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“I shouldn’t have done that, I know,” said Dan, who looked even smaller and more wizened than before. “I didn’t know what I was doing. I mean, when I saw Jack lying there, that gnome next to his head, I didn’t think. I just picked it up and…”

“Were caught by the cleaner.”

Dan nodded.“Stupid, I know.”

“Stupid is trying to convince me you didn’t do it.”

“But I swear to God, I didn’t!”

“First tell me what you were doing there. I thought you and Jack were sworn enemies?”

“We were. Which is why I was so surprised when I got his message late last night.”

“What message?”

Dan nodded to his phone, which was lying on the table between them.“Check my messages. It’s right there.”

Alec picked up the phone and frowned at the thing.“Um…” he said. “So how do you…” He fumbled around for a bit, then handed the thing to Dan. “You open it.”

Dan typed in his code and Alec immediately grabbed the phone from the editor’s hands again, earning him a sad look in response.

“So what am I looking for here?” Alec muttered, and then found the message and read aloud, “Dear Dan, I propose a truce. Our clubs have been at daggers drawn for far too long. I think it’s time we joined forces. Just think of all the wonderful things we could do if we put our heads togetherand stopped this ridiculous war! If you’re interested I’ll be waiting for you tomorrow at nine at the Star—room 328. I sincerely hope you’ll come. Jack.” He glanced up. “So he was proposing a truce, was he?”

“Yeah, took me completely by surprise, I have to confess, as last night at the retrospective he was less than friendly. In fact he was downright mean. Claiming my club was bound to fail with this murder charge hanging over my head, and a dozen of my members had already jumped ship and joined his club.”

“So what happened, you walked in, got into a fight and smashed his head in?”

“No! I walked in and he was already dead.”

“Who opened the door?”

“It was open. I just pushed it open further.”

“And there was nobody else there.”

“No one. And then suddenly this cleaner walks in and starts screaming her head off. I thought she was going to attack me, so I panicked and ran. Which of course I shouldn’t have done.”

Alec thought for a moment. Contrary to the day before, he now found himself wondering if the man seated across from him was telling the truth. He could see Dan smashing the head of some woman in a lovers’ tiff, but not that of Jack Warner. The two of them had been at each other’s throats for years, and if they were going to kill each other, they’d have done it a long time ago.

No, something wasn’t right here. He could feel it in his (admittedly sizable) gut.

“All right,” he said. “You’re going to spend the night in the slammer, and probably you’ll be charged tomorrow and arraigned. But I’m going to talk to this cleaner and hear what she has to say. And I’m going to try and find possible other witnesses. Cause if what you’re saying is true, someone else killed Jack, and Heather Gallop, and you just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Twice.”

Dan nodded miserably.“I can’t believe this is happening to me. Again. This is a nightmare, Alec. A regular nightmare.”

Chapter 21

Odelia and Chase arrived at the home of Daisy Rayo and Odelia found herself thinking she lived in a pretty nice house for a cleaner. Then, dismissing the thought as irrelevant, she applied her index finger to the buzzer and pressed. She could hear the sound of the bell jangling inside the house, and patiently waited on the doorstep.

“If this woman really saw Dan bent over Jack with the gnome in his hand things are looking pretty bad for your boss,” said Chase.

“Things are looking bad for him regardless of Daisy Rayo’s witness statement,” said Odelia. “An innocent man doesn’t run—or at least that’s what I’ve always been told.”

“Even an innocent man can panic,” Chase pointed out. “Especially if he’s already been arrested the day before for a crime he didn’t commit.”

Odelia looked up at this.“So you don’t think he did it either?”

Chase hesitated.“Dan doesn’t strike me as a killer, babe. On the other hand, people will surprise you. A man you never considered a killer can sometimes turn out to be capable of the most heinous crime. So frankly I don’t know.”

She didn’t know either. It was hard to imagine that the man she’d been working for was a serial killer. But that’s what the evidence clearly pointed toward, so…

She pressed her finger to the bell again, and wondered if Daisy might have stepped out.

She brought her face closer to the glass and tried to peer inside. It was hard to see anything, as the glass was of the frosted variety. So instead she bent down and looked through the letterbox.

Once her eyes were adjusted to the darkness, her blood ran cold when she saw the lifeless figure lying at the bottom of the stairs.

“My, God, I think she fell, Chase,” she said, and tried the door. Locked, of course.