Nothing.
Karen’s room was, like the rest of the house, as neat as a pin. Beneath the overhead lighting, the quilt was straight and even, the pillows leaned against the headboard, and everything appeared to be in perfect order.
The thunderous pounding on the door continued, then stopped abruptly. Ashley turned away from the bed and started back through the house. At the door, she peered through the peephole. There was no one there. She bit her lower lip. She heard a sound, someone coming around the side of the house. Then silence…followed by a noise at the living room window. She drew the gun from her bag and walked to the front door, opening it.
As she stepped out on the porch, someone came back around from the side of the house. “Stop right there!” she said.
“Ashley?”
She let out a rush of air and lowered the weapon. “Len? Len, what the hell are you doing, sneaking around the yard?”
“Me? What the hell are you doing? It’s as if you’re determined to get off a shot at me tonight.” He walked toward her, shaking his head. “I pounded at the door. You didn’t answer. You got me worried about Karen, then you went to her house and didn’t answer when my pounding should have wakened the dead.”
“I was in the other room, Len.”
“Is anything out of order?” he asked.
“No,” she said softly. “I don’t think so. I’m going to check around one more time.” She frowned. “How did you get here?”
“Don’t give me that frown. I wasn’t drinking and driving. I made Sandy drop me off.”
“Great, you had Sandy drinking and driving.”
“No, he was drinking non-alcoholic beer tonight. Honest.”
“But why did you have him bring you out here?”
“I was worried about you coming out here alone.”
“Len, don’t you get started. Are you going to worry about every female on the force?”
“You’re not on the force. You’re a civilian employee. And you’re forgetting that officers are supposed to have backup when they might be facing a dangerous situation.”
She believed that, in his way, he really was trying to help. “All right, come in for a few minutes. I just want to take one more walk through the place.”
Len followed her back in. Ashley walked through the computer room and the bedroom one more time. She hesitated, realizing that she hadn’t checked out the bathroom off the master bedroom. She did so, aware that Len was right behind her.
At first glance, the bathroom appeared to be as spotless as the rest of the house. As a last thought, she pulled back the shower curtain. The tile was as clean as everything else.
Then she saw the little specks on the bottom of the tub. She knelt down. There were just three. Three little specks of something that looked like rust.
Rust—or blood.
Ashley’s heart careened into her throat. She told herself that they could be anything. They were tiny little specks. It wasn’t as if the bathroom had been sprayed with blood. She didn’t even know if it was blood. And if it was, the amount was minute. Karen might just have nicked herself while shaving.
Still…
She stood abruptly and walked into the kitchen. Rummaging in a cabinet, she found a box of plastic sandwich bags, then procured a white plastic knife from the drawer where Karen kept her picnic paraphernalia.
“What is it?” Len asked her.
“Probably nothing,” she said. But she walked past him and went back into the bathroom, then knelt down, scraped the speck from the tub and bagged it, along with the plastic knife. She slid the plastic bag into her purse and stood. Len was in the doorway, staring at her. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I’m probably just overreacting.”
“But what are you doing?”
“Just checking the tub.” He was so tall, she thought. His shoulders filled the doorway. Her imagination ran wild. What if Len were a killer? Cops did go bad.
She had a .38 Special in her bag, and they both knew she could use it. “Let’s get out of here. Karen definitely isn’t home.”
For a moment it seemed as if he would stay in the doorway. Stop her from exiting. Then he shook his head, moving aside. “I know you know your friend much better than I do, but I think you’re right about overreacting. I’m sure she’s all right. Even your best friend can have secrets.”
“That’s possible, of course.”
“Ashley, all she did was call in sick and not answer her phone.”
“I’m sure you’re right. And I’ll try not to go off the deep end needlessly. I need some sleep,” she said. She waited for him to precede her out of the house. He hesitated, then did so.
“I’ll take you home,” she told him.
“No need. Curtis is waiting at Nick’s. He said he’d drop me off later.”
“All right.”
They drove in silence for a while. Then Len said, “Doesn’t she have other friends, besides you and Jan?”
“Of course.”
“Well then?”