Birthright

of which could have provided access.
    The fact that the police had found no signs of forced entry meant nothing. Someone had been inside, selected Callie’s clothes.
    Someone had left them a very clear message.
    She’d been on the verge of quitting. Studying the house, he stuck his hands in his pockets, rocked gently on his heels. He’d pushed her back from it. He was sure she’d have stepped back herself. He knew her too well to believe otherwise. But it didn’t negate his part in the decision.
    He had no doubt that whoever had blown up the tanks would have done so even if Callie had been in the trailer. In fact, whoever had done it might be a little disappointed she hadn’t been.
    Carlyle was dead. The Simpsons? He considered them. Both were fit, fit enough, he imagined, for one of them to have taken a quick sprint through the woods while the other dumped the effigy in the trench, then set a small charge on the tank.
    How long had he and Callie been in the woods? Four minutes? Five? Plenty of time.
    But his gut told him Barb and Hank were as far away from Callie and Woodsboro as they could manage.
    They’d known just when to run, he remembered. And he had a feeling he knew how.
    He walked toward the driveway as Doug pulled up.
    “Where is she?” Doug demanded.
    “Asleep. She finally went out about an hour ago. Appreciate you getting here so fast.”
    “She’s not hurt?”
    “No. Couple of bruises from when she hit the dirt, that’s all.”
    After one long breath, Doug looked at Jake’s bandaged arm. “How bad’s that?”
    “Some shrapnel grazed me. They sewed me up. Worst of the damage is to the site. We’re waiting for them to clear us to start cleaning it up. But we lost everything that was in the trailer, and anything Callie had on her laptop that wasn’t already backed up here. Then there was what they left for us.”
    He told Doug about the effigy of Callie, left in the ancient grave.
    “Can you get her away from here?”
    “Oh yeah, absolutely. If I sedate her, then chain her in a room somewhere. Got any manacles I can borrow?”
    “Mine are in the shop for repair.”
    “Ain’t that always the way?”
    They stood in silence for a moment. “She’s dug in here now,” Jake said at length. “And I manned one of the shovels. She won’t budge until she finds what she’s after. If you’re still going to Boston, you’re going to want to watch your back.”
    “I’m going. But when I’m gone, I’m not here to look out for my family, or for Lana and Ty. I can ask my fatherand my grandfather to move in with my mother for a few days. It’ll be weird, but they’ll do it. But Lana’s alone out there.”
    “How would she feel about a houseguest? Digger could bunk there.”
    “Digger?”
    A smile, tight and humorless, spread. “Yeah, I know, he looks like a twelve-year-old girl could whip his ass. Don’t let that fool you. I’ve known him fifteen years. If I needed somebody to look out for my family, that’s who I’d ask. Your main problem will be your lady might fall in love with him. I don’t know why, but a lot of them do.”
    “That’s reassuring. It has to still be going on, doesn’t it?” Doug looked away from the house. “That’s what none of us have said so far. But if someone’s desperate enough to kill, it has to, somehow, still be going on. If we don’t find the answers, it’s never going to stop.”
    “I keep thinking we’ve missed something. Some detail. So we go back and sieve the spoil.”
    “While you do that, I’ll go down another level in Boston.” He opened the car door again. “Tell Callie . . . tell my sister,” he corrected, “I’ll find something.”
    S he was still sleeping when he went up to her bedroom. Curled up tight on top of the sleeping bag, a travel pillow jammed under her head.
    She looked too pale to suit him, and she’d started to drop weight.
    He was going to take her away from there, he decided. Anywhere for a day or so, the first chance they had. They’d hole up somewhere and do nothing but eat, sleep and make love until she was steady again.
    And when she was steady again, they were going to have a life together. Not just fireworks, but a life.
    In lieu of a blanket, he draped a towel over her. Giving in to his own exhaustion, Jake lay down beside her, drew her back against him. Then he dropped off the edge of fatigue into sleep.
    He woke on a blast of pain when he rolled over on his bad arm. Cursing, hissing his