Page 86 of Wicked Games

Darren glares. “Is that how you want it, Avery? He’s going to let you do things?”

“You misheard,” I say, resting my hand on Seth’s forearm. “I can do what I want, and that doesn’t include talking to you. Have a nice life, Darren. I wish you nothing but the best.”

“The same to you,” he murmurs, glancing at Seth, the ring on my finger, and the cuts and bruises around my wrist. He opens the door and steps into the hallway. It closes with a quiet click.

I turn around, and Seth . . . I can’t say he’s smiling, but he looks happier than I’ve seen him since we met, a dim sparkle in his eyes where misery always used to be.

“You said we’re getting married,” he says, holding my face in his hands.

“Yeah, I’m sorry about that. I just wanted him to leave⁠—”

“Never apologize for giving me something I want.” He lowers his head and gently kisses me.

A moment later Bill clears his throat, and reluctantly, Seth lets me go.

We warm our coffee and I pull my notebook out of my bag to take notes.

Everyone’s silent, unsure of where to start. Violet decides to go back to the very beginning, to Theo’s kidnapping and his death. She talks through Hattie’s murder, and Bill adds what he knew of her actions and whereabouts around that time, including lying to me about going shopping.

No one knows much about Brooke’s murder, and neither do the police, by the sounds of it, but I write down what few facts we have. She would have known the tracker was in the ransom bag. She left Seth a week after Theo’s murder. She saw Rowan Vale behind Seth’s back for months, if not years, and married him not long ago. She was friends with Hattie.

I’m starting to get a headache, and I’m hungry.

We break for an early dinner, and Violet helps me make sandwiches using some of the groceries she had delivered to my apartment. She’d already put them away by the time Seth and I got here, but I didn’t think to be bothered by the fact she was rummaging around in my kitchen. At this point, I feel more comfortable in Seth’s kitchen in Lakehaven Falls than I do here.

She’s opening a bag of chips when she pauses and says, “Thank you.”

I don’t have to ask for what, because I know as well as she does that if I asked Seth not to talk to her anymore, after what happened to him and Brooke, he would.

I step closer to her and wrap my hand around her wrist. She freezes, unsure of what I’m going to say. “No. Thank you.” I meet her eyes, a pretty blue, and they fill with tears.

She doesn’t have to ask what I’m thanking her for, because she knows as well as I do that after Theo’s death and Brooke leaving him, she saved his life and there’s nothing I could ever do to repay her for that.

“Friends?” she whispers hopefully.

“Friends,” I agree. “Let’s eat. I’m starving.”

We talk for another hour, filling each other in and getting on the same page. Having Detective LaSalle here would have been helpful, but I can understand Seth’s reluctance to include him. It’s pretty certain that Seth personally knows whoever’s behind this, and everyone he trusts is in this room.

“I just don’t get it,” I say, tossing my notebook and pen on the floor in frustration. “I didn’t tell anyone I’d be in Lakehaven Falls except Darren, Julianne—she’s my editor at Bloomscene,” I say, flicking a glance at Seth because I don’t remember telling him who she is, “a couple of friends who probably forgot, and you, Bill. How did they know I was out there?” I’m not accusing anybody of anything, but he still gets up off the couch he was sharing with Violet and paces the floor.

“I don’t know. I really don’t—” He stops.

“What?” Seth asks, tensing beside me on the loveseat.

Bill looks at me. “I told Rowan Vale, remember? The night he invited me to his place for drinks. I told him you and Hattie were sisters. He didn’t know. At least, his surprise seemed genuine. And I said you were in Lakehaven Falls for the summer. That you had met Seth out there, and wasn’t it a funny coincidence that you two were neighbors.”

My lips pop open. Of course. He’s the common denominator in all of this, but we didn’t suspect him because of Theo’s and Brooke’s deaths.

Seth shakes his head. “No. What reason would he have to kill Theo and Brooke?”

Grabbing his hand, I say, “Four billion dollars.”

This sets off a clutter of theories, but Seth quiets us and says he’ll call Detective LaSalle.

The detective is an older gentleman, his rough twenty-packs-a-day voice complementing his just as rough appearance. Friendly, but a bit put out we met before calling him, he sits at the kitchen table with us, a cup of coffee near his hand. There aren’t enough chairs for everyone, but Seth’s too keyed-up to sit. He doesn’t want to get his hopes up, but at this point, I don’t know who else it could be.

Even Detective LaSalle doesn’t shut us down, but pointing at Rowan Vale brings up a lot of questions that we’d need answered. Not just for a warrant for his arrest, but for a jury’s conviction.