“Maybe he was there before they arrived.”
She and Nate had walked to the house’s century-old dump, where Nate’s wife, a historical archaeologist, had conducted a dig, unearthing artifacts – mostly ordinary household items that would go on display when the house finally opened to the public.
“Harris Mayer might have been killed before you were attacked,” Nate said. “If his killer is the same man -”
“Then I’m not responsible because I let him go?” Mackenzie could hear the self-recrimination in her tone. “That’s not I how I look at it.”
“You didn’t let him go.” A note of mild exasperation had crept into Nate’s voice. “If you’re going to do this job, you have to get some perspective on what’s a real mistake and what isn’t.”
Mackenzie looked away from him. “I don’t know if I can do this work. I look at you -”
“I’ve been at it longer.”
“I look at Juliet Longstreet, T.J., Rook.”
“All more experienced than you. Just about every federal agent in Washington is. You’re new. We all know that. So does Joe Delvecchio.”
“He told me today I’m so smart, I’m stupid.”
Nate grinned. “He didn’t get to be chief by mincing words. It was your sneaking into Beanie’s house that got him.”
“I didn’t ‘sneak’in. I have a key. And it’s not like I took anything.”
“She’s a federal judge in his district. What if you had found something relevant to Rook’s investigation? It’d be subject to suppression.”
“Delvecchio doesn’t understand my relationship with her.”
“Nobody does. After your father’s accident…” Nate hesitated, then continued, “Beanie blamed herself as much as you blamed yourself. She was an adult, and you were just a kid, but that day was tough on both of you.”
“I hardly remember any of it. I just remember this overwhelming feeling that I’d done something wrong.”
“Like today.”
Yeah, she thought. Like today. She took his hand and squeezed it. “Thanks for your friendship, Nate.”
He slung an arm over her shoulder as they started back toward the house. “Harris should have been straight with Rook. He wasn’t.”
“Maybe because he was more afraid of whoever killed him.”
“Possibly.”
“Or,” she said, “knowing Harris, he tried to have it both ways. Cut a deal with the FBI and with his killer.”
“The rooming house isn’t in the best neighborhood. For all we know, Harris walked into the middle of a drug deal, or someone tried to rob him. We have to let the facts lead us.”
“There was no forced entry. The doors were locked. Either Harris let his killer in or gave him a key, or the killer talked the building’s superintendent into opening up the door. There are a lot of possibilities.” Mackenzie forced herself to smile. “Or it was a ghost.”
“No wonder you and Sarah get along so well.”
But his amusement came across as forced, and hers faded almost immediately. “The FBI wants to talk to Cal,” she said. “He was supposed to meet Rook and T.J. this morning, and now they can’t find him.”
“He could be a lot of places,” Nate said.
“I know. It doesn’t mean he’s dead on a bathroom floor.”
“Or that he killed Harris or had anything to do with his death, except perhaps a premonition. Who knows. Where are you staying tonight?”
“Rook’s, I guess.” Mackenzie kept her voice matter of fact. “I stayed there last night after the little incident with the hydrangea and the knife. He has a decent guest room. One wall’s full of pictures of Rooks.”
Nate dropped his arm from her shoulders but said nothing.
“His nineteen-year-old nephew is there,” Mackenzie added.
“Think so?” Nate opened up his car door and grinned at her, showing a spark of real amusement for the first time since she’d found him in her driveway. “Bet the nephew’s not there tonight.”
Rook found his nephew out on the bent and rusted swing set in the backyard, another area that needed work. Shrubs his grandparents had planted when they’d moved into the house were in need of serious pruning or outright replacement, and, stuck in a tangle of weeds and ground cover in the far corner of the yard, was a faded, chubby gnome that just had to go.
So did the swing set. “I need to take this thing to the dump,” Rook said. “Your great-grandmother got it when you were on the way. She was so excited to have a baby around again. Knew you’d be a boy.”