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“Does that matter? He kept this cufflink for some reason. Put it in a wooden box and hid it. There has to be a reason.”
“Does there? Maybe the cufflink is part of the stuff your mom inherited.”
“The jewelry belonged to an aunt, not an uncle.”
“So?”
“Would you quit disagreeing with everything I say? If there’s one thing I’ve come to terms with about my father, it’s that he had a reason for everything he did. He wasn’t stupid. How did he get away with it for so long? Because he covered his tracks by hiding in plain sight. No one ever suspected that the esteemed mayor of Snow Creek could ever do anything wrong. He was calculating and manipulative. So if he kept this cufflink, he had a reason.”
“Okay, that makes sense. What reason would he have for keeping a cufflink belonging to one of his victims? If it indeed belonged to one of them.”
“Colin was his last victim,” I said, “that we know of. It’s probably a trophy.”
Joe nodded. “Then he most likely kept trophies of other victims as well. Which means there’s a lot to dig up here.”
I was afraid of that. I didn’t want to do any more digging. But that was why we’d come here.
“There’s the living room,” Joe said, “and the kitchen.”
“And outside. A lot could be buried outside.”
Joe looked at his watch. “It’s getting toward dinnertime. Melanie will be expecting me. You want to meet here later? Around eight?”
“We need light to dig.”
“No, we don’t. We can search inside the cabin during the day, but we’re safer working outside under the veil of night. It was a warm day. The ground won’t be too hard.”
He had a point. “Eight o’clock, then.”
I’d jammed my shovel into the ground outside the cabin, ready to step on it and push it farther down, when my skin chilled. Headlights glared in the distance. Someone was coming up the narrow driveway.
I looked to Joe. “Shit.”
“You said it.” He glanced around. “You armed?”
“Absolutely.”
The car stopped several yards away from us, and a figure stepped out. Joe shined his flashlight.
I sighed as both relief and fear welled in me.
“You really think someone wouldn’t follow you two?” Marjorie said, walking toward us quickly.
“You can’t be here, Sis,” Joe said.
“I agree. It’s not safe.”
“The two of you are here. I think my big, bad boyfriend and my big, bad brother can protect me.”
We both glared at her.
“Come on. I want to help. This involves all of us. Look around. We’re alone out here. If anyone was watching this place, he’d have shown up by now.”
“I don’t want you in any danger,” I said.
“Do I look in danger to you?”
“We’re digging up God knows what tonight,” Joe said. “Just how can you help?”
