Page 16 of Five for Silver

“What about them?” Chad asked.

“They were covered in blood as if he’dattempted to stem blood flow. Blood would’ve taken significantlylonger to soak through his jeans to stain his hands, compared tohis bare chest. Thus, I believe the wound to the heart was thefirst infliction, followed by the one to the groin. He would’velost a significant amount of blood quickly and have been inshock.”

Dave looked at Chad, encouraging him tospeak with a wave of his hand.

“It makes sense she stabbed his heart first.Throughout her interview, she kept referring to her broken heart.He broke hers by cheating, and she broke his by—”

“Knifing it. I get it.” Josh said, flinginghis hands up in surrender. “It’s not how I’d want to go.”

Dave gestured to Mr. Watney. “I doubt hewanted to go out like this either.”

“Hey, Chad,” Josh said. “How about Watney asa name?”

“I’m not naming him after our latest murdervictim.”

“Naming what?” Dave asked.

“Chad’s got a dog.”

Chad reddened, and snapped back, “Whoalready has a name.”

“Why so grumpy about it?” Dave asked.

“I’m not a grump.”

Josh threw an arm over Chad’s shoulders.“Proper grump is our Chad…”

The word grump took Chad back to twomornings ago in the ensuite bathroom with Romeo. He swallowed hardand ran a hand over his hair, refusing to go back there in front ofDave, Josh and a corpse.

Dave chuckled. “My dog when I was growing upwas called Bones.”

“Of course it was,” Josh muttered. “Couldn’thave a nice name, had to be something to do with corpses.”

“Believe it or not, Josh, but there arebones in living people, too.”

Chad cleared his throat. “Have you got thefile ready to take upstairs?”

“Yes,” Dave said, pointing out the window.“It’s on my desk.”

“Thanks.”

Dave covered Mr. Watney up with a sheet.Chad waved a goodbye before rushing to get the file from Dave’soffice.

Josh followed close behind, darting looksback the way they’d come.

“Don’t call your dog Bones.”

Chad snorted. “It’s better than Watney.”

“Out of context, Watney is a good name for adog.”

Chad grabbed the file and pushed it intoJosh’s chest.

“Imagine how inappropriate it would be ifthe press got wind of me naming a dog after a murder victim.”

“Not after him, but the same name, besides …we’ve done worse. Frankenstein.”

“Frankenstein’s monster,” Chad corrected.“We were lucky to keep our jobs after that.”

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