“Why bother? Now I really don’t have anything to steal.”

“Good thing you carry your laptop with you,” she said.

“Damn right.” What if this had happened on his day off and he hadn’t been home? His work laptop would have been long gone. Maybe he should get an alarm system. “I need to check the garage.”

She followed him out to the detached garage. “I called my neighbor. She checked my doors and peeked in my windows. Nothing has been disturbed. I guess I don’t need to rush over tonight to check my condo.”

“You still think Jayne is behind this?”

She sighed. “I don’t know. I assume any thief would grab what jewelry he could find. Knowing it was my mother’s made me instantly think of Jayne. It wasn’t much, just a small sapphire in a gold setting. Was anything else missing in the house?”

“Nope. Whoever it was didn’t make much of a score. They got a single TV. I’ve never been one for buying expensive toys.”

He unlocked the heavy door to the garage, thankful there wasn’t any glass to allow a break-in. His valuable equipment was here. His ATV and power tools and the gun safe.

“No expensive toys, eh?” Ava rapped a knuckle on the ATV and then pointed at the gun safe. “They’d have to bring in heavy hauling equipment to steal that. What’s it weigh?” Ava asked as he opened the safe.

A quick scan told him nothing had been disturbed in the garage or safe. “Nearly a ton.”

She snorted.

“Did you try to call your sister?” he asked.

“I tried yesterday after the guy from Party Mart called. Her cell has been disconnected.”

“Do you have another way to reach her?”

“No.”

Mason closed the safe and turned to look at Ava. She had her arms wrapped around herself as if she were freezing. She wouldn’t meet his gaze. “You’ve had times before when you had no way to get ahold of her, right?”

She nodded. “It makes me feel lost. Like I’m the one out there without a lifeline. I’m here and safe with you while she’s flapping around in the wind. I can’t help but feel guilty and that I need to do something.”

Mason put his arms around her and buried his face in her hair. In the few months he and Ava had been together, he’d seen nothing that ripped her apart the way her twin did. Not a bullet in her arm or gazing at the face of a murdered congressman. It was Jayne who broke her down.

Ava was the strongest woman he’d ever met, but her twin caused fracture lines in her core. Mason ached to fix them, but he was at a loss when it came to Jayne. They’d agreed she should leave her twin to do her own thing. That Ava had gone above and beyond the efforts of any sister or saint in her attempts to help. But Jayne still reeled her in.

He didn’t know what to do.

Mason heard a car pull up out front and the faint crackle of a police radio. He kissed the top of her head. “We’ll find her.”

At work the next morning, Ava checked to see what sort of hits she’d received on her VICAP search. She’d plugged in the basics of Carson Scott’s murder, searching the country-wide violent crime database for other post-death hangings in which the wrists had been slit and the limbs bound.

Nothing.

Congratulations. You have the start of an original freak show in your town.

She scowled and finished off the latte she’d bought at the Starbucks down the street. She decided to make another request, specifying the second body’s ball gag and slit wrists. Perhaps her first search had been too narrow. Her brain felt divided into a hundred pieces. That was normal for her workday, but today a huge piece labeled Jayne was occupying a larger section than it deserved.

Ava had stopped by her condo before work. Her neighbor had been right. Her place hadn’t been touched. Maybe she’d jumped to conclusions about Jayne. She’d packed more clothing to add to the growing wardrobe she kept at Mason’s, and she’d glanced through a few bare cupboards and wondered if she should sell her home.

A small chill touched her spine. It was a big step. A topic she and Mason had danced around for the last few weeks. She’d originally “moved in” because she needed help with her injury. And because she’d fallen head over heels for the detective. She suspected the bullet in her shoulder had simply sped up the timeline.

Four weeks ago he’d told her he loved her, and she’d immediately returned the sentiment. She’d known she was in love with him since before she’d been shot, but had been too scared to be the first person to say it. Her last relationship had soured in a mighty big way. She’d been burned and reluctant to play the game again. Especially with another cop.

Now she’d jumped in with both feet.

Should I sell?

“Shit.” She filed the question away for later. She didn’t have to make a decision right now. But did Mason believe she wasn’t selling her place because she thought the relationship would fail?

Of course he didn’t. They’d been together a little more than two months. He had to expect her to keep her place a while longer. They could use it as a rental. Maybe Jayne needed—

Stop!

The last type of renter they needed was one like her sister.

Did Jayne break into Mason’s house?

Zander stopped at the entry to her office. “You hear the identity of the second body?”

“No, what do they have?” Ava’s brain rapidly shifted gears back to the murders.