Rachel nodded and headed across the lawn, to the concrete sidewalk. Jack followed behind, taking his time to look around, giving the yard a casual scan. When they entered, there were two cops in the downstairs den with a man she assumed to be the husband, His head was buried in his hands, and he was making a sound that was a mixture of a wail and a hissing intake of breath.

One of the cops saw them, nodded, and pointed to the stairway at the right edge of the living room, where the room joined the kitchen. At the top of the stairs, she and Jack simply followed the murmur of soft voices to the bedroom at the end of the hall.

Stanhope was already there, standing with another uniformed man in the Raglands master bedroom. The second man was older, easily close to sixty, and was looking down to the body with a grim sadness. A gray moustache dropped low as he frowned, and it remained there when he turned to greet Rachel and Jack.

Agents Gift and Rivers, this is Captain Brown, Stanhope said.

Good to meet you, Brown said without much emotion. If either of you can figure out how the hell this happened, Id be much appreciative.

Rachel stepped further into the bedroom and got her first glimpse of the body. Christina Ragland appeared to be in her forties, with blonde hair and brown eyes. The brown eyes were wide and staring up at the ceiling. There was a streak of still-wet blood in her right eyebrow. There was also a great deal of blood on the underside of her chin, having splashed there from the wound in her neck. It was a clean cut but even without proper cleaning or a closer look, Rachel could tell that the stab wound was a vertical cut rather than a horizontal slash.

The light blue carpet was soaked in blood on all sides, pools and splatters of it leading to the edge of the bed. The window on the right side of the bed was opened, allowing a cool breeze to meander into the room.

Has anyone gotten anything of note from the husband yet? Jack asked.

A bit, Stanhope said. He said his wife came upstairs somewhere between ten and ten thirty. He stayed downstairs until a bit after eleven. Watched a show on TV, set up the coffee for the next day, and came upstairs. He says he went to the bathroom to get ready for bed and guesstimates the time he went to bed as being just a bit after 11:30. He made it two steps into the room before he saw her.

And he heard no signs of an intruder? Rachel asked.

He says he didnt, Stanhope said.