In Death 23 - Born in Death by authors_sort Page A

their murders, I mean. I’m Jake Sloan.”
    “I’d like to speak to you. Privately.”
    “Yeah, come on in. You want something?” he asked as he closed the door behind her.
    “No, thanks.”
    “I can’t settle.” He paced around a small office with posters in geometric shapes and primary colors on the walls. There were toys on his desk—or what she thought of as toys, in any case. A bright red squeeze ball mocked up like a devil with horns, a cartoon dog on a fat spring, a curly tube that rocked on a string and changed colors with the movements.
    He walked to a tiny refreshment area and pulled a bottle of water from a minifriggie.
    “I almost didn’t come in today,” he told Eve. “But I couldn’t stand the idea of staying home. Staying alone.”
    “You and Natalie knew each other well.”
    “We were pals.” His smile was shaky and brief. “Had lunch together a couple days a week maybe, with Bick if he could make it. Gossip in the break room, hang out. We’d go out together a couple of times a month, usually. Nat and Bick, me and whatever girl I was seeing. One girl the last six months.”
    He dropped down in his chair. “I’m rambling. You don’t care about any of that.”
    “Actually, I do. Do you know anyone who’d want to hurt Natalie?”
    “No.” She saw the gleam of tears before he turned his head to stare hard at the image of a blue circle inside a red triangle framed on the wall. “People liked Nat. I don’t understand how this could happen. Her and Bick. Both of them. I keep thinking it’s going to be some awful mistake and she’ll poke her head in the door and say, ‘Skinny latte?’”
    He turned back, tried that smile again. “We’d get lattes in the break room.”
    “Were you and Natalie ever involved romantically, sexually?”
    “Oh, jeez, no. It wasn’t like that.” Spots of color rode on his cheeks now. “Sorry, it’s kind of like thinking about nailing my sister, you know? We just hit it off, day one. Friends, like we’d known each other already. And I don’t guess either of us were what the other was looking for that way. Nat, she was looking for Bick. They were, like, fated, you know? You could just see it. God.”
    He propped his elbows on the desk, lowered his head to his hands. “It just makes me sick to think what happened to them.”
    “Did she say anything to you about any concerns, any problems? Since you were close, would she have told you if something was bothering her?”
    “I’d have thought she would, but she didn’t. And something was.”
    Eve zeroed in. “How do you know?”
    “Because I knew her. I could see it. But she wouldn’t talk about it. Said she was handling it, not to worry. I teased her that she was getting wedding jitters, going to do a runaway bride, and she played along. But you know, that wasn’t it.” He shook his head. “She was anxious about the details of the wedding, but not getting married, if you get what I mean.”
    “So what was it?”
    “I think it was an account. I think she was having trouble with one of her accounts.”
    “Why?”
    “Worked with her door locked a lot the last couple weeks. That wasn’t Nat.”
    “Any idea which account?”
    He shook his head again. “I didn’t push. All of us have at least a couple of accounts that we can’t discuss with other people in the department. I guess I thought she was losing a big client and trying to put out the fire. Happens.”
    He looked away again, back to the blue circle inside the red triangle. “We were all supposed to go out this Saturday. The four of us. I don’t know how they could be dead.”
    There was a knock, then the door opened. “Jake. Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
    “Dad.” Jake pushed to his feet. “Ah, this is Lieutenant Dallas, with the police. My father, Randall Sloan.”
    “Lieutenant.” Randall took her hand, held it firm. “You’re here about Natalie and Bick. We’re all in…I guess we’re in a