Where the Bones are Buried by Jeanne Matthews Page A

“I would rather have this conversation in person, Thor, but…”
    â€œMe, too. This damned Kenya crisis has me pinned down, waiting for orders from on high. Believe me, I will get there as soon as I can.”
    â€œOkay.” For once, she didn’t want a reprieve and she was getting one anyway. He probably wanted to let the news of the murder soak in for a few hours before he quizzed her about her mother’s involvement. She asked, “What did Lohendorf tell you about what happened tonight?”
    â€œI haven’t spoken with him. Is there something that I need to know?”
    â€œNot really. Just that the danger is past. The man who threatened my mother won’t be bothering us again.”
    â€œThat’s great. I told you Jens was good, didn’t I?”
    â€œYes, you did. And as soon as you get home, we’ll have a heart-to-heart about all that unmapped territory.”
    â€œDinah?”
    â€œMmm?”
    â€œI will do everything I can to get back to Berlin ahead of schedule. But if something should happen before I arrive, something that makes you feel you have to run away or take some drastic action, please don’t.”
    If he hadn’t talked with Lohendorf, then what the hell was he hinting at? Maybe N.C.I.S. had looked into the doings of their agent’s girlfriend and the cat was out of the bag about the Panama account. Maybe Thor thought she would cut and run rather than face him. If that’s what he believed, he was wrong. This was a reckoning she couldn’t run away from. Whatever happened, she would tell him the unvarnished truth and hope that he could find it in his heart to forgive her. She said, “I promise I won’t do anything rash or impulsive.”
    â€œThank you. Now I can go back to worrying about the murders in Kenya.”
    She finished the wine. It was going to be a rude homecoming. “Don’t let the bad guys blow up the world, Double-0 Seven. I’ll be here when you get home and…” she faltered. If it wasn’t in Thor’s nature to gush, it was even less in hers. She took a deep breath and a big first step toward honesty. “And I love you, too.”

Chapter Thirteen
    They have no business prying into our affairs. Confiscating our phones, taking our clothes and shoes, and carting us off to the morgue in the morning. Goodness’ sake, they’re acting like Nazis, which they were just a few short years ago. It’s not your fault sending them after us. Margaret said you were real worried when you couldn’t find me. We’ll just have to mind our p’s and q’s when they ask their bullying questions. Margaret and I are very much let down that Reiner got himself murdered, but we haven’t given up on the money . We hope he left a trail of breadcrumbs that will lead us to it . We’d all better put on our thinking caps.
    Hugs and xxxx
    P.S. You’d better burn this when you’re done reading.
    The courier who delivered this extraordinary missive rolled her eyes. “They don’t know that the dead dude isn’t Hess.”
    â€œYou read it?”
    â€œYou knew I would.” K.D. hurled herself into the corner armchair and draped her long, blue-jeaned legs across the arm. “I read yours, too. Why didn’t you enlighten them?”
    â€œI don’t want to confuse matters more than they are already. I assume the dead man was a messenger sent by Hess.” She wished there was such a thing as a thinking cap, or a Vulcan mind meld, or a spaceship waiting to whisk her to a galaxy far, far away. She kneaded her head and paced. Why hadn’t Wegener told Swan that the victim was Alwin Pohl? Insofar as Dinah knew, Reiner Hess and Florian Farber were the only two people Swan knew in Berlin. Never having seen or heard of this Pohl guy would be exculpatory. She could have no motive for killing a stranger.
    â€œSo.” K.D. stuck a foot out to block