Then another.
A few seconds later, he stopped.
“I’ll be damned.”
Deck leaned forward.
“What?”
Dawson rotated the screen.
A court photograph filled the monitor.
[COURTROOM EXHIBIT 402-B] Second row. Dark hair. Eyes like flint. Lila Allen.
The image showed a courtroom gallery.
Families seated together.
Reporters in the back.
And one young woman in the second row.
Watching the defense table with burning intensity.
Dawson tapped the screen.
“That’s not Lila Grant.”
Deck looked closer.
Younger. Darker hair.
But the eyes were the same.
“What’s her name?” he asked.
Dawson zoomed in on the case notes.
“Lila Allen.”
Something in Deck’s face hardened.
“Allen?”
Dawson nodded.
“First cousin to the missing woman in that Charleston case.”
Deck leaned back slowly.
A quiet, humorless smile crept across his face.
“Well now,” he murmured.
Dawson watched him.
“You mind explaining why that matters?”
