Cain watched the moving image on the window as he tried the front door. It was locked, but he knew Robert kept a spare key hidden under a rock beneath the wooden steps leading to the entrance. He’d had to use it before, to get Robert a change of clothes when the police picked him up on a DUI six months ago. Robert hadn’t been able to get hold of John or Owen and had resorted to calling Cain.
It took only a moment to retrieve it. Then Cain let himself in and frowned at the mess. Apparently, his stepbrother had given up cooking and cleaning. Fast food wrappers and takeout boxes from Sicilian Pizza and Susie’s Sandwiches filled garbage cans that overflowed onto the floor, and beer cans cluttered every surface. But that wasn’t the worst of it. The worst was the flies that crawled over the half-eaten food drying on the counter and the ketchup-smeared bath towel tossed over a broken lamp. Robert didn’t need to worry about keeping his towels clean; he generally showered at John’s so he wouldn’t have to do any of his own laundry.
“Nice, bro,” Cain muttered. For a second, he asked himself why he’d even decided to poke around this cesspit. He knew Robert was weird, lazy and dysfunctional, but if Robert had the dark tendencies of a murderer, he was pretty sure there would’ve been some sign of it before that rifle turned up.
Cain figured he was probably wasting his time—but it didn’t hurt to do a little searching while he was here. Clearing garbage out of the way so he could see what lay beneath, he eventually located a cord that seemed like the type used to download pictures. But it wasn’t attached to anything.
Studying several photographs of strangers that Robert had enhanced in odd ways and taped to his wall, Cain sat in front of the primary computer and jiggled the mouse to dispel the psychedelic screensaver. The geometric shapes flying toward him dissolved, and Pink Floyd’s Off the Wall suddenly came on. Hello…hello…hello…Is there anybody in there?
Cain jumped at the noise. He would’ve chuckled at his own reaction, except the computer was asking him for a username and password, and he didn’t have either.
He was dead in the water before he even got started.
“What would you think is clever?” he muttered aloud. He attempted a few combinations he thought Robert might use, but he knew he wasn’t likely to crack the password. He didn’t spend enough time with his stepbrother these days.
With a sigh, he gave up and twisted around in the seat to survey the room. Wondering if he might stumble across a discarded picture of Sheridan, he checked the garbage but came up with nothing. He was about to leave—he didn’t need to get into an argument with Robert over invading his privacy—when he decided to take a quick peek at Robert’s shoes, just to verify that none of them fit the wear pattern on those footprints on the muddy road and at the creek.
He went to his stepbrother’s bedroom and examined the tread on all the shoes he could locate amid the clothes heaped on the floor, but they didn’t match the prints that’d been found near Amy’s body.
Relieved, he started back down the hall. Robert’s bathroom was filthier than the rest of the house. The smell alone made Cain eager to leave. But he paused when he saw that the door to the spare bedroom was closed.
Just to be thorough, he pushed it open—then froze. There was a computer inside. Only this one had four monitors above it, attached to the wall.
And they were showing live feed.
“What’s wrong?” John asked, leaning up on his elbow in bed. “You seem…distant.”
Karen knew that wasn’t good. They’d just made love. But she hadn’t expected John to show up tonight, and she’d been watching the clock over his shoulder the whole time. She was ninety minutes late for her meeting with Cain. Surely he’d left by now. “I’m tired, that’s all.”
He pulled her into his arms for another kiss. “Happy and tired, I hope.”
She’d be much happier if she didn’t have to worry about whoever was sending those notes. I’ll expose you. Just watch me. Was it Robert? And if so, how far would he go to make sure she didn’t threaten his way of life? Would the news of their engagement make him reveal what he knew to John? “Of course. We’re going to have a storybook ending.”
“It’s about time. It’s taken me twelve years to convince you that I’m the man for you.”
She grinned. “The most powerful bonds are the ones that grow slowly.”
“If you say so.” He kissed her neck, her collarbone, her lips. “When should we make the announcement?”
“Don’t you think it would be best to take your boys aside and tell them first?”
He gazed down at her. “That’s a good idea. Do you want to tell them together?”
“I think Owen would be receptive to that. He and I get along well. But Robert?”
Scowling, he let go of her and sat up. He thoughtlessly dragged most of the bedding with him, but Karen didn’t complain. It was warm in the room, despite the swamp cooler in the hallway. “Robert will be fine with it,” he said.
“Robert doesn’t like me.”
“Don’t start with that. Why ruin the evening?”
Because she had a note in her purse that could ruin more than their evening. She had to handle this marriage announcement right. “I’m just saying I think you should visit with him alone, tell him we’re in love and would like to get married. Try to get his blessing.”
He pulled on his boxers. “I suppose you expect me to ask Cain for his blessing, too.”
“It’d be nice if you spoke to him, made him feel like part of the family,” she said as she watched him dress.
“No way. As far as I’m concerned, he can find out when everyone else does.”
There was that prejudice again. “Do you really think he shot Jason, John?”
“I think he’s capable of it, and that’s enough for me.” Taking his keys from the nightstand, he dropped a kiss on her forehead. “Get some sleep. I’ll talk to the boys tomorrow.”
Karen listened to him lock up as he let himself out, then she went to the phone and tried Cain’s house. He wasn’t home.
23
“What the hell?” Cain whispered, gazing at several different views of John’s house.
Pink Floyd was singing I’ve become…comfortably numb…but in the next second, the music snapped off. Cain stiffened, wondering if Robert had come home, but he didn’t hear any movement. “Robert?”