″Thanks, Pop. I needed that.″

″How′s Jana′s daughter doing?″

″Her doctor gave her some heavy-duty meds, so she′s sleeping right now. Physically she seems okay, I guess. Lots of bruising. She got pretty hysterical right before they put her under.″

″Did you find out where the two of them were headed when their car got jumped?″

″To RDU Airport. Shaina told me her mother was driving her to catch a plane to L.A. Evidently they were going to meet there later and take a cruise together.″

Fish slammed his fist into his palm. ″God dammit, just like I thought. It′s my fault. I′m the one who told Jana to leave the country for a while,″ he said. ″Those motherfuckers are going to regret this. Now they′ve gone and killed my client. My client. I′m going to make them sorry they were ever born.″

″Why do you say ′they′? Shaina saw only one guy.″

″These scumbags always work in packs. They′re friggin′ jackals.″

He cocked back his boot, then landed a vicious kick on the rear tire of my car.

″Knock it off, Fish,″ I said, putting a restraining hand on his arm. ″It′s not your fault, and tearing up my car isn′t going to bring Jana back.″

Fish looked sheepish. ″Sorry, Kate. Nice ride, by the way,″ he said. ″You must be climbing up the social ladder.″

″The only thing that′s climbing up the social ladder right now are my car payments.″

After a beat I added, ″A moment ago you said ′packs.′ Do you mean gangs?″

″No question about it,″ Fish replied. ″I′ve heard there′s one GPDU gang behind most of the carjackings in Durham this month.″

″GPDU? What′s that?″

″Gratuitous public display of underwear. You know-the saggers and baggers.″

″Yeah, I know. Those are the guys who like to dress like they′re high on plumber′s crack. Pants hanging all low.″

″You got it.″

I decided to tell Fish about what Shaina had said about her stepfather, Gavin-that he was behind her mother′s murder.

″Shaina seemed convinced that he was behind the carjacking-she said that he wanted them both killed. The doctor said that was the hysteria talking. What do you think?″

Fish took a moment to consider. ″On its face, that notion is pretty far-fetched. Most crimes are just what they seem to be, and this one walks and talks like a simple carjacking.″

″You don′t make that sound very convincing.″

Fish ground some loose asphalt under the toe of his boot. ″Let me think about this a bit more before I go shooting my mouth off. I don′t want to say anything that′ll turn out to be from left field.″

″C′mon, Fish,″ I said, my tone urgent. ″Talk to me. Jana was my friend. I need to know what′s going on.″

He sighed. ″Okay, but this is only for your ears,″ he said. ″In the few hours I was working the case, I was able to dig up a few real nasty tidbits about that husband of hers, ′Gavin.′ For example, he changed his name to Gavin from Guido. And he didn′t grow up in Europe-he was raised in Boston. What a low-life piece of work. That′s why I advised Jana to take a vacation. I wanted her out of the way for a while.″

″Why?″

″Jana told me that Gavin′s first wife died in a car accident in Omaha. But she evidently didn′t know that his previous wife′s accident was considered suspicious.″

″Suspicious how?″

″There was a bunch of stuff that didn′t add up. I talked to a detective in Omaha. He told me they couldn′t make a solid case, so no one was ever charged.″

I felt a storm front move through my stomach. ″Did the police suspect Gavin in that woman′s murder?″

″Yup. Evidently they were really going after him, and so was the life insurance company. But they finally dropped it for lack of evidence. The insurance company eventually paid him off.″

″How much did he get?″

″Four hundred thousand dollars. The instant he blew through all that money he married Jana.″

″But she told me over lunch yesterday that she has a prenuptial agreement. Wouldn′t that-″

″A prenup only protects her assets while she′s alive. She left him a very healthy life insurance policy. What a colossal mistake her high-priced attorney let her make. I told her to change the beneficiary before she left town. I hope to hell she did.″

″How healthy?″

″Two million dollars.″

That could be two million reasons for murder.

Chapter 11

After leaving Mercy Hospital, I drove home through a thick southern mist, the kind that clings to the car and makes you try your windshield wipers in vain. But at least the monsoons had lifted. The morning rush-hour traffic reminded me that it was still early in the day, which seemed oddly surprising; eons seemed to have passed since I′d been jolted awake by Roe′s telephone call.

Inside my kitchen I made a pot of coffee while mulling over what I′d learned about Jana′s husband, Gavin. Could he have arranged her death as some kind of hit for hire? As a reporter I′d covered plenty of stories where murder had been committed for much less gain than a two-million-dollar insurance policy. Especially if he′d known that she was planning to leave him, Gavin had plenty of motive to arrange her death.

I yearned to talk to Jonathan. He′d know instinctively whether there was any real cause for suspicion about Jana′s husband. Probably he′d tell me not to worry about it-that Luke was a great cop, and that the evidence would steer the investigation.

Before trying Jonathan, I put in a call to Evelyn and told her what had happened.

As soon as she recovered from the immediate shock about Jana′s murder, Evelyn promised to call our friends in the Durham area to give them the tragic news.

Except for Trish. I needed to call her myself.

During our last conversation, Jana had mentioned that she′d left her purse behind at Trish′s house on the night of the Newbodies meeting. I didn′t know whether she′d had a chance to reclaim the bag before the carjacking. It was a beat in the story that sounded off, like an engine misfiring a cylinder.

Evelyn, who′d put down the phone to print out her contact list, returned to the line.

″Oh, Kate,″ she said. ″Everyone in our group is going to be so incredibly devastated when they hear about Jana. And frightened.″

″By the carjacking, you mean?″

″By the fact that it′s happened again to our support group. Jana is the second member of the Newbodies to be killed.″