Faces of Evil [4] Rage by Debra Webb

call through to Lori. She’d already waylaid Harper once, so this time she’d snag Lori. Not that she felt she needed someone with her at all times as Burnett had suggested. No, sir. What she needed was that second pair of eyes again. A trip back to the crime scene without all the distractions of evidence techs and concerned cops was in order.
    She needed more of the story only the scene could give her. As soon as the techs had done their final sweep, cleaners—whether professionals or friends—would wash away all traces of the unspeakable act that had taken place in the Grayson home.
    One more good review was essential before that happened.
    Same friends — all cops, by the way .
    Especially if that killer was a cop.
    In the parking lot Jess climbed into the Taurus and jammed the key into the ignition. What she needed was a list of all who kept up with Lieutenant Grayson’s activities, friends, coworkers. She twisted the key. Nothing happened.
    Jess glared at the dash. “What in the world?” She tried to start the vehicle again.
    Nothing. Not even a click, click, click . Dash didn’t light up. Radio didn’t work. Dead battery.
    “For the love of…” She snatched up her cell and called Lori again. “Can you pick me up? This stupid car is dead.”
    “Heading your way now,” Lori assured her.
    Jess tossed her phone into her bag. “Damn it.” She hated wasting time.
    The idea that Gabrielle’s killer had waited so long to stage the body with all those stab wounds and the decapitation filtered into Jess’s thoughts. What had the killer been doing all that time? Why the backtracking? Jess at first thought the killer had methodically staged the scene to appear as if the crime was just another gang hit.
    But she had been wrong.
    There was one surefire way to try to disguise manual asphyxiation—a botched beheading job. The killer had been forced to step back and change his strategy. To stage a distraction.
    And that meant just one thing, in Jess’s opinion. The murder hadn’t been planned. Whoever showed up at the Grayson home had come with another agenda that had evolved into murder.
    Someone Gabrielle Grayson knew and maybe even trusted.
    And that trust had cost the poor woman her life.
    Shady Creek Drive, 4:05 p.m.
    The officer left in charge of the crime scene’s security unlocked the Grayson home for Jess and Lori. He reported that a second team of evidence techs had come and gone. No one wanted to miss a single speck of evidence on this one.
    After donning shoe covers and gloves, Jess spent the first half hour on scene going through the master bedroom. Lori reviewed the mail and any other papers scattered around the house. Jess had summoned Officer Cook to join them. She’d tasked him with sifting through the files in the small home office. Most appeared to be the usual receipts, tax and medical records, but Jess wanted to be sure.
    As she had noted that morning, the house was clean and well organized. The bed in the master bedroom was unmade. Gabrielle had apparently already been in bed when the perpetrator either knocked on the door or forced his way inside through the sliding glass doors. It appeared she had received no phone calls on the home’s landline or her cell after seven forty-five last night when her husband called to say he was stopping by to tuck in their son. Since calls could be erased from caller ID lists the records for both lines had been ordered.
    It could prove useful to see who else Gabrielle had called yesterday. If she had another friend with whom she might have talked about her concerns regarding her husband, Jess needed to know ASAP. And if she had in fact called Sylvia Baron, Jess wanted that confirmation before she questioned the husband again.
    Why would Gabrielle have called the ex-wife? Didn’t make sense. Jess moved on to the baby’s room. Smelled like powders and lotion. The scents caused a little cramp in her chest. There was a good possibility she would never have