Page 84 of Seven Deadly Sins

Liam believed the man. He pulled a business card from his pocket. “We’ll let you go, Mr. Maysup, but we need you to call if you hear from him. Got it? If we find out you don’t, we will put you behind bars.”

“What about protection?”

“We’ll get that taken care of. Wait in the waiting room while we discuss this with the other agents.” Liam opened the door for him.

Maysup couldn’t get out fast enough, banging his shoulder on the door frame on his way.

Making the man wait, they interviewed the two other men. As Liam had suspected, neither had attended the meeting, and neither knew Thompson’s whereabouts. Like Maysup, they approved of cleansing the world. One of them didn’t care that Thompson’s method was murder. Liam really wanted to arrest the man but had no grounds.

“We need a man and his family put under protection,” he told Macey and Harris. “Can you take care of it. He’s in the waiting room. Name is Steven Maysup.”

“Yeah.” Macey nodded. “Get anything out of him?”

“Nothing to help us.” He told him about the assassin, the spikes, and the text.

“You and Scranton watch your backs. I don’t like this.”

Neither did Liam, but he’d do almost anything to put a stop to Thompson’s game. “We’ll be careful.”

He joined Harper in the bullpen and started writing his report. He glanced over to where Harper typed. Neither one of them would have a very long report. They’d left before the scene at the club was fully cased.

He added meeting the assassin in the rain. The chief’s head would explode when he read about it, but since there wasn’t anything they could do, he’d have to get over it. If he or Harper had shot the woman, they’d have a less chance of finding Thompson.

Kill his assassin and he’d simply hire another one.

His phone buzzed at the same time as Harper’s. “Got a murder at the Harrington Mall. Food court.”

Chapter Three

Harper stared downat a young girl no more than twenty-five-years-old while she sobbed out her story. A crowd had gathered that Annie, Macey, Harris, and finally, some loaned officers from other towns were having a hard time corralling. Either folks wanted to press close to hear better or they wanted to bolt from the mall. “What’s your name, ma’am and how do you know the victim?” She spoke in as soothing a voice as she could and still be heard over the crowd.

“Susan Washburn. I’m…was…Mrs. Chandler’s assistant.” She raised red-rimmed blue eyes. “I’d just brought her the Asian salad she wanted and a bowl of Miso soup.”

“Did you see anyone near her?”

“An older couple. The woman stumbled against the table, and the old man helped keep her from falling. Mrs. Chandler cursed. I think some of the soup might have spilled on her dress. I’m not sure what happened.” She covered her face with her hands. “I’d stepped away to get my own lunch when I heard her fall.”

Harper eyed the bags around the table. “These purchases all hers?”

Susan nodded. “She got bored easy. Mr. Chandler is gone a lot, so she shops to fill her time.”

“Don’t leave yet. I may have more questions.” Harper stood beside the deceased who had toppled from her chair and now lay among the purchases she might have gotten a bit of joy from if she’d had the time.

A bit of lettuce hung from the plastic fork beside the Styrofoam box. A cardboard bowl of soup, the spoon on the edge of the table, had been spilled across the table. If Harper was to make an assumption, she’d guess poison. It wouldn’t take long for the lab to find out.

She glanced at the entrance door as the crime scene techs rushed in, then joined Liam doing crowd control. “The assistant mentioned an old woman stumbling against the table. Wanna bet it was our assassin? The old man with her most likely Robert. I think they slipped poison in the victim’s lunch.”

“It doesn’t look as if the woman eats too much. She could’ve stood to gain a few pounds.”

“Maybe it’s the abundance of packages that drew their attention to her.”

“Do you know her?”

Harper shook her head. “I might have seen something in the papers, some charity event or something, but the name Chandler doesn’t mean anything to me.” She turned to the crowd. “Anyone here see anything?”

“I did.” A older woman’s voice boomed out in direct contrast with her tiny bird-like frame. “I was sitting next to the couple that bumped into her table.”

“Please, ma’am, come with me.” Harper led the woman to a table away from the crowd. “Tell me what you heard or so.”

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