she pushed off the stool. Loki was out cold, on his back, in his doggy bed.So adorable.He was going to be a handful, but she was up for the challenge.
She turned toward Prescott. “Bathroom?”
“There’s one next to the mudroom and one in the foyer.”
On her way toward the mudroom, she admired his beautiful home.
While it was way past her bedtime, she wasn’t tired. Being around Prescott energized her. Research was just that. It was time consuming and oftentimes laborious. Yes, she loved her job, but some aspects were a means to an end.
But around Prescott, the mundane was thrilling. Even while working, there was strength in his actions. At one point, she’d stopped working to watch him. Everything he did was purposeful and exacting.
She found Prescott lying on the family room floor. Loki was trotting back to him, a ball in his mouth. He dropped it, Prescott rolled it across the floor, and the pup bounded after it.
“Thanks for riling my dog before I leave.”
