Page 32 of Already Lost

Laura frowned to herself. She knew thesong hadn’t been so successful, but it was odd to think that the singer hadn’tmade any other successes either. “She didn’t record anything else?”

“The record company wouldn’t let her,”Jack shrugged. “The family lore is that she wanted to sing her own songs andthey wouldn’t let her. They said she had to sing this one first, and then itflopped, so they cut her loose. Some legacy to be proud of, right? She had onechance and it wasn’t even one of her own songs.”

“So, she didn’t write it,” Laura said. Thiswas getting more complex than she’d thought. Not only was there clearly no lovelost for Jack’s memory of his great-grandmother, but now there were more peopleinvolved in the making of the song than she’d thought.

“No, it was some other woman’s song. Youknow, she was sad about that. When she was dying, she told my dad – my grandadwas gone by then, he got hooked on drugs – that it was her biggest regret inlife. She said she had no connection to the song, you know? She didn’t feel it.That’s what you can hear on the record. She just doesn’t care enough about thewords, so you don’t care enough.”

Laura rubbed her forehead. “So, who didhave a personal connection to the song?”

Jack shrugged. “Beats me. I didn’t everlook into it. Like I said, it wasn’t something we talked about much. It hauntedher, I think. When that happens, your children don’t want to keep bringing itup. I think if she had her way, I would never have even heard of the song atall.”

This was so curious. For a singer to beactually ashamed of the only song they ever got a chance to release… thatdidn’t tally, somehow, with Laura’s impression of the crime scenes. Yes, onpaper, it would be logical to think that this man could blame the song forruining his great-grandmother’s life, and the effects of that trickling down toruin his own. But there was something about it that seemed off with her. Thekillerwantedthem to hear the song. Almost like he was proud of it orloved hearing it.

“Can you tell us your whereabouts lastnight?” Nate asked. “Or, no, this is easier – two days ago, during the day?”

“I was at work,” he said. “I’m a shiftworker at one of the factories on the outskirts of town. Today’s my day off.We’ve been doing fourteen, fifteen-hour shifts.”

“Fifteen hours?” Nate repeated.

“I mean.” Jack’s eyes slid to the side.“Ten hours. That’s right. We had a three-hour break so I got confused.”

Alright, Laura thought.Clearly,someone at that factory is breaking labor laws.

But that wasn’t what they were here for,so she let it pass.

“If we were to check with your foreman,they would have timesheets?” Laura asked. There was probably surveillancefootage as well, of course, and they could collect witness statements. But itdidn’t hurt to give a little push, just in case the alibi was a fake and theywould want to admit it when they realized it was going to be tested.

“Yeah,” Jack shrugged. “I was there allday. We do three days in a row, take a break, and then three more. I was thereyesterday all day as well, and the day before the one you’re asking about.”

If he was telling the truth, he was ruledout of at least two of the murders on timing grounds. He could still havecommitted the one last night, but after a fifteen hour shift at work? It wasdoubtful he would have had the energy.

“Alright,” Laura said. “Thank you for yourhelp. You don’t happen to have any documents from around that time pertainingto the song…?”

Jack shook his head. “From what I hear, Ithink Nena would probably have burned them all in disgust.”

Laura sighed and nodded, looking at Nate.“Then we’ll be on our way.” To where, though, she had no idea – because she wascompletely out of leads, and the killer was still out there, what might as wellhave been a thousand miles away for how close they were to catching him.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Laura slumped in the car, holding her handagainst her head.

“We’ll get there,” Nate said.

“It doesn’t feel that way right now,”Laura replied, her voice muffled by her own hand.

“We will,” Nate said. Laura had no ideahow he was holding onto his determination right now, but she was glad. At leastone of them still felt like this case was solvable.

Her phone rang in her hand and she glancedat the screen. Zach. There was no way she was answering it right now. Not withNate right next to her in the car, and not while she felt like a total failure.She canceled the call, turning the phone over so she didn’t have to look at it.She’d call him back soon. Maybe.

Maybe not.

“Who was that?” Nate asked, glancing ather.

“Didn’t recognize the number,” Laura lied,staring out of the window. He was driving them back to the precinct. She didn’treally know why or what they were going to do when they got there.

Her phone buzzed again. Laura couldn’tbelieve it. Was he harassing her or something? She turned it over to reject thecall a second time – but stopped with her finger hovering over the button,saving herself before she pressed it. She put the phone to her ear and acceptedthe call, clearing her throat.

“Special Agent Laura Frost,” she said.

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