Page 61 of Five for Silver

“She was … strong today. It was James thatbroke. He accused her of bullying Harriet, but she argued they weresisters, and sisters have petty arguments and squabbles. She hadn’ttold their parents about Harriet’s tattoo, not wanting to get herinto trouble. James seems to think that means Harriet must’ve hadsome dirt on Lucy to keep her mouth shut, but Lucy said she waslooking out for her sister.”

“The perfect little sister … can’t possiblybe her, right?”

Chad ran a hand through his hair. “She’s theonly one that confirmed the tattoo. She was reluctant from thestart to meet with Vincent. What if … she told Vincent about thetattoo?”

“How?”

“I don’t know. I’ve asked for all Vincent’svisiting logs, his verified numbers and addresses, too. But so far,I’ve heard nothing from Lynn.”

“The sister,” Romeo nodded. “All you’ve gotto do is lure her—”

“Romeo,” Chad raised his eyebrows. “I don’tknow if it was Lucy. It could’ve been our mystery culprit, or itcould’ve been Harriet herself, leaving the area. Missing peoplearen’t always murdered people.”

“Then we find Harriet, you lure herhere—”

“Stop,” Chad chuckled, pressing his palms toRomeo’s chest. “Slow down. I want to get this right … Ihaveto get it right. We need to outsmart him. We need to win.”

Romeo wrapped his arms around Chad’s back.He frowned, studying Chad and wound his arms even tighter aroundhim, not breaking their gazes.

“Lucy’s father has flown in from Italy. Ineed to speak to him. And I need to find someone else that canverify the dolphin tattoo.” Chad glanced at the board. “My firstthought was to contact Gavin—”

“As he’s dead, I’m guessing we need to finda medium then.”

Chad kissed Romeo on the nose.

“And what do you need from me?” Romeoasked.

“Vincent’s motivation for this, andsomething more than the lack of detail to completely rule Vincentout. Until then,” Chad slipped his hand into Romeo’s back pocket,and pulled out the folded mugshot, “he goes on the board.”

Chapter Eleven

“Five police escorts,” James said, pointingto each of the vehicles. Three cars, and two motorcycles. “It’s notexactly subtle. Maybe I should have a word with Pete.”

Pete.

“I’d rather ‘not subtle’ than Vincentescapes,” Chad muttered.

“I don’t think there’s much chance ofthat.”

“You’re … close to the superintendent?”

“We meet up now and then.”

“Meet up?”

“Clay pigeon shooting, or at least we usedto, but I’m getting on now, my eyesight isn’t what it used tobe.”

Vincent was helped across the parking lot byLynn and the nurse, each of them supporting one of his arms. Everybreath he took wheezed and crackled with the threat of a coughingepisode. Vincent’s eyes shuttered closed as he paused to recoverhis breath. He took in small gasps of air before resuming inchingcloser.

Chad glanced over to the perimeter fence.The press were there, like they had been all week, but with Vincentin shot they exploded with energy.

James unhooked a pair of handcuffs from hisbelt. The metallic clicking alerted the nurse whoglowered.

“Are handcuffs necessary?”

The wrinkled skin on the back of Vincent’shand reminded Chad of wet tissue paper, and bulging dark veinswrapped up his arms to his thin t-shirt. Handcuffs, no matter howloose, looked as if they’d break his frail bones.

James reattached the handcuffs to his beltand averted his gaze.

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