What was I gonna do? It was in the past. “You told them if Benito comes to them to tell me.”
“Of course. And they will.” Alex jerked his chin. “Penn decorating?”
I glanced out the window, where there were now several people all helping him make his Halloween dreams come true. “He sure is.”
“Matteo’s birthday party this weekend at Dean and Rita’s; how do you want to handle security?”
“Fucking tight!”
“That’s vague, but I can work with that.”
“Matteo wrote a list of who he invited, right?”
Alex moved next to me and we watched as the lawn turned into a Halloweenfest. “Yeah, but it’s like, Mike, Lee, Joe.” He laughed.
“Dean and Rita will know who the kids are and their parents. Make sure as people arrive they get cleared by them.”
“You got it.”
“I got news.” Toni rushed into the room, his tablet at his side.
“Is it news that’ll piss me off?”
Toni shrugged. “Hard to say, really, but I don’t think so.” He hit something on his tablet and handed it to me.
It was a missing persons report issued by Elijah’s girlfriend. It was a few towns over in New Lyme where Elijah lived, but these went out through all the departments usually.
“Benito either knows or is about to, then. That was fast.”
“Yeah, I spoke with someone at the department in New Lyme. They said she came in frantic. She found his car abandoned, his phone still in it. She was adamant that he was abducted.”
I rolled my eyes. “Dramatic.”
Toni cocked his head. “I mean, sure, but also true. He was abducted.”
I handed him the tablet. “Semantics.”
Penn chose that moment to walk into the house. “Hey.” He looked at Alex. “Did you take the nylon rope from the shed?”
“Uh, no. Why would I do that?”
“I dunno, for murder things.”
Alex glanced at me, and I had to bite back a laugh.
“No, Penn, I didn’t use the nylon rope in the shed for murder things. But I can get someone to run to the store for some.”
Penn waved him off. “No, I’ll go. It’s a specific kind, and the color can’t be bright pink or some shit.”
“Take guys with you,” I said as he was heading out the door.
“He takes this decorating thing very seriously.” Toni watched Penn out the window as he got into an SUV with Danny and two other guys.
“That he does. I find it best to stay out of his way.”
Alex and Toni hummed in agreement.
“Anyway.” I turned to Toni. “Get eyes on the girlfriend. She might reach out to Benito or do something stupid. Also, look intoher. The more we know about her, the more we’ll know the best way to deal with it if she becomes a problem.”
