Of course he knew that. How could he miss it? No doubt she loved that he had a front-row seat to her pregnancy because it symbolized her happiness and everything he’d tried to take away from her. “I’m fully aware of that fact.”

“I’m glad, because I’d hate to have a problem between us.”

Jasper felt hatred begin to uncoil like a venomous snake in the pit of his stomach. There was going to come a time when he and Roland had a serious disagreement. He could feel it in his bones. He’d tried to stand clear, but if Roland was going to pick a fight in spite of that, Jasper would gladly accept the challenge. “Like I said, I had nothing to do with it. That’s the thing. If I had nothing to do with it, who did?”

Roland flicked something out of his teeth. “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see if Sergeant Murphy can figure it out.”

“I guess so,” Jasper said, but it had been two and a half days since Evelyn went missing. What were the chances she was even alive at this point?

The thought of her being killed by someone else bothered him tremendously. If she was dead, she’d won for good. He’d never be able to even the score.

So he had no intention of sitting back and waiting for Amarok. He’d already started a little investigation of his own. He just wished the wheels he’d put in motion would turn faster.

Hilltop, AK—Thursday, 5:30 p.m. AKDT

“Who are you?” Amarok had been out of action for three hours—far longer than he’d wanted to be, but once he’d closed his eyes he hadn’t heard a thing, hadn’t even dreamed. He’d slept so deeply he would’ve liked to continue floating in oblivion for a week or more. But he didn’t feel rested. He was so groggy he could hardly comprehend what the female voice on the other end of the line was trying to tell him.

“My name’s Chastity Sturdevant. I live in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.”

He could hear the midwestern accent. “And you’re calling me, why?”

“Because Jasper Moore asked me to.”

“The Jasper Moore who’s a serial killer and a psychopath? The one who’s locked up at Hanover House right now?”

“He’s not as bad as you’re making him sound,” she said.

“Then you’re seriously deluded.” Amarok was too tired to be diplomatic.

“That’s what you think, I guess. Anyway, Jasper and I have been writing each other for a while now. We’re … um … friends.”

Her hesitation defining the relationship suggested they were more. What she didn’t understand was that at least a dozen other women probably thought he was falling in love with them. “I don’t understand why he’d give you my number.”

“He didn’t. I had to look it up. But in the e-mail I received from him, he asked me to drive over and give you a call if I couldn’t find that zombie-making bastard.”