him feel like less of a victim.”
“Oh, yeah.” Jade nodded. “He was helping.”
“Helping yourself goes a long way,” I said, echoing words I’d heard from Mel more than once. “It doesn’t matter that it’s probably nothing. What matters is he found it and saw that it was out of place.”
Jade smiled. “I can’t get over the smile on his face. All because of a rock.”
“Did you know Dale used to collect rocks?” I said.
“No. He never mentioned it. Then again, he never mentions much of anything.”
“Apparently he had quite a collection, but they didn’t make their way from his old house to here.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t know. I thought you and Tal brought everything from their room.”
“We did. There wasn’t a collection of rocks.”
“That’s strange. Maybe Dale kept it hidden.”
“Maybe… If it meant that much to him, would he have—” She shook her head. “No, he probably wouldn’t have said anything. He didn’t say anything at all until now.”
“Right.”
“You don’t think…” Jade bit her lip.
“Think what?”
“That you actually found one of Dale’s rocks? That someone took his collection because they’re after him?”
“Why would anyone steal worthless rocks?” I asked.
“I don’t know. Whoever this guy is has spooked Dale more than once now. I don’t like it.”
“None of us do, Jade.”
“I’ll talk to Dale. See if he left the rocks somewhere hidden.”
“Okay.” I finished up the chicken breasts I was frying. “Call in the boys for dinner. It’s ready.”
Chapter Forty-One
Bryce
CM? Colin Morse? He was Marj’s age. Why would he have cufflinks, and why—
“This is Colin’s,” I said. “It has to be.”
“But you said your father didn’t come here after we grew up.”
“That I knew of. But who else could it belong to?”
“Well…anyone with the initials CM. There’s probably more than one.”
“He held Colin captive,” I said.
“Not here,” Joe retorted.
“Does that matter? He kept this cufflink for some reason. Put it in a wooden box and hid it. There has to be a reason.”
“Does there? Maybe the cufflink is part of the stuff your mom inherited.”
“The jewelry belonged to an aunt, not an uncle.”
“So?”
“Would you quit disagreeing with everything I say? If there’s one thing I’ve come to terms with about my father, it’s that he had a reason for everything he did. He wasn’t stupid. How did he get away with it for so long? Because he covered his tracks by hiding in plain sight. No one ever suspected that the esteemed mayor of Snow Creek could ever do anything wrong. He was calculating and manipulative. So if he kept this cufflink, he had a reason.”
“Okay, that makes sense. What reason would he have for keeping a cufflink belonging to one of his victims? If it indeed belonged to one of them.”
“Colin was his last victim,” I said, “that we know of. It’s probably a trophy.”
Joe nodded. “Then he most likely kept trophies of other victims as well. Which means there’s a lot to dig up here.”
I was afraid of that. I didn’t want to do any more digging. But that was why we’d come here.
“There’s the living room,” Joe said, “and the kitchen.”
“And outside. A lot could be buried outside.”
Joe looked at his watch. “It’s getting toward dinnertime. Melanie will be expecting me. You want to meet here later? Around eight?”
“We need light to dig.”
“No, we don’t. We can search inside the cabin during the day, but we’re safer working outside under the veil of night. It was a warm day. The ground won’t be too hard.”
He had a point. “Eight o’clock, then.”
I’d jammed my shovel into the ground outside the cabin, ready to step on it and push it farther down, when my skin chilled. Headlights glared in the distance. Someone was coming up the narrow driveway.
I looked to Joe. “Shit.”
“You said it.” He glanced around. “You armed?”
“Absolutely.”
The car stopped several yards away from us, and a figure stepped out. Joe shined his flashlight.
I sighed as both relief and fear welled in me.
“You really think someone wouldn’t follow you two?” Marjorie said, walking toward us quickly.
“You can’t be here, Sis,” Joe said.
“I agree. It’s not safe.”
“The two of you are here. I think my big, bad boyfriend and my big, bad brother can protect me.”
We both glared at her.
“Come on. I want to help. This involves all of us. Look around. We’re alone out here. If anyone was watching this place, he’d have shown up by now.”
“I don’t want you in any danger,” I said.
“Do I look in danger to you?”
“We’re digging up God knows what tonight,” Joe said. “Just