"I thought we had an agreement that you"d stay away from my sister," she spat angrily.
"This will only take a second. I just have a question regarding Grant"s clothing." She held up the shopping bag.
"His clothing? You"ve got to be kidding."
"I think the b.l.o.o.d.y clothes found in Grant"s hamper may have been from the Run-Tec line, and I suspect Grant would never have worn that line, so-"
"Wait a second." Janet held up her hand. "You think the clothes may have been, and you suspect Grant wouldn"t have worn them? Listen to yourself!" She shook her head. "I"m sorry, but you"re going to have to play detective with someone else"s loved one. I"m not interested."
"Who"s at the door?" Sylvia Toth"s weak voice called from down the hall.
"A salesperson who"s just leaving," Janet answered over her shoulder. Then to Sadie she hissed, "Get out of here and don"t come back. If you come around again, I"ll call the police."
Sadie was left standing outside holding her shopping bag. A few icy raindrops fell on her cheeks like sloppy tears.
As she started her car, she felt sullen and morose. She"d been so stupid to think that she, a glorified cleaning lady, could break a murder case wide open using a jogging shirt as evidence. She would have laughed at herself, but she didn"t have any energy left for even a smile.
Back home she dressed in her non-Run-Tec jogging clothes purchased from Grant"s store. She carefully activated the house alarm the way she"d been told and slipped a spare house key into a small zippered pocket in the lining of her new shorts.
She stayed on the main roads and constantly looked over her shoulder. She didn"t make it nearly the distance she had before. This time her sore muscles screamed in protest at such abuse, so she spent the last quarter mile walking, contemplating, and generally berating herself for letting the Toth situation take over her life.
When she stepped back into her house, she quick-stepped to the keypad and turned off the alarm. Then she went in search of the phone. She"d decided to call Petrovich and let him know that she was done with the entire Toth thing. She was sure it would make his day.
Her answering machine blinked that it had one message and when she hit PLAY, it was Petrovich"s voice that came out the speaker.
"Call me," he said.
Great minds think alike. She dialed the number he"d left and while she waited for him to pick up, she prepared her speech announcing that she was backing off.
"The shirt in the evidence bag was a yellow Run-Tec shirt, like you said," he barked, seemingly annoyed at the idea. "I went to Grant Toth"s store, and you"re right. Run-Tec is not something Grant would"ve been caught wearing, probably dead or alive."
"Good-but I"ve been thinking and it was probably like you said," she replied. "He wore it to make a point. Maybe he didn"t even buy it. There"s a good chance that he got tons of promotional freebies given to him and if he got it for free, he might"ve brought it home and worn it."
"Maybe," Detective Petrovich agreed. "The pants in the hamper were regular fleece-lined jogging pants in a size medium. A style that anybody would"ve worn to exercise."
"Sure, and just because he wore the Run-Tec shirt because he got it for free, that doesn"t mean he"d go out of his way to sign up on their Web site to get the coupon for the discounted matching shorts," Sadie reasoned.
"What do you mean, matching shorts?"
"Nothing," Sadie replied, tired of the whole thing. "I"m done with this, Dean. I"ve been a pain in the a.s.s and I"ve way overstepped my bounds."
"You were doing what you thought was right, although why on earth you picked this case to fixate on is beyond me," he said, half joking.
She couldn"t exactly blurt out that it was because of Trudy"s messages. Instead, she said, "I"m going to concentrate on clearing my name the old-fashioned way, with good old-fashioned hard work. What happened with the diamond pin and Sylvia Toth being shot was an unfortunate side effect of my not keeping my nose where it belongs."
"I"m reopening the case, Sadie."
"What?" She stopped short of drinking the water she"d just pulled from her fridge.
"That shirt stuff makes sense, and I"m not going to be able to sleep until I"ve answered some of the questions you"ve brought up and made sure the shooting and the tire slashing aren"t tied in with the Toth house."
"Sounds like I"ve given you an extra load of work," Sadie said apologetically.
"Better you pointing it out than it being picked up by some reporter a year down the pike. Anyway, it won"t hurt to do some more digging into the whole Run-Tec lead, and then, hopefully, we can put this baby to rest."
"Good."
"And that doesn"t mean we"re not still looking for Kent Lasko or whoever banged off those bullets in your direction. Keep yourself safe."
"I"m trying."
After she hung up, Sadie showered, then made herself a salad and shared a handful of it with Hairy.
She checked her e-mails and found a couple tired old jokes forwarded to her from Dawn and a Run-Tec advertis.e.m.e.nt that smacked of the spam the store clerk had promised she wouldn"t receive.
Sadie hit DELETE, then thought better of it and clicked on the e-mail folder that held all her recently deleted e-mails and found it.
When she opened the message it shouted in bold blue and red letters that they were having a WILD WACKY SALE! It demanded to know if she, Sadie Novak, had downloaded her coupon for half off the running shorts and did she know that, as a valued member of the Run-Tec online team, she could look forward to specials offered only to online members.
Sadie couldn"t help but wonder how many people fell for the store clerk encouraging them to sign up on this Web site.
She clicked the link at the bottom of the e-mail and it brought her to the Run-Tec site. It took her ten minutes to locate an area on the site where she could discontinue her Run-Tec membership. Even then, she doubted she"d be removed permanently from the mailing list.
"Probably people still get e-mails long after they"ve died," she muttered to herself.
She made a mental note to ask Petrovich if he could find out if Kent was on their client list. If Kent Lasko wore Run-Tec clothing, that would"ve annoyed Grant. Then again, it would"ve angered him a h.e.l.luva lot more to find out his friend was s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g his wife. Probably Kent couldn"t face Grant. That"s why he was shopping at the sports megastore in the mall instead of supporting his best friend"s sportswear shop.
She frowned, switched her e-mail off, and opened FreeCell instead. While she clicked on cards she found her mind drifting again to Kent Lasko in a bright yellow running shirt.
"d.a.m.n."
To take her mind off Kent she dialed Dawn"s number at work.
"Feel like getting together for a bite after work?"
"Sure, except John and I were going to go out for Chinese. But, hey, I"ll just tell him I"m going out with my big sister instead."
"That"s all right. I don"t want you to cancel your plans," Sadie said, then added, "I could always join you, unless-"
"That would be great!"
"Good. I"d like to meet this guy who stole my sister"s heart."
It gave her a reason to turn off the computer and focus on getting ready for their dinner instead of on the Toths. She changed into dark pants and a gray sweater. After applying some blush and lipstick, she felt human.
John turned out to be a nice enough guy. Certainly not Sadie"s type, but he looked at Dawn like she was the best thing since biscotti met coffee, and Dawn seemed to reflect the same sentiments. They enjoyed their meals at a small Asian restaurant where John ordered for everyone. Sadie thought that was a little arrogant, but even she had to admit that he made great choices-she"d have to run twenty miles to burn off all the calories she consumed.
Sadie left them to enjoy dessert alone while gazing lovingly into each other"s eyes. John had turned down her offer to pay, not even allowing her to leave the tip.
On her drive back home, Sadie pa.s.sed one of the numerous local parks where joggers wound up and down paths and between trees, oblivious to the rain. She slowed to a stop at a crosswalk and two women jogged in front of her car, the reflective bands on their jogging gear glinting in the glow of streetlamps and car headlights.
As much as she tried to keep the thought from her head, every man she saw reminded her of Kent Lasko, all geared up to murder his lover and her husband.
She found herself desperately wanting to break into his house and search his dresser for the matching shorts. Obviously that would not be a great career move, since she would undoubtedly be caught either by the police and end up in jail or by Kent and end up dead.
She realized that just because the b.l.o.o.d.y shirt in the hamper was a yellow Run-Tec, that didn"t prove Kent owned the exact same shirt.
"Forget it," she admonished herself out loud. "Think of something else."
An older, overweight man pa.s.sed Sadie"s car, walking his dog on the sidewalk. He reminded her a lot of her uncle Larry. Suddenly she knew exactly who would possibly know about Kent"s jogging wear, and she couldn"t resist cranking the steering wheel to turn her car around.
Her first stop was Ralph"s Meats. He had the best garlic sausage in the Emerald City. She bought an entire coil of the good stuff, plus a large wedge of Gorgonzola.
Zack called her as she was steering her car into the Laskos" neighborhood.
"Just wanted to give you a heads-up that the police are on the scene of multiple gunshot victims found in Magnolia," he said.
"It"ll take them a few days to work the scene, but we"ll no doubt get the call-that is, if they"re still willing to refer business to us," she said dryly.
"They will," he said with more confidence than she felt. "What are you up to?"
"Just some final checking into a few details on a little matter," she said vaguely.
"But you"re not playing detective, right?"
"Nope," she said. "I just got tired of hiding out at home. I went to the store for sausage and Gorgonzola."
"That stuff"ll kill you."
"Yeah, but I"m back jogging, so I can handle it. Gotta go."
Sadie parked her car one block down and half a block over from the Lasko residence. She grabbed a Mariners baseball cap she kept in the trunk and yanked it down on her head, then walked up the street in the misty drizzle carrying her bag of goodies.
She knew she was taking a risk. Kent or Christian could come driving down the street at any moment and spot her-but it was dark, she was wearing dark clothing, and she was betting they wouldn"t expect to see her hoofing it up their street alone.
A squirrel darted out of a spruce tree and cut quickly across her path, and Sadie thought her heart would fly out of her chest. She made a few promises to G.o.d and the saints and then turned to walk up the sidewalk that led to the house belonging to Kent Lasko"s nosy neighbor.
She rang the bell, and an eerie feeling crept over her when she realized she was probably being appraised through the peephole in the door. Finally the door opened a crack, and he spoke to her from behind the chain.
"What do you want? Tired of peeping in my neighbor"s window?"
"Actually I"m here to see you, Mr. um..."
"Eckert. Rudy Eckert. What do you want?"
"Well, Mr. Eckert, I"ve been trying to put together a block watch committee for our neighborhood, and it"s not been going that great. Then I remembered what you said about being the captain of your block watch, so I figured you"d be the perfect person to help me out."
There was a pause; she wondered whether Mr. Eckert bought her excuse.
"Hang on," he said and closed the door.
A minute later he reappeared.
"Everything you want to know about the program you"ll find in here." He thrust a glossy brochure through the crack in the door.
Sadie took it and looked it over. It was a pamphlet on the Seattle Block Watch program.
"This is great, but I"ve already got this information. What I was hoping for was some one-on-one time with a successful block captain like yourself."
"Why should I miss watching American Idol to talk to you?"
Time to pull out the big artillery.
"I brought garlic sausage and Gorgonzola."
He closed the door, unhooked the chain, and opened it wide.
"Come on in."
Sadie had never met an old man who could resist smelly meat and moldy cheese.
Mr. Eckert wasn"t going to win any awards for housekeeping. She was betting that Mrs. Eckert had either pa.s.sed on or given up. He led her into the kitchen, s.n.a.t.c.hed the bag from her hands, and dumped the cheese and sausage on the counter.
Sadie lifted a stack of newspapers from a chair at the kitchen table, put the papers on the floor, and took a seat.
He brought the sausage and cheese to the table on a cutting board with a huge knife in his hand and proceeded to slice pieces of cheese and saw off hunks of sausage. Stabbing the pieces of food with the tip of his knife, he popped them into his mouth.
"You always walk around with sausage and cheese?" he asked around a mouthful.
"No, but my mama always taught me to never call on someone empty-handed."
He pointed the knife in her direction. "Your mama is a smart woman."
Sadie felt only marginally guilty watching Mr. Eckert consume a year"s worth of cholesterol at one sitting. Once he"d had his fill, he stuffed what was left into a Ziploc bag and quickly put it in the fridge, as if he was afraid she"d ask to keep the leftovers.
Then he took a large red binder off his kitchen counter and brought it to the table.
"Lots of people will try and tell you that block watch is only keeping an eye on your neighbors and reporting suspicious behavior."
"And it"s not?"
"No. It"s much more." He grabbed a toothpick from a small container and began picking his teeth and sucking the food off. "Take you, for example. I bet one of your neighbors had a break-in and that"s why you decided to start a block watch."
"Actually, it was me who had the break-in."
"Aha!" He pointed the toothpick at her. "This is how it always starts. People wait to be broken into and then they put things in place to stop it." He shook his head as if this was the biggest crime of all. "But it"s not too late. You need to be extra vigilant now, because they will be back."
"The burglars?"