“And if she talks, Daisy is going down. But will she talk? Will the others give her up?”
“We’ll find her, and she’ll talk if she thinks it will save her own skin.” Mal is about to say something more to Benoit when Lula swings open the bullpen door, and Arnav enters behind her, carrying a large cake and burning candles. Arnav is followed by Gavin with sparkling wine and flutes, and by Jack with balloons.
“Don’t be mad,” Benoit says with a laugh at the shock on Mal’s face. “I couldn’t stop them.”
“Happy retirement, boss,” Lula calls out loudly. She sets the decadent cake on the desk in front of Mal. “Seeing as we couldn’t get you to come and get drunk with us tonight, we brought the party to you.” She hesitates. “Plus you can take cake home to Peter.”
Emotion fills Mal’s eyes. “Damn you people.” She meets each one’s gaze. “God, I’m going to miss you guys.”
Lula says, “Little bird tells me you’re going to be doing some consulting with that new independent cold case unit being started by the associate director of Lougheed University’s school of criminology, funded with a major grant. We haven’t heard the last of you yet, boss. That’s my bet.”
“Who told you this?” Mal says. “The request came in only this morning—I haven’t even fully decided. Can no one keep a secret in this place?”
“Our job is exposing them,” Benoit says. “Now blow out those candles before we all have to eat wax!”
Mal sucks in a deep breath and puffs. The candles go out, apart from one that keeps sputtering. She pauses, thinking that some flames really do not just go out. Lu is right. She’ll be back on select cases. Cold and old ones. But on her schedule, on Peter’s time. She blows out the final candle.
Boon sees the new post on Instagram.
His friend. Smiling. Tanned. So pretty and healthy-looking. At peace. Traveling. Not dead. But living her best life. He thinks of how he told Sergeant Mallory Van Alst that he dropped Kit near the Glass House and saw another Audi. That part wasn’t exactly true. Kit had forgotten to switch back the framed photo near the bar. She wanted to replace the one of her and him in Nicaragua with the Norths’ original photo. She switched it to fool Daisy when Daisy came for lunch at the Glass House—that’s how he saw the other Audi he told the cop about.
After Kit changed the photo, Boon drove her to the station, where she’d stashed her bags in a locker. She had her passport and a burner phone with her. She caught the SkyTrain straight to YVR while he drove the Audi back to the rental place.
His heart crunches.
Kit knows he will see this Insta post. She knows he will have been looking daily. She knows he will realize immediately where she is. Karma Beach. One of the places on her bucket list. Kinda like justice was always on Kit’s bucket list, thinks Boon.
And the hashtag has revealed what her next destination is: #popsvillage. It’s code for him. Boon told Kit how much he’d like to visit the small village in Thailand where his “pop” was born, where his parents met and married. Where he, too, was born.
“Come on in. Water is warm.”
Emotion fills Boon’s eyes as he smiles. His friend has forgiven him. She’s told him where she will be. And she’s opened the door for him to join her. If he so chooses.
And he will.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Loreth Anne White is an Amazon Charts, Washington Post, and Bild bestselling author of thrillers, mysteries, and suspense, including The Patient’s Secret, Beneath Devil’s Bridge, In the Dark, The Dark Bones, and A Dark Lure. With more than three million books sold around the world, she is a three-time RITA finalist, an overall Daphne du Maurier Award winner, an Arthur Ellis Award finalist, and a winner of multiple industry awards. A recovering journalist who has worked in both South Africa and Canada, she now calls Canada home. She resides in the Pacific Northwest, dividing her time among Victoria on Vancouver Island, a ski resort in the Coast Mountains, and a rustic lakeside cabin in the Cariboo. When she’s not writing or dreaming up plots, you’ll find her on the lakes, in the ocean, or on the trails with her dog, where she tries—unsuccessfully—to avoid bears. For more information on her books, please visit her website at www.lorethannewhite.com.