Page 32 of Five for Silver

Romeo expelled a long breath. “Looks likeVincent isn’t accepting your no.”

Chad perched on the arm of the sofa. Thetoast dropped from his numb fingers when he saw his own namealongside James’s shooting across the bottom of the screen.

“It’s been reported that the lead officerson the case are Detective Inspector James Poole and DetectiveConstable Chad Fuller.”

“Fuck…”

Romeo hummed in agreement.

“Chad Fuller is, of course, the same onethat had dealings with serial killers Romeo Knight and Marc Wilson,and more recently he was involved in the chloroform killings byTate Bacon.”

“Dealings with?” Chad muttered.

“He’s going to make you dance, whether youwant to or not.”

Chad walked out, mumbling over his shoulder.“I need a drink.”

He hurried back to the kitchen pursued byRomeo holding his dropped toast. Romeo threw the slice in the binbefore turning to face Chad who had ignored the kettle and went tothe cupboard with the whiskey bottles. He picked one at random,knowing he wouldn’t taste anything but the burn in the back of histhroat. Chad studied the label as he got himself together andturned around.

“No,” Romeo said firmly, grabbing the bottleout of Chad’s hand. “Won’t do you much good if you drive to workdrunk and get yourself arrested.”

“I’m going to call in sick.”

Romeo shook his head. “You can’t.”

“But—”

“If you call in sick, guess where thosejournalists will turn up…”

Chad shifted his gaze to the window and thefields beyond.

“They’ll camp out here with their longlenses just to get a glimpse of you.”

“Then what do you suggest?”

Romeo rubbed his chin. “You let Vincent playhis game.”

“You told me you didn’t want me to visithim, didn’t want him getting in my head—”

“And he won’t. We knew he wasn’t going tolet it go. If anything, it surprised me he took so long to draw youin, but now he has.”

“You could at least pretend to me concernedabout me.”

“I’m not.”

“Thanks.”

Romeo moved the bottle away from Chad’slunge.

“I’m not concerned because you’ve got asecret weapon.”

Chad stared at him blankly.

Romeo sighed. “Me, Chad. You’ve got me. Iwon’t let anything happen to you, but in the spectrum of grey,you’re bang in the middle. You flit between lighter and darker, butyou need to step towards the dark to see this one clearly, to seeit like I can. Vincent is setting you up to lose—”

“That much is obvious.”

Romeo set the bottle aside. “He’s settingyou up to lose with the eyes of the country watching. He’s seenyour weakness—he saw it when you visited about Tate.”

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