Grace walked into the office.
“Hold on a second. Grace’s here. Why don’t you talk to her?”
Sandman handed the phone to her.
“Hello. Oh God, Frank, I’m so glad to hear your voice,” she said into the phone as Sandman gave a small smile.
“I’m fine…really, Frank…no…stop worrying. How’s Jamie doing?”
She continued to ask about her family and then about the investigation.
* * * *
“Grace, don’t even think about coming home. It’s not an option. It’s not safe here for you,” Frank told her.
“But I feel so responsible, like I could be doing more instead of running away, hiding.”
“You didn’t run away and you’re not hiding. I don’t want you to worry too much. It’s all going to work out. We’ll find this killer and then you’ll be home again,” Frank said.
“What about Donald? How is he handling this? How did the questioning go this morning?” she asked Frank.
Frank was silent a few seconds. “Don’t worry about it, baby. I have to go. John is waiting for me downstairs. I love you, baby.”
“I love you, too.” She hung up the phone and handed it to Sandman.
Grace walked toward the window in the office. Her brother was hiding information from her. Something was wrong with Donald. Damn she needed to be home, she thought to herself as Sandman approached.
“Grace, what’s wrong?” he asked her as he wrapped his arms around her waist from behind.
“Frank wasn’t telling me everything. He’s keeping things from me, which only makes me think something’s not right. What happened at the questioning this morning? How’s Donald?”
He released her and leaned against his desk.
“Grace, I told you last night that Donald’s being investigated. There’s nothing new as of right now.”
“Frank sounded like there’s more to it than that. Why are you lying to me, too? This isn’t right,” she told him, and he stopped her from turning away from him by putting his hands on her waist.
“Baby, please listen to me. I know you’re trying your hardest to help solve this case and that’s part of my reason for having you here but the other part remains priority. Your life is in jeopardy. There is someone after you. Someone who has killed so many innocent women and more recently killed your brother’s girlfriend Maggie and nearly killed Jamie.”
“I understand all that, Sandman, which should give me the right to know everything that’s going on in the investigation. They don’t actually think Donald is the killer, do they?” she asked him.
“Let me ask you this, Grace. Try to put aside the fact that Donald has been so close to your family, forget his support during the years, and look at the information we have. Tell me what you would think?”
He moved his laptop and opened the e-mail from Agent Lancaster.
Grace sat down in the chair and read the information.
“Well, first of all he would have been the first on the scene because he was in the search party that day, not too far from the spot where I found Clara. He also would have been the first person to get to Stew Parker’s because of his position and because he wanted to find the killer so badly. He made it his personal mission in life.”
“From your perspective. But from an investigator’s perspective it’s
not uncommon for the perpetrator to return to the scene of the crime or participate in the volunteer search parties. Because he is in law enforcement, no one would think twice about him sticking around, helping everywhere he could, and engaging your family. You did say he spent a lot of time with your family even after Clara was found?”
“Yes, he did. He even spent his days off with us. But still that’s not enough evidence.”
“He disappeared the other day on the anniversary of Clara’s death. Right after Sarah arrived at the station to e-mail you. He hasn’t admitted or proved his whereabouts at the time. It was at that same time that Jamie was attacked.”
“She’s his daughter-in-law. Tod’s his son. There’s no way he would hurt her.”