Page 169 of Property of Bob

“Yeah.”

The words settled over the room.

I'd spent weeks wondering what I'd missed that night. Now I was starting to think I'd been looking at the whole thing wrong.

Bernice hadn't been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The motherfucker had come there for her.

And whoever came after her had wanted her dead because of something she’d carried around for more than twenty years.

“What if she talked?” Ramona asked. I looked down at her. “That’s what the person said,” she continued. “‘You should’ve kept your mouth shut.’ That sounds like she told somebody.”

“Who?” Pearl asked.

Ramona shook her head. “I don’t know.”

“Maybe Ron,” Vin suggested.

Anchor frowned. “Or Ron told whoever was controlling him that Bernice was asking questions.”

“Either way,” Skull said, “somebody thought she was dangerous.”

I stared at the cut. “Which means this belongs to somebody who matters.”

Anchor nodded. “That’s why the name is gone.”

Nobody needed to explain that one.

The cut wasn’t the answer. It was another fucking question, but for once, it felt like we knew what question we were supposed to ask.

Who wore it, and what the fuck did he have to do with Caleb Token?

Anchor pulled his phone from his pocket. “I’m calling Razor.”

“Again?” Skull asked.

“You got a better idea?”

He shook his head. “Nope.”

“He’s the only person we’ve got who was around for enough of the old shit to maybe recognize this.”

“Send him pictures first,” McKayla suggested. “Front, back, stitching, every patch.”

Anchor nodded toward Skull. “Do it.” He tossed him his phone.

Skull started taking pictures.

I watched him work while Ramona stayed pressed against my side.

For the first time since this nightmare started, I felt like we weren’t just reacting.

We didn’t know why the fuck someone had waited twenty-three years to start dragging old Kings history out into the open, but we knew Bernice was part of the center of it.

We knew Caleb was too.

And we knew somebody was scared enough of what Bernice knew to make sure she died before she could tell us.