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“Exactly.” Romeo sat down and tucked his chair under the table. “Eat.”
Chad bit into a slice of pizza.
Romeo watched him. “You were on the TV again.”
“What?”
“Only for a few seconds. You were in the background by The Desperado. I saw you and I saw Josh. He touched your shoulder without you wincing or backing away. That was … strange.”
Chad shrugged. “I trust him.”
“Don’t. Don’t trust anyone.”
“I can trust you, though, right?”
“Be wary of everyone, including me.”
Chad sunk into his chair. For the love of Chad’s life, he wasn’t always reassuring.
“The shop next door made me chuckle. DIE?”
“The café is called TIDE.”
“But someone stole the T and rearranged it to DIE.” Romeo smiled. It reached his eyes. “Maybe your killer’s got a sense of humor.”
“A sick sense of humor.”
Romeo shrugged. “Just a sense of humor, nothing sick about it.”
Chad didn’t bother arguing. Romeo and he would never see everything the same. He found it distasteful, but Romeo found it amusing.
“There’s no evidence to suggest whoever changed the sign is involved with the disappearances.”
Romeo shuffled forward, ignoring the pizza on his plate. He searched Chad’s face as he asked, “Let’s hear it then.”
Chad swallowed his mouthful. Romeo glaring across the table with that level of focus made it impossible to keep eating. He sipped some wine to wet his mouth. “Hear what?”
“The details of the case. I’m interested.”
“Didn’t you learn all there was to know from the news?”
Romeo tilted his head. “I’d prefer to hear it from you.”
“Justin Fen disappeared from The Desperado—”
“I know that bit.”
“He was found in the undergrowth in a layby on the A505. Inflammation to hands, but no other wounds. The cause of death hasn’t been confirmed, but it looks like asphyxiation.”
Romeo’s eyes shone like a predator’s. “Strangulation?”
“No. Chloroform. You breathe in enough of that and you’ll stop breathing.”
“Chloroform.” Romeo frowned. “Why would anyone use that?”
“That’s one question of many.”
“It’s so impersonal. So … distant to the act.” Romeo hummed. “Anything else?”
