made their way up the steps to the porch. But as soon as Gabriel reached the top step, he stopped.
Then, he froze.
Jodi was near enough to him to sense the muscles tensing in his body. And she soon realized why.
Her heart jumped to her throat. “Oh, mercy.” Jodi shook her head and inched closer. Not that she needed to be closer to realize what she was seeing.
A knife.
With a crescent-shaped blade. The tip was missing.
And there was blood on it.
Even before he saw the knife. Gabriel had already had a bad feeling. He’d gotten it the moment he laid eyes on Jodi because she should be nowhere near this place. Now, that bad feeling turned to something much worse.
Hell.
Just to be sure his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him, he took another look at what someone had left on the porch just about two feet to the left side of the door. No tricks. It was the knife all right. Or rather, a knife.
“That blood on it isn’t dry,” Jodi pointed out. Her voice was trembling just a little, but Gabriel had to hand it to her because she was holding herself together.
On the outside anyway.
On the inside, he figured it was a whole different story. If it was indeed the knife that had killed his parents, then it was the same one the killer had used on Jodi.
“It could be fake blood,” Gabriel reminded her.
There was no way he would touch it to find out, though. Since the tip was missing, this was either the actual weapon that had killed his parents or else someone had broken off the end of the blade so that it would resemble it.
But there was a problem with that.
The missing tip that the surgeon had removed from Jodi’s body hadn’t been mentioned in any of the police reports. Nor was the fact that the killer had taken his father’s watch and his mother’s necklace. Those were just a few of the little details that the FBI had left out in case some nutjob tried to confess to the crime. So, either someone had hacked into those actual reports, or...
Gabriel didn’t want to speculate about an or just yet.
While keeping his attention on their surroundings, Gabriel took his phone from his pocket and texted Jameson. He told him that he needed his help and for him to call a CSI to come and take custody of this knife. Jameson was at his house and could be there in a couple of minutes.
Bringing in his brother was better than waiting for the deputies to come in from the sheriff’s office. Besides, Jameson was a Texas Ranger and the best backup Gabriel could have. Once Jameson arrived, maybe they could keep Jodi out of this. Of course, the problem was that she was here and therefore already in the middle of it.
Whatever it was.
This could still be a prank, and Gabriel was holding on to that hope. Over the years the house had become a magnet for daredevil kids, ghost hunters and pretty much anyone warped enough to want to see an old crime scene. That’s how the windows had gotten broken and the boards sprayed with graffiti.
Gabriel tested the doorknob. Locked, just as it should be, and he used his key to open it. He pushed open the door, had a look around and got an instant punch of the musty smell and the dust. An instant punch of the memories, too.
He hated this place.
Hated that it still felt like an open, raw wound. A cut so deep that it would never heal. It was no doubt the same for Jodi. Even though she hadn’t lost her parents that day, it had been just as costly for her.
In plenty of ways, she’d lost herself.
For just a moment he got a flash of another memory. Of the smiling nineteen-year-old who’d shown up at his house that night. She’d been wearing cutoff denim shorts, a snug red top and had looked far better than a girl had a right to look.
He pushed that memory aside, too. He’d lost himself that night, as well. Because he hadn’t protected her. He hadn’t saved his parents, and while Jodi had lived, he darn sure hadn’t saved her, either.
Gabriel didn’t see anyone in either of the two rooms just off the entry. Nor did he hear anyone. He ducked under the crisscross of boards, his back scraping against the rough wood. He moved just far enough inside for Jodi to step in behind him. Even though she didn’t say anything, he could hear her breathing. Which was too fast.
There were no signs of an intruder here. No footprints in the dust on the hardwood floors.
The furniture in the living and dining rooms was still draped with the sheets that his sisters had put on them years earlier. It hadn’t felt right to move anything after the CSIs had finished with it, so they’d covered everything, locked and boarded it up. Now, it was like some kind of sick time capsule.
“Anyone up there?” Gabriel called out.
He didn’t expect a response and didn’t get one. But what he did hear was something he didn’t want to hear.
A footstep.
Yeah, someone was definitely upstairs. And judging from the weight of the step, it wasn’t a raccoon or some other animal.
Jodi moved as if ready to barge right up there, but Gabriel leaned in front of her and shot her a scowl. “We’ll wait here for Jameson. Once he arrives, I’ll go upstairs. Alone.”
She huffed, clearly not pleased about that. Maybe because she wanted to confront the person who’d left the knife. Of course, she thought it was the same person who had attacked her, but Gabriel was sticking to his guns that her father had been responsible for that.
“We should at least check the back door,” she suggested. “That might be how he got in.”
Yes, either that or a window. The place wasn’t exactly a fortress, though the doors and windows should have at least all been locked. That wouldn’t have stopped someone from breaking one of the panes and getting inside, though.
Gabriel went to the center of the foyer, and he volleyed his attention around the rooms and the stairs. He still didn’t see anyone or anything out of place. Definitely no more blood to go along with what was on that knife, and if he had seen so much as a drop, he would have stopped and gotten out of there since this could potentially be a crime scene.
Again.
But thankfully there was nothing other than the bad feeling that continued to snake down his spine.
“Stay here,” he warned Jodi.
Whether she would or not was anyone’s guess, but Gabriel went into the adjacent family room so he could peer through to the kitchen. No one was there, but the rear door was open. The wind was causing it to sway just enough to make this whole ordeal even creepier than it already was.
Gabriel was about to lose patience
