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“It could be just a coincidence,” Slade said. “It’s one of the most popular dance clubs in the city. No reason why he couldn’t have been there for his own sake on the same night.” But his tone was doubtful.
My mouth set in a tight line. “Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but we don’t see a lot of those, do we? The other possibility is that he’s been following her… and if that’s true, we need to find out why.”
Why would a pulled-together, successful businessman like Beckett stalk a college girl like Maddie from the sidelines rather than approaching her directly the way he’d ended up doing anyway? Was it just romantic interest, or was there something more to his presence that we hadn’t stumbled on yet?
CHAPTEREIGHTEEN
Madelyn
Isighed and sank deeper into the chair I’d taken in the Vigil office. “Wehaveto keep investigating. We can’t let assholes who’d do something like this get away with it. But how can we do that without them realizing that we’re still poking around? I don’t want them punishing me through my mom—or anyone else I care about.”
Logan shot me a concerned glance, his expression full of the kind of affection I still couldn’t totally believe he was willing to offer me after everything that’d gone down in the past few years. He pushed his chair closer to mine so that he could rest a hand on my shoulder. “We won’t let anything like that happen again.”
“But how can you be sure? We don’t even know how they found out I was looking into their activities. Was it because of the warehouse, or the seafood market, or the office building—or even the accounting place? I was hanging around those guys outside it for a few minutes.”
Slade let out a harumph where he’d perched on the table at my other side and gave a strand of my hair a playful tug. “The one good thing that came out of this awful situation is we know we’re definitely on the right trail. These people are up to no good, and they felt threatened enough to show a little of their hand.”
“I know,” I said. “It feels like we’re so close.” The thought of getting justice for Dad, of uncovering the criminals who’d murdered him and destroyed my family, sent a quiver of anticipation through my nerves too. But now the thrill of the investigation was dampened not just by the anxiety about the lengths we’d gone to but dread as well.
Who might get hurt next if I kept pursuing these people? How far would they go if I didn’t back down? The text message had said that the next time might be fatal.
Logan looked down at the computer he had open on his lap. “They can’t trace anything I look into over the internet—I can make sure of that. Maybe I’ll find another solid connection while I’m digging through the other companies that connect to that shell corporation.”
Dexter turned to face us where he’d been sitting at the computer on the office’s desk, scanning more footage from the various cameras the Vigil had set up around the businesses we’d checked out. They were all still running, which implied that no one had discovered them yet, or we might have been able to use that fact to narrow down where I’d been spotted.
His gaze caught mine and held it for a beat longer than I was used to, sending a flicker of warmth through me. It was a strange sensation having been so close with all three of these guys, knowing that they cared about me and I cared about them far beyond the boundaries of the case we were investigating together. Strange, but… I definitely liked it.
“The problem is getting bigger and more dangerous faster than we were prepared for,” Dexter said. “The attack on Madelyn’s mother proves it. I think we should recognize that we may not be able to see this all the way through on our own.”
Logan frowned at him. “What do you mean?”
Dexter’s mouth formed a tense smile. “I mean we need to get the police on the case. They’re equipped to deal with criminals on this level—at least, they’ve got more manpower and better equipment than we do.”
I knit my brow. “I thought you all had already decided that there was no point in bringing my dad’s case to the police.”
“We had,” Slade said slowly, studying his friend. “But that was when we only had scraps of evidence, a lot of it circumstantial. Now we’re much closer to getting at the real dirt.”
Dexter nodded. “We’re not all the way there yet. We’ll need to do at least a little more work to come up with concrete proof of some kind of criminal activity so that the cops will take notice. But if we can hand that over, then they’ll start investigating too. Either they’ll find the connections and be able to prosecute the people responsible for all their crimes, or they’ll put those people on the defensive, distract them so we have more of a chance to carry out our own investigations without backlash.”
Logan let out a rough sound. “The cops can be so useless.”
Dexter’s suggestion had given me a little hope—a way to avenge Dad without putting more lives on the line. “They aren’t always, though, right? I mean, they do catch a decent number of criminals. And this is bigger than any crime you’ve tackled before, isn’t it?”
He gave a grudging scowl. Slade bumped his knee against my arm. “He doesn’t want to admit it, but this is a rabbit hole way deeper than any we’ve jumped down before. I think Dexter has a point. We don’t want these pricks going after anyone else who matters to us. We don’t really know anything about them yet, and they know too much about us.”
“Not all of us,” Logan pointed out. “They haven’t gone after the three of us so far, which suggests they didn’t realize we were on their trail. They went straight for Maddie. They’d recognize her as a threat because of her connection to her dad.”
I wrinkled my nose at him. “That’s not exactly comforting.”
He ran his thumb over the peak of my shoulder, sending tingles dancing over my skin. “I know. But it does give us more room to maneuver. I’ll accept that Dexter could be right and maybe we need to hand this off to the professionals, but wedostill need more to hand over to them if we want them to actually get involved and not just laugh us off as conspiracy theorists. Especially when the main case is twelve years old. If we could find something more recent that these people have done…”
“Step one is to find enough evidence to entice the cops,” Slade said, holding up a finger. “Step two is to punt the investigation to the police for appearance’s sake. And step three is to monitor their progress and keep looking into it discreetly if they don’t come up with enough on their own.”
“Emphasis on discreetly,” I said, but my heart had lifted now that we had a more definite goal in mind.
My phone pinged with a text. I checked it and had a jab of guilt, realizing I’d rushed right over to the Vigil office without updating the other man who’d been looking out for me.
Just wanted to check in after what happened last night, Beckett had written.How are you? Is your mom all right?
