7:02 A.M.

7 hours left

It was November-cold for the first time this week.

An empty water bottle skittered across the street, rolling and spinning at the whim of the wind.

For now, freezing rain spattered sporadically onto my city, but it was predicted to turn to snow by early afternoon.

The rain dotted the car windows and the pavement like drops of chilled saliva falling from the mouth of a great, looming beast.

I’d intended to walk alone to clear my head, but Christie had insisted on coming along, and now she held my hand as we made our way in silence down the street.

I carried our umbrella in my other hand.

For us, since we’d met beneath it, this old umbrella had become a symbol of our love for each other. Today, I wished it would somehow offer us protection from death and grief and provide at least a momentary place of respite and solace, but all it did was dome the raindrops aside, leaving me feeling just as hollowed out by Sasha’s death as I had been.

Something was up with Christie. I wasn’t sure what, but there was definitely something she wasn’t telling me and, although I didn’t want to press the issue, I couldn’t help but be concerned.

So that was on my mind.

As was the case.

As was Sasha.

I kept replaying what’d happened in the Matchmaker’s lair, kept wondering if there was anything more I could have done to help Calvin or her, but I kept coming up empty.

From earth to earth. The words caught hold of me when I thought of Sasha. Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust.

Last year, while consulting on a case in which a victim was buried alive, I’d had to research that saying. I’d expected the phrase to come from somewhere in the Bible but found that there aren’t any Scripture verses that mention “ashes to ashes.”

In Genesis 3, there’s a reference to mankind returning to the dust that we were taken from. The “earth to earth, ashes to ashes” part came from the Book of Common Prayer, first published in 1662.

It’s one of those things that you hear and assume must be from Scripture somewhere, but it’s just not there—like the saying that “God helps those who help themselves.” That one’s not biblical either. In fact, some people would say it’s antithetical to Scripture’s main teaching about salvation through faith—that heaven is a gift given despite our efforts, not because of them.

Assumptions: sometimes they don’t just fail to lead us to the truth, sometimes they lure us in the opposite direction altogether.

In life.

In religion.

In investigations.

And once an assumption gets rooted in your thinking, it becomes like a tenacious vine that is not easily removed.