“Not through the blare of my alarm,” Jeremy assured her. “This takes away nothing from anyone. Most people don’t spend their lives afraid of being attacked. And they don’t use firearms, and they may not have alarms. I’ve trained at the shooting range. I know what I’m doing. I’ll be all right. In fact, bad as this may sound, I’d love to shoot the blood-soaked bastard who killed your mom and dad.”

“I’ll tell Ryder and Axel, too. They’ll keep an eye on the neighborhood,” Dan promised.

“See!” Jeremy said to Katie.

“Katie, please, we have to get moving,” Dan said.

“I’ll be in here a while longer,” Jeremy said. “Can’t seem to get enough of that avocado toast!”

Dan managed to extract Katie at last; in the car, she was quiet.

“I know you’re worried, but Jeremy is right about one thing. He’s not vulnerable. The killer goes after those who are vulnerable.”

“My father wasn’t a vulnerable person.”

“But your father wouldn’t have expected a guest on his boat to be an axe murderer,” Dan reminded her. “He would have thought he was with a friend.”

Katie didn’t reply.

“I’m about to see Axel. He’ll make sure Jeremy’s house is covered. Okay?”

She looked ahead and nodded. And then she managed “Thank you.”

“Katie, we’ll solve this. I promise. We’ll solve this.”

She looked over at him, and he wasn’t sure if he saw belief in her eyes or not. But he did see something he wasn’t sure he’d seen before. Trust. And maybe even...

Affection.

No commitment, she’d said.

He looked ahead again. He was committed to the case. And whether she wanted it or not, he couldn’t help it.

He was committed to her.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

They went through security at the FBI offices. There was a reception area with a comfortable sofa. Axel met them there, asking Katie if he could get her anything and pointing out that since she was the only one there at the time, there was a television and she could control it any way she liked.

Then he led Dan down a hallway to an interrogation room.

Adam Harrison was in the room; three chairs faced the one side of the table where Nathan Lawrence was sitting.

He looked up hopefully when Dan and Axel returned to the room.

“I swear!” the man said passionately. “I don’t know anything about the axe murders! You all think I know something, someone, that I can help... I have a wife! A good life, and I... Oh, my God! That’s awful, I would never, never...”

Dan sent down the folder he’d stuffed into his jacket pocket, opening it and displaying the picture he’d taken of him, Jennie and the unknown man, presumably Neil Browne.