WMC - First to Die

Chapter 102

I THINK WE ROCKED ALL NIGHT. We laughed some, cried some. I don't even remember how I woke up in bed. The following day, I barely left his touch. With all that was threatening, all that seemed uncertain, I felt so safe and sure in his arms. I never wanted to leave. But something else happened during that weekend -apart from Negli's, apart from Chris and me. Something gripping, invading my sense of comfort and security. It was something Jacobi had said that planted the thought. One of those thrown-out remarks you didn't pay much attention to but somehow got filed away in your mind. Then it comes back at the oddest time, with more force and logic than before. It was Sunday night. The weekend was over. Chris had driven me home. Hard as it was to leave him, I needed to be alone for a while, to take inventory of the weekend, to figure out what I would do next. I unpacked, made some tea, curled up on my couch with Her Sweetness. My mind wandered to the murder case. Nicholas Jenks was behind me now. Only the countless reports to fill out. Even though he was still ranting about being set up. it was just more insanity, more lies. It was then that Jacobi's words snaked into my brain. Good collaj; he'd said, early Tuesday morning. He had that a

Chapter 103

JILL, CLAIRE, AND CINDY looked at me as if I were insane. The words had barely tumbled out of my mouth. "What if Jenks is right? What if someone is trying to set him up?" "That's a crock!" snapped Jill. "Jenks is desperate and only moderately clever. We've got him!" "I can't believe you're saying this," exclaimed Cindy. "You're the one who found him. You're the one who made the case." "I know. I know it seems crazy. Hopefully, it is crazy. Just hear me out." I took them through Jacobi's comment about the novel, then my lightning bolt about Jenks's left-handedness. "Proves nothing," Jill said. "I can't get past the science, Lindsay," Claire said with a shake of her head. "We've got his goddamn DNA at the scene." "Look," I protested, "I want the guy as much as anybody. But now that we have all this evidence- well- it's just so neat. The jacket, the champagne. Jenks has set up complicated murders in his books. Why would he leave clues behind?" "Because he's a sick bastard, Lindsay. Because he's an arrogant prick who's co