“It’s worse than that. You actually believed I’d hack them up, splash my home in their blood and guts, and go back to a hotel in Lancaster for a good-morning fuck with a set decorator. What the hell is wrong with you?” Eve didn’t answer him. There was nothing she could say. His eyes filled with tears and his face was pale. “It’s a slaughterhouse and I haven’t even left the living room yet. What am I going to see back there?”

He gestured down the hall.

“You don’t want to see it, believe me,” she said. “I can recommend a good crime scene cleaning service that will—”

Jared cut her off. “How am I supposed to live here now? How can anyone live here now?”

“I don’t know.”

They stood there for a long moment in silence. When Jared spoke again, it was in a near whisper. “Why are you here?”

“I wanted one more look to see if I missed anything,” she said, which reminded her of something. “What happened to the fan?”

He stared at her like she was speaking a foreign language. “What?”

“The standing fan in Caitlin’s room. The power cord was cut. I was wondering how it happened.”

Now his uncomprehending stare turned into disbelief. “You see all of this, all the blood, and that’s what’s bothering you? What happened to her fan? Jesus Christ. Get out. Just . . . get out.”

She wasn’t upset about what he said because he was right. Because now that she thought about the fan cord, she couldn’t get it out of her mind. It didn’t fit. In fact, that wasn’t the only thing that was nagging at her about what she saw in Caitlin’s room. She needed to focus on that and not worry about how Jared was feeling right now, though seeing him reminded her that Tanya had been looking for a new place to live.

Eve walked past him and out the front door. She continued down the front walk to her car, the wind whipping up leaves all around her, took out her phone, and texted Nan.

What did you find on Caitlin’s pillowcase?

She got into the car and, while she waited for a reply, called Duncan’s cell. He answered on the second ring.

“Hey, Eve. What’s up?”

“Did Biddle or Garvey ever talk to the Realtor that Tanya was supposed to meet on the day she was killed?”

“Hang on,” Duncan said. Eve could hear phones ringing in the background and the indiscernible chatter of voices. It was like being on hold with customer support in Mumbai. He came back on a moment later. “No, they didn’t. We zeroed in on Coyle before they got the chance to speak to her. But they did get her name and where she works.”

“Let me have them both,” Eve said.