Page 127 of Liar's Point

“Anyway, Malcom was in Denver the day Aubrey was killed. I saw his post on social media. So I think he sent one of his people down here on a mission for him.”

She reached beneath the stack of junk mail sitting on the counter and pulled out the thick white envelope with her name printed across the front. She handed it to him.

“He sent me that.”

“What is it?” Alex asked, opening the envelope.

“It’s a sympathy card. It landed on my doorstep two days after I discovered Aubrey’s body on a deserted beach during my evening run. I was the one to find her. And when I got this card, I knew all my worst, most paranoid, most irrational fears were happening.”

“What fears?”

She watched him and knew he still wasn’t really getting it.

“It’s a warning murder. He killed her to send me a message.”

Alex blinked down at the card. Then he placed it on the counter.

“If he viewed you as a danger to him—you could expose his criminality and land him in prison, correct?”

She nodded.

“If he viewed you as a danger, why not threaten you directly? Why come down here and go after your friend?”

“I think he knows it would raise suspicion if both his mistress—who also conveniently happened to be his accountant—and his wife suddenly turned up dead within a six-month period.”

“Do investigators know about their affair?”

“Yes. He was questioned about their relationship when everything happened. I think something about her ‘accident’ raised some suspicion. That was when I went to see my first lawyer, and the advice he gave me is how I ended up here.” She shook her head. “But now my divorce is stalled, my legal bills are piling up, and the person who was supposed to get me out of this whole thing just got me in deeper. I don’t know what to do.”

Alex ran his hand through his hair. He was watching her with that skeptical look she’d seen before—when she went to see that first lawyer, in fact. Very few people truly comprehended what Malcom was capable of.

A few men who worked for him knew.

And Cassandra.

And possibly Isabel. Although Cassandra didn’t really believe Isabel had known. If she had, she never would have dreamed she could expose Malcom and get away with it. He had eyes everywhere, both human and digital.

Cassandra watched Alex’s expression. Something flickered there—just for a moment—but she recognized it.

Doubt.

“You don’t believe me,” she said flatly.

“No, I do. I just—” He rested his hands on his hips. “Help me understand. You’re saying he killed your friend as a veiled threat to you.”

“Friends.”

“Come again?”

“Aubrey.” Her stomach clenched. “And... I think maybe Danielle, too? My boss. I don’t have proof, though. Right now, it’s just a hunch.”

A depraved, paranoid hunch. Like everything else that had so far turned out to be true.

“A hunch based on...?”

She swallowed. “Well, we’re friends, for one thing. And we look alike. People are always mistaking us for each other, saying we could be sisters. I think he could be trying to make a point to me.”

“You think he murdered two people to make a point to you?”

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