Chapter 14

I’d always been a tough, independent woman. A woman who didn’t always work well with others, even though I cherished the relationships I had with Simone and Hunter. We worked well as a team, in part because they knew how I operated, and they respected it.

And though I preferred being on my own during murder investigations, I no longer went out without a backup plan. Today’s backup plan came in the form of the Find My app on my phone, which shared my exact location with Giovanni.

I suppose I could have called Simone or even Whitlock to come to my aid, but there were times when a heavier hand was warranted—a hand that didn’t always answer to the law in the same ways others did.

Ever since Giovanni and I met in college, I learned he didn’t come from an average Italian family. His family was … in a word, connected. Nowadays, Giovanni’s sister ran the family business, bringing it into the present in a more legitimate, though still profitable way. But family was family and protecting one another mattered above all else.

The fact Danny was packing a bag concerned me. I had questions. And I was determined to have them answered. If it meant leaning on Danny a bit harder after what he’d done to me, I was prepared to do it.

In my opinion, he deserved it.

What had been fervent whispers between brother and sister in the back room had morphed into an audible discussion I could hear.

“Please, Danny, don’t go,” Dorothy pleaded. “Talk to Georgiana. If you apologize, I’m sure she’d be willing to put all of this behind us and start again.”

“She’s not going to forgive me for what I did,” Danny said. “She’ll have me arrested. The cops will say I assaulted her, and I’ll be locked up. End of story.”

“Allow me to talk to her, at least. You were scared. You did what you did without thinking. It’s not like you shot the woman. You pepper-sprayed her. There’s no permanent damage, now is there?”

“She’ll regain her sight any time now. I need to go.”

As their banter continued, the camper’s front door opened, and someone stepped inside.

I felt a hand on my leg, followed by Giovanni’s voice in my ear.

“I am here, cara mia. What’s happened?”

“I was pepper-sprayed,” I whispered.

“By whom?”

For a moment, all was quiet, and I wondered if Danny and Dorothy had clued in to the fact we were no longer alone. I tipped my head to the right, indicating the direction Giovanni needed to go. He kissed my forehead and backed away, his voice commanding as he said, “My name is Giovanni Luciana. I’m armed, and I expect you to do as I say if you don’t wish to be fired upon. You have five seconds to show yourself. Fail to do so, and I will use whatever force necessary to drag you out.”

“Please, don’t shoot,” Dorothy said. “It’s not what you think. I’m coming out. I’ll explain everything if you give me a chance.”

With each passing moment, my vision continued to improve. I turned to see Dorothy sliding the door at the back of the camper open, her hands raised as she walked toward Giovanni.

“It’s not her you want,” I said. “It’s her brother, Danny. She’s innocent. She was trying to help me.”

Addressing Dorothy, he said, “What’s your name?”

“Dorothy.”

“All right, Dorothy. I’d like you to take a seat next to Georgiana.”

“Of course. Can I just say something? My brother’s not a bad person. Please, don’t hurt him. He made a mistake. As you can see, we’ve been looking after Georgiana, staying with her until she could see again.”

Her voice trembled, and I felt a smidgen of sympathy for the woman.

Giovanni said nothing, his focus on the sliding door to the back room. I heard what sounded like something, or someone, hitting the ground outside.

Danny must have tried to escape out a window.

Stupid.

As Giovanni rushed toward the back of the camper, I heard a scuffle happening outside. The camper’s front door opened again, and Danny was shoved inside.

Behind him, Giovanni’s main security detail offered Giovanni a smile as he said, “Thought you might want this one returned to you.”

“Thank you, Santino,” Giovanni said. “I can take it from here.”

Santino nodded and closed the door.

Giovanni turned toward Danny, using his gun to gesture at the kitchen table as he said, “Now then, take a seat, and we’ll all have a civilized conversation.”

Danny was reluctant at first, but he did as Giovanni requested.

“Who are you?” Danny asked. “You don’t look like a cop.”

“I’m not a cop. I’m far worse, trust me. Now, before we decide what to do with the two of you, I wish to know what happened here.”

Dorothy opened her mouth and Giovanni shook his head. “I don’t want to hear from you. I want to hear from Georgiana.”

“Sorry,” Dorothy said. “I get ahead of myself sometimes.”

I spent the next few minutes detailing what had happened since I arrived. I ended with the main event and the fact that Danny was planning to leave town.

Giovanni took a moment to take it all in and then said, “What would you like to do now?”

“I have some questions for Danny. I’m not leaving until they’re answered.”

I turned, addressing Danny. “I’ll make you a deal. You answer my questions, honestly, and I won’t press charges. Don’t answer them, and I will.”

“I … I don’t know,” Danny said.

“You used pepper spray in a non-self-defense situation, which is considered a misdemeanor or a felony charge in this state. You could be facing a fine and a possible prison sentence of anywhere between sixteen months and three years.”

Danny considered his options and said, “How do I know you’re not lying?”

“Hearing your conversation with Dorothy minutes ago, I get the impression you have problems trusting the police. You seem to think everyone is out to get you. They’re not.”

“How would you know?”

“The men who questioned you after the murders took place—I know them … well. And I can tell you without a doubt that if they had believed you’d committed the murders back then, they would have kept on questioning you until you confessed. The case meant a lot to them. All they’re trying to do now is solve it. Same with me.”

Danny leaned back in the chair, shaking his head as he said, “There was no reason for them to keep coming at me like they did. My story was the same the first time I told it as it was all the other times.”

I could feel heat flooding my cheeks. I was about to lose my temper, and it was all I could do to rein it in.

“Is that so?” I shot back. Your story may have been the same, but why do I get the feeling you left something out? Oh, I know why. There’s no point in running unless you did.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“If you want to keep lying to Georgiana,” Giovanni said, “I can get the police on the phone right now. I’ll have them here in no time.”

“What makes you think I’m not telling the truth?” Danny asked.

“The look in your eyes when you learned who I am and why I’m here,” I said. “There was real fear in your eyes, the kind of fear I see when a person has something to hide.”

“I didn’t murder anyone.”

“I might be inclined to believe you,” I said. “If you tell me the truth.”

Danny swished a hand through the air. “You’d say anything, I bet, if it means getting what you want.”

“I don’t say anything I don’t mean. It’s not who I am. I don’t expect you to believe me, but it’s true.”

“It is true,” Giovanni said. “You can trust her, and you should.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t believe either one of you.”

I wasn’t getting anywhere.

I went quiet for a moment, thinking of another way I could get through to him. Maybe I needed to go back to the beginning, to his original statement, see how he’d react when I questioned him about what he’d said to the police.

“I had a chance to look over your original statement this morning,” I said. “I wanted to review it so I knew what questions to ask you today.”

“Yeah, so? What about it?”

“On the day of the murders, you said you were at your place, working on a wooden chair to sell at your booth at the farmers’ market the following weekend.”

“As far as I recall, yes.”

“In the notes it says Harvey, who would have introduced himself to you as Detective Harvey Kennison, went to the farmer’s market the next weekend to see if you were there. You weren’t. In fact, you’d shut down your booth and didn’t return to it for over a year. Why?”

“If you think about it, it’s obvious. I was shaken by what happened.”

“Shaken by the deaths of teenagers you’d never met before? Shutting down your booth for as long as you did seems like a strong reaction, if you ask me. As you’d said, the crime had nothing to do with you.”

“I didn’t need to meet them to be affected by it. The fact it happened so close to my place was hard for me to take.”

“So hard you moved out of the cabin you were renting and in with your sister for a while.”

“My brother moved in with me because he was struggling to pay the rent,” Dorothy added. “And as for the booth, he wasn’t selling enough furniture to keep it going, so he took a break. Got a job that paid the bills.”

Danny frowned at Dorothy. “I don’t need you stepping in, Sis. I can answer questions myself.”

“I’m just trying to help.”

“You’re not helping,” Danny said.

Dorothy dropped her chin into her hand and looked away, muttering something about never being appreciated.

“You should treat your sister with more respect,” Giovanni said. “The way I see it, she’s trying to help.”

He was right.

Still …

“Let’s try and stay on track,” I said. “Had you ever seen or met any of the teenagers before they were murdered?”

Danny tapped a finger to the chair, averting eye contact as he said, “I … no.”

“I need you to look at me,” I said. “Look me in the eye and tell me you never saw or spoke to the teenagers that day.”

“I don’t know what you’re getting at.”

It was about to be made clear.

“There are several tells people give when they’re lying. One of them is avoiding eye contact. With some of my questions, you’ve looked at me. With others, you looked away. You’ve also been hedging your statements.”

“Hedging my … what now?”

“When a person is hiding something, to avoid being upfront or truthful, they’ll hedge their statements. In this instance, you began your answer to one question by saying ‘as far as I recall,’ and then the next question I asked, you answered with, ‘if you think about it,’ both signs you’re avoiding whatever it is you’d rather not say.”

Danny began tapping the arm of the chair again, but for the first time, his demeanor wasn’t a defensive one, which told me I was spot-on.

He was about to crack.

Given Danny’s current anxiousness, I asked Giovanni to step outside with Santino. He was reluctant, but he agreed. Once he was out the door, Dorothy leaned forward, her voice soft and low as she addressed her brother. “If you didn’t do anything wrong, and you are keeping something to yourself, there’s no reason not to tell the truth now. If there’s anything you can say to help the detectives on this case, help them put it to rest at long last … Please, Danny, won’t you?—”

“There isn’t.”

I reached into my bag, pulled out an envelope, and walked over to the table. One by one, I pulled photos out, lining them up side by side on the table in front of him. “Brynn Wilson, Aubree Roberts, Aidan Williams, Jackson Nichols, Owen Sherwood, and Cora Callahan, the only one to survive. This is what they looked like before they were attacked. Care to see what they looked like after? I have those photos with me too.”

Danny shook his head, his confession unraveling at long last. “I did see … I saw … her.”