Page 150 of D for Dead

He handed her the photograph. There were two men in the picture and they had been fishing, proudly holding up their catch for the camera.

‘Declan Rivers and Troy Cunningham know each other,’ she murmured, staring at their faces and immediately understanding.

‘That’s not all.’ Hickok was still looking at the notebook. ‘He’s got a list here. Ben Hogan, Kasey Miller, Shannon Castle, Leon Pruitt, Nadine Williams, Wesley Peterson and Leslie and Crystal Rooney are all on it, their names crossed out.’

‘Jeez. How the hell did we not see this?’

‘Why would we?’

She guessed Hickok was right. Rivers had been an outsider brought in, his sole purpose for being in Juniper to help catch a killer.

‘There’s one more name on the list. It hasn’t been crossed out.’ Hickok shook his head, closing the notebook and meeting her eyes. ‘We need to find Amy before it’s too late.’

* * *

As Troy approached, Amy tried to pull away, but Rivers tightened his grip.

‘He’s going to kill us. For God’s sake, shoot him.’

‘Hush, it’s gonna be fine.’

There was no fear in his tone. Why was there no fear? This was wrong. Something was very wrong.

‘What the fuck did you do, Troy?’ he demanded. ‘You let her get away.’

What?

‘Shoot him, dammit. Please, shoot him.’

Instead, Rivers did the opposite, flipping the gun and handing it to Troy.

‘She managed to get loose and caught me off guard.’ Troy scowled at Amy. ‘The bitch smashed me over the head with the toilet lid.’

‘All these years without making a single mistake and now you do this?’

What was going on? Rivers was a Fed, he was working the case. How did he know Troy?

‘Why are you talking to him?’ she asked, panic burning her throat.

Rivers tightened his grip around her, but didn’t answer, instead continuing to address Troy.

‘You’re a fucking stupid idiot. We’ve been so careful and now when it counts the most and all you had to do was get her here and down into the basement, you mess up. This is how people get caught, Troy, and we’re better than that.’

‘I have a goddamn stab wound and the pain is killing me. It’s not my fault I had to step in when you got sent here. She got me off guard, caught me right where the knife went. I nearly fucking passed out. But we have her now. Troy used the gun to trace the outline of Amy’s jaw, before holstering the weapon. ‘It won’t happen again.’

‘Damn right it won’t. You’re lucky I ran across her before she made it back to town, found her boyfriend.’

No.

This was wrong. It was a trap.

Instinct kicking in, Amy smacked Rivers in the shin with the heel of her boot and he yelped, loosening his grip. She tried to break free, but he pushed her forward and she slipped on the wet ground, Troy easily catching hold of her in a headlock, before she regained her balance and could run. He yanked her back against him as Rivers shone the flashlight in her face, leaned in close, his eyes wide.

‘Surprise.’

‘No.’ Amy breathed hard as she pulled at Troy’s arm locked firm around her neck. ‘What the hell are you doing? Let me go.’

‘Why would we want to do that? We want to have some fun with you.’ Rivers nodded to Troy. ‘Let’s get her inside.’