"Yes. They know you have insurance and they'll wait until you file your claim, replace all your property, and then boom!" He slammed a fist on the table, making Sadie jump. "They come back and steal from you again."

"Wow."

Sadie really didn't want to stay here all night. She needed to move this conversation back in the right direction.

"So tell me, Mr. Eckert, how do you do it? How do you keep tabs on everyone on the street?"

"With this." He patted his red binder lovingly. "Everything I see and hear on this street goes into this book."

Now we're getting somewhere!

"Do you mind if I take a look at that?" Sadie asked, snaking her hand out to grab it.

Mr. Eckert clutched it against his chest.

"There's lots of personal stuff in here." He flipped the binder open and slid his finger down a page. "This entry, for example. Last Tuesday morning at six, Miss Yakamoto in the bungalow at the corner kissed her new boyfriend good-bye on the front porch."

"And you wrote that down?" Sadie could barely contain her smile.

"Of course, and it's not because I give a donkey's a.r.s.e who she's fooling around with. It's because if I know who belongs on the street, then it's easier for me to spot the impostors and the would-be burglars." He flipped to the next page. "See here." He flashed her the page briefly. "That was the time I caught you spying in Kent's windows."

"Right." Sadie nodded thoughtfully. "It must be really hard to keep track of everyone, though. For example, if Kent Lasko went jogging at odd hours, how could you possibly mark it down every single time? You're human and you need your sleep."

"Sure, but not as much as I used to. I've got problems with my bowels and I'm up every hour like a newborn baby."

That was entirely too much information.

"I see. So you've probably never seen Kent jogging. Or anyone else," she quickly added. "If they do it during those times when you're in bed or, um, indisposed."

"Only saw Kent jog a couple times, with his brother. Christian can run like the wind, but it didn't really look like Kent's thing, even though he was wearing all those bright running duds like Christian. Kent likes to ski, though. He's got a buddy who has a condo in Tahoe, and he goes there a couple times a year."

d.a.m.n. So much for that idea.

"Now old Mr. Diago across the lane has taken up jogging recently." Mr. Eckert got to his feet and opened his kitchen window blinds. "He's a fatty, but he won't be for long 'cause he's been sticking to a regular schedule. See?"

Sadie got to her feet and politely looked where Mr. Eckert was pointing. She saw a dark blur of a large person exiting a back gate across the lane. When the person got closer, Mr. Eckert's motion detector floodlights came on and illuminated his entire backyard and parking pad.

Sadie drew in a sharp intake of breath.

"Mr. Eckert, is that your car?"

"Of course it's my car. It's in my driveway, isn't it?"

"Does it have some rust on the driver's door?"

"Sure, but it still runs like a top."

"You know, a green Toyota like that one drove by my house and shot at me. Put a lady in the hospital."

"It sure as h.e.l.l wasn't my car," he said indignantly. "It hasn't left that spot in ages except to get the tires rotated."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure. I wouldn't've let Christian take it to the garage for a tire rotation, but he offered since he had a coupon to get it done for free and didn't need his own tires done. I figured what the h.e.l.l. The tires don't look no different to me, though."

Sadie swallowed nervously. If Christian had the car, Kent had access to it. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up, and she felt a sudden need to snuggle with Hairy.

"Well, thank you for your time, Mr. Eckert," she said. "I can see I have lots to learn before I can hope to be captain of my block watch."

"Wait just a second. Let me show you my high-lighting system." He flipped the binder open to the last few entries, privacy be d.a.m.ned. "See how I've highlighted some in yellow, a few in green, and a couple in pink?"

"Yes," Sadie said with barely pa.s.sing interest.

"It helps me to keep track of the hours people are at work."

"Why would you want to know that?"

He looked at her like she was crazy.

"Jeez, you do have lots to learn." He shook his head. "Well, if I know who's at work at what time, I know when I should be keeping a special watch on their house. The thieves always wait for people to go to work. So those working normal nine-to-five jobs I've got highlighted in yellow, those working night shift are in green, and the oddball hours, unemployed or retired are all highlighted in pink."

"Right." Sadie nodded. "So how would you keep track of the Laskos next door for example? Christian works nights, and since Kent is a Realtor, his hours can't be regular."

"Yes, that's why I've got them here. See?" He pointed to K. Lasko highlighted in green and K. Lasko highlighted in pink.

"So you've highlighted Kent in green and pink, meaning that he works nights and odd hours?"

He shook his head. "No I've got Kent in pink because he works odd hours, but his brother is green because he works nights as a janitor at a school."

"Oh, I was confused because you labeled them both with the first initial K."

"Their names both do start with K," he explained. "Kristian spells his name with a K as well."

"Are you sure?" She felt a little dizzy.

"Of course I'm sure," he snapped. "Sometimes the stupid postie drops their mail at my house and I have to walk it over. All Kristian's mail has his name spelled with a K."

"And you said he's janitor at a school?"

"Yeah but not a regular kind. A special one somewhere."

"A school for the deaf maybe?"

"Yeah, that's it."

Sadie's head swam with the information. "I've got a headache. I really should go."

He walked her to the door.

"I'd be happy to walk you through the hazards of surveillance next week. You can bring some corned beef next time. Sausage gives me the burps." He belched as if making a point.

She shook his hand, thanked him for his time, and promised to stay in touch.

As she quick-walked back to her car, Sadie was aware of every person out for an evening stroll and every shadow. Her heartbeat raced whenever she pa.s.sed a shrub close to the sidewalk where someone could be hiding. She jogged the last half block and peered inside the backseat of her car before opening the door, climbing behind the wheel, and locking the doors.

She turned the key in the ignition and didn't take a breath until she'd floored the accelerator and was two blocks away.

When she stopped at a red light half a mile away, she dialed Zack's number.

"Did you know that Kent Lasko's brother, Kristian, spells his name with a K?" she asked.

"And this is important why?" he asked.

Sadie heard a woman's voice in the background before Zack covered the phone with his hand.

"It's important because Trudy tried to send me a message spelling the name of the person who killed her and only got out the letter K and I've been thinking all along that she meant Kent."

"So now you're thinking Kristian killed her?"

"Yes. Maybe."

"Well, as long as you're sure." He chuckled.

"Look, Kristian is a jogger and whoever killed Trudy wore a Run-Tec shirt."

"How do you know Kent isn't a jogger?"

The pitch of her voice rose. "Because the captain of the block watch told me that Kent doesn't jog as much as his brother, and, trust me, this guy would know."

"Calm down. You sound hysterical."

"Besides, Kristian also worked as a janitor at a school for the deaf!"

She heard Paula, or whoever, talking to Zack in the background, and her grip on the steering wheel tightened.

"Okay, you're right. It's probably nonsense," she said, suddenly anxious to be off the phone.

"Maybe not nonsense, but you might be jumping to conclusions. Share what you know with Petrovich and I'll call you later, okay? I've got another call coming in."

Sadie told him that was fine and then she pulled into a 7-Eleven and bought herself a large Slurpee and a chocolate bar.

By the time she got home, she was feeling both mildly sated by the excess sugar and a whole lot embarra.s.sed about calling Zack. He was right. She was jumping to conclusions. What she needed to do was think things through calmly, and then, if it still sounded plausible, she'd call Petrovich with the details.

She walked into her house and hustled to turn off her alarm after she dead-bolted the front door. Then she went to toss her Slurpee cup in the kitchen trash. Hairy came skidding across the linoleum, and as Sadie bent down to greet him she noticed movement out by her back door. Her breath caught in her throat, but fear turned to laughter when she saw that the movement was caused by Maeva standing on her back deck, her eyes wide and a stupid smile on her face.

"You sure are persistent," Sadie said as she opened the door.

Her mind registered her fatal mistake even before Maeva cried out, "I'm so sorry, Sadie!"

Kristian Lasko shoved Maeva through the door ahead of him, a revolver pressed to the back of her head.

His eyes were wild with rage.

"If you scream," he whispered, "I'll blow her head off."

19.

Sadie leapt backward and stumbled, but Kristian grabbed her by the front of her shirt and pressed the muzzle of the gun roughly to her cheek.

"Not one word," he said icily.

Hairy, being the pillar of support to his mistress that he always was, hopped out the open door to his freedom. Sadie had no time to be concerned for her pet because Kristian's eyes never left hers as he kicked the back door closed with his foot and reached behind him to lock it tight.

"Let Maeva go. She's got nothing to do with this."

"Like h.e.l.l," Kristian barked. "She's been sitting out there in her car watching you. You would've been better off getting that guy who works for you to play bodyguard rather than using your wimpy friend."

"I should've warned you," Maeva said, her eyes pained.

"You did it. You killed Trudy and Grant," Sadie said, focusing on Kristian's hard eyes.

She grimaced as he roughly grabbed her upper arm and forced the two of them out of the kitchen and down the hall. He kept one hand clamped on Sadie's arm and the other pointing a gun at Maeva.

"I never killed Grant," Kristian said. "G.o.d, the guy was such a wuss. I was still in the house after things went bad with Trudy. When I heard him come home I hid in the upstairs closet. He came into the bedroom, saw his wife, and totally lost it. I thought I'd have to kill him before he dialed nine-one-one, but instead he just cried like a baby and went downstairs and blew his head off." Kristian shook his head in disbelief. "So I showered, put on some of Grant's clothes, and got the h.e.l.l out of there."

"But why did you kill Trudy? Didn't you love her?" Maeva asked him.

"d.a.m.n straight I loved her. And she loved me, not him," Kristian snarled. "That's why I gave her my mother's necklace. My own mother's necklace!" he shouted. "I was going to marry the b.i.t.c.h, but she got cold feet, so I went over there to reason with her. When she told me she'd had the abortion I just couldn't take it! Do you believe that b.i.t.c.h? After all I went through to learn sign language. I'd even traded with another dude at the janitorial service so that I could clean the school she worked at, and those people are pigs, I tell you."

He waved the gun at them.

"Now get on the bed!" he shouted.

The two women took a seat side by side on the edge of the bed.

"So Kent broke into the house afterward to get the necklace and cover up for you. Nice brother," Sadie sneered. "Covering your a.s.s even for murder."

"He only went to get the necklace because he didn't want to tarnish Trudy's reputation. He never knew I had anything to do with what happened because he believed me when I told him I'd broken it off with her last year. He just figured Grant had lost his mind when he discovered the affair." He chuckled maniacally. "You know it just about killed Kent to have to lie and tell you he was the one that was s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g Trudy. Saint Kent." He shook his head slowly. "And everything would've been fine except the moron just grabbed everything, including that d.a.m.n fancy pin." He walked to the window and yanked the blinds down. "But you!"

He whirled on Sadie, and with a furious growl he slammed the b.u.t.t of the gun down on her head.