Page 120 of The Last Close Call

And it had been years since Anderson had made an ATM withdrawal or deposited money, as far as Jack knew. What the hell were they living off of? Jack was beginning to think that Anderson’s sister had lied and that she’d been aiding and abetting her brother all along.

Jack’s phone buzzed, and he checked the screen.

Rowan.

He connected. “Hey.”

“Hi. How’s it going?”

“Slow. How’s it going with you?”

“Better,” she said. “I had some soup.”

“That’s good.”

It was great to hear her voice, but this time, he kept that reaction to himself.

“The ginger ale helped, too. Thank you for coming by.”

“Sure.”

She got quiet.

A light went on in one of the front windows, and Jack grabbed the binoculars.

“Jack?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m sorry about the other morning when I blew up at you. I was kind of out of sorts.”

He adjusted the lenses and waited.

“Hello?”

“Are you going to tell me what was wrong?”

She went quiet again, and he waited for her to lie to him and say it was nothing. Frustration gnawed at him. She was so guarded about her feelings. He wanted her to open up, but he couldn’t force her. He wasn’t the best at relationships, but he knew that much.

He was going to have to be patient, even though his patience was in extremely short supply right now.

Another light switched on inside the house. Then the radio crackled, and Jack’s heart lurched.

“Rowan, I need to call you back.”

“Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, but I have to go.”

“Be careful.”

He clicked off as Bryan’s voice came over the radio.

“We’ve got movement at the back door,” his partner informed him. “Looks like... male subject exiting. He’s going out to the driveway. You seeing this?”

“Got it,” Jack said as a shadowy figure stepped onto the driveway.

“Can you confirm it’s him and not her?”

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