Page 315 of A Matter of Time

“Sam?”

“Listen to me.” He dragged in a breath. “Do you remember back when that whole thing was going on with Dominic, and during that time someone was killed at your old apartment in Oak Park, the one that was just the single room?”

Did I remember that apartment? Yes. Of course. It was the first place I’d ever lived all by myself. “The apartment you hated?”

“That’s the one.”

“I do, but I don’t remember there being a murder there.”

“Probably because I told you about it, but you never saw the place after that.”

That made sense. “Okay.”

“Well, a guy was killed there, and at the time, we thought it was all connected to the Minor case. We thought then that Roman had that guy killed because he thought he was you.”

“That’s awful, but you’re saying what now? That it wasn’t connected?”

He nodded.

“Explain.”

“Here’s the thing, back then, before Dom was in custody, everyone assumed that both those murders—there were two, one in 1999 and one in 2000—were about Roman hunting you down. But it never made much sense as Dom knew where you were the whole time. Roman wouldn’t have had to guess where you were.”

I eased free of his hands, walking a few feet away only to turn and look at him. “Dom’s been in custody for the last three years.”

“That’s right.”

“Which means he’s been questioned about everything by now.”

He nodded.

“Tell me.”

“The fact of the matter is, neither Dominic, Roman’s old man, nor Roman ever knew anything about the murder in Oak Park.”

“Okay.” The hair was starting to stand up on the back of my neck. He was searching my eyes. “You’re sure about that?”

“Yeah, we’re sure.”

“And the second one?”

“The second one was the same. There were no ties to them, but it seemed like witness intimidation at the time.”

“While it’s weird about the murders ending up having nothing to do with the Minor case, or Dom, that still doesn’t explain why you’re bringing up something that happened three years ago. What’s the point?”

“Because we found another guy this morning, cut up just like both the other victims.”

“Cut up?”

“Yeah. Just like the first and the other two.”

“So now there’s four dead men?”

He ignored my question. “We found your driver’s license in his wallet.”

I was suddenly freezing.

“When did you lose your wallet, J?”