Page 51 of Property of Anchor

I stood up and moved next to him.Lost lingered close, chewing the inside of his cheek.

The folder popped open.Five files.No labels.

Skull clicked the first one.

A picture filled the screen.

“What the fuck?”Vin muttered, stepping in from the pool table.

“That’s Mick Barber,” Bob said, voice low.“The first guy.”

The photo was up-close and clean.A headshot.Mick was smiling.

Skull clicked again.

Mick’s girlfriend.Alive.Probably the same photo they used on the news.

The third file opened.

None of us recognized the man in the picture.

“That who I think it is?”I asked.

Skull nodded slowly.“Yeah.The one we found yesterday.”

He looked pale, even in life.

I turned to Lost.“Where exactly did you find this again?”

“Bottom of the display coffin in the haunted house.Taped in the lid.”

“And you’re sure it wasn’t there before?”

“I would’ve seen it,” he insisted.

“Shit,” I muttered.

“Any more files?”Pull asked.

Skull nodded.“Two left.”

He opened the next.

A grainy image of a man none of us knew.Sitting on a bench.Hands in his lap.Just… staring ahead.

Post leaned in.“That the next one?”

Vin crossed his arms.“Like a hit list.”

I didn’t say anything.I just nodded at Skull.

He opened the final image.

I stopped breathing.

Pearl.

Standing on her porch.Wearing that yellow T-shirt with the little cherry on it.

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