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“Zio.” Dani’s warning tone sounded remarkably like her mother’s.
Squeezing her tighter, Dante said. “My old boss, Hatch, just called.”
“Oh,” she said in a near whisper.
Dante let a sigh slip out. “We need to talk more about what happened the night Simone died.” And maybe about other times as well, but they’d cross that bridge when they came to it.
“I’ve told you everything,” Dani protested. Dante could tell she didn’t want to talk, to remember what had happened. He didn’t either.
“I know you have, topolina. But sometimes things that seem unimportant or small when the shit is flying around turn out to be a big deal. Honestly, I’ve been putting it off, but we can’t any longer.”
And maybe he needed to come clean with the chief of police as to the real reason he and Dani were in Cooper Springs. Fuck. Notmaybe.They needed to have a conversation. André deserved to know that trouble could be coming to town.
More trouble.
And Dante knew André was going to be pissed that they hadn’t gone into witness protection. Well, too late now.
“One last time, let’s go over what happened.”
Dani stared at him, pressing her lips together and narrowing her eyes. Times like this she looked so much like Simone.
“Please?”
She relented and started to recount the worst night of her life, quickly and without emotion, obviously wanting to get through the ordeal as soon as possible.
“It was nighttime. I was coming downstairs to ask a question, and Mom was opening the door. The man just... shot her. I froze, then he looked around and up to where I was. He lifted the gun up and I thought he was going to shoot me too, but the person on the sidewalk said something and scared them away.”
“There was nothing about the man? No tattoos or nose rings? No squinty eye? A boil?”
She shook her head. “Nothing more than what I already said. He had a cap pulled down low and all I could see were his eyes and mouth. It was dark.”
“And your mom never talked to you about her work?” Dante asked, knowing what the answer would be.
“No, never. I knew she was a prosecutor, but I never knew what cases she was working on. She said it wasn’t fair to talk to me about them. If I accidentally said something to a friend and it got out, her case could be... compromised. That was the word Mom used.”
“She was right. Your mom was the smartest person I’ve ever known.”
He hugged his precious niece one last time before releasing her and rising to his feet. “I may not be a genius, but I’ll keep you safe and so will Luna.”
“Who’s going to keep you safe, Zio?” Dani asked.
“Don’t you worry, topolina. I’ve got mad skills.”
The expression in Dani’s brown eyes told him she was skeptical but also wasn’t going to press the issue—yet. Luna nuzzled her hand, presumably looking for a treat, and while Dani was distracted, Dante peered out the window again. The sedan was gone.
* * *
All hell broke loose a few days later, just before Dani went back to school again.
On New Year’s Day, Nick Waugh and Martin Purdy, the new owner of Cooper Springs Resort, found a cache of bones along one of the trails behind town. They’d been confirmed as human.
Cooper Springs was buzzing—and not in a good way.
“Please, Zio?”
Dante stared at his niece. Again? Was she batting her eyes? He was barely holding himself together between the news Hatch had dropped on him about Aldo Campos and the swirling rumors about the bones that he’d been privy to when he’d filled his car up with gas that morning. And she wanted to go hang out with friends?
“You want to go to Pizza Mart?” he asked as if he hadn’t heard clearly.
