Tell her I was frightened… That’ll give us a few minutes…. Tell who? His wife? Was Jane having an affair with her brother-in-law?
If so, Skye didn’t want to know about it. Oliver was being released in three days. What would he do if he found out? Would he kill his wife—his brother, too? And what would happen to the young girl, Kate, if she lost her mother?
Obviously, Jane had no clue how dangerous her husband was. She’d never faced the sharp point of his knife. But that could change. Especially now.
Closing her eyes, Skye sank to the ground and didn’t get up until long after Oliver’s brother had left and the house was completely dark. It was safer to wait. And yet, even after all that time, she couldn’t decide what to do. She wanted to warn Jane. After fighting Oliver for her own life, Skye knew what he was capable of. But what were the chances that Jane would listen to her?
Skye could only hope that Oliver never found out….
Eager to put some distance between herself and this place, she opened the gate. Jane’s garbage can stood next to her in all its stinking glory, and it hadn’t been emptied in a while. Maybe it contained letters from Oliver, something that might tell Skye about the Burkes’ future plans.
Returning to her car, she drove to the closest convenience store, bought some plastic bags and rubber gloves and went back to claim what Jane Burke was throwing away.
7
“I can’t believe you brought that into my house,” Sheridan grumbled, shying away from the smelly heap Skye had dumped on an old sheet in the middle of her kitchen floor.
“You’re the one who called me up and insisted I come over.” Skye sat down and began picking through the trash. “I told you I was investigating a case, that I had some garbage with me.”
“I was worried when I couldn’t reach you at home.” She leaned against the opening to the kitchen, watching in obvious repugnance. “Did Detective Willis ever get hold of you?”
“He confronted me at the shooting range, right in front of my class. Thank you for that, by the way.”
Sheridan bristled at the sarcasm. “Now I can’t tell him where to find you?”
Skye wasn’t sure. She’d spent all afternoon trying not to think of that kiss in the parking lot. “I don’t know.”
“That’s some clear direction.”
With a shrug, Skye kept digging.
“You’re going to stay here tonight, aren’t you?” Using her foot, Sheridan pushed a crumpled sack farther onto the blanket. “I mean, if I have to smell this, it should be for a good reason.”
“If you want me to.”
“Wow, that was easy.” She smiled in relief. “So, whose garbage is this? Don’t tell me you took it from Sean Regan’s house.”
“No. I’m trusting Jonathan to do what needs to be done there.” She had to. She had too much going on in her own life.
“What case are you working on?”
“My own.”
A suspicious silence met this response. Bending, Sheridan plucked an envelope out of the garbage. “Jane A. Burke,” she read aloud. Then her jaw dropped and her eyes went round. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Skye kept sifting and tossing. An empty cookie package. An empty potato chip bag…
“Have you lost your mind?” Sheridan demanded.
“No.” Skye refused to look up.
“You get angry at Detective Willis for saying you’re asking for trouble. But what do you call this?”
Skye finally met her friend’s agitated gaze. “For your information, he thinks we’re all asking for trouble. And if Burke really killed those women, he’s a serial ra**st and murderer, Sheridan. That kind of person doesn’t stop. He has to be stopped. I know how coldly calculating Burke is, how much pleasure he derives from hurting women.”
“That’s the problem. It’s possible he’s still obsessed with you. If he finds out you were at his house, it’ll be like…like pulling the tail of a rabid dog! He’ll come after you. You know he will.”
Skye suspected he’d come after her anyway. “His wife is having an affair with his brother.”
As expected, that statement stole the fire from Sheridan’s anger. “What?”
“I saw them together. Tonight.”
Her eyebrows went up. “Not doing…”
“Kissing passionately. Definitely a precursor.”
“Not only were you stealing Jane Burke’s trash, you were peeking in her windows?”
Skye wrinkled her nose at a soggy napkin. “It’s a long story. Bottom line, I was trying to become familiar with Burke’s situation before he gets home.”
“So you can do what?”
“Keep an eye on him. Put him away when he acts out again.”
Sheridan shook her head. “That’s not your job.”
“Yes, it is. I’ve made it my job, and you’ve done the same, on other cases for other people.”
“Those other people aren’t so close to me. This scares me. It’s bad enough that he’s getting out. Now you’re surveilling his place?”
“I’ve gotta do what I’ve gotta do. I can’t just run scared.”
Sheridan straightened. “How do you think he’ll react when he finds out that his wife is sleeping with his brother?”
“The same way you think he’ll react.”
Placing both hands on her head, Sheridan said, “Oh, boy. She’s in trouble.”
“And she doesn’t even know it.” With a heavy sigh, Skye went back to work.
Sheridan sank to her knees. “Do we warn her?”
“I can’t decide.” Skye found a note from Burke’s daughter’s school. Kate was misbehaving, so the teacher requested a parent-teacher conference.
As Skye set the note aside, she tried not to feel any empathy for Jane. Jane certainly wouldn’t thank her for it. But Burke’s wife was struggling; she could tell.
“What’d you find?” Sheridan asked.
“Another small bit of Jane’s life.”
Sheridan stared at the note. “Should we call her?”
“And say what? If all the testimony she heard in that trial didn’t make her wonder if her husband could be dangerous, nothing I say will convince her.”
“What a mess.”
Skye didn’t know if she was talking literally or figuratively, but the comment fit regardless.