“There are a few holes in that theory.” He ticks them off on his long fingers. Do not name his fingers. Joe, Hubert, Rambo… “One, this wasn’t a crime of passion. Whoever murdered Oscar Stanley waited until the whole town was occupied with Fourth of July celebrations. Not to mention utilizing the fireworks to mask the sound of gunfire. All of that speaks to premeditation. Two, Sal nearly shit his pants when I told him to leave you alone or risk having that broom handle shoved up his ass. And three, he was at a barbeque in Provincetown on the night of the murder. Confirmed by several witnesses.”
“Wow.” I’m so turned on I can barely breathe. “You’ve done a lot of work.”
He gives me a meaningful look. “That’s why I’m here.”
I’m back to wanting to kick him. “So right now, the suspects are Lisa and Forrester?”
“For now. Forrester has an unregistered Glock—like the one you found on the beach, Taylor. Barnstable PD brought him back in for questioning and he claims it isn’t his. I still don’t like him for the murder, but obviously we can’t rule him out.”
Jude hobbles to the fridge for another beer. “Okay, moving on to the second person of interest. Why would Lisa want the murder investigated if she pulled the trigger?”
“The perp likes to insert themselves into the investigation,” I murmur, recalling what Myles told me yesterday, echoing the criminal trait I’ve heard many times before on Etched in Bone. They always return to the crime scene.
Something else occurs to me and I gasp.
“If the murderer ends up being Lisa, you’ll have to break the news to your friend, Paul.”
“Yeah.” He clears his throat hard, sets down his half-eaten taco. “I’m heading out now. Lock the door behind me. Keep the windows closed and secure. I’m going into town to check in with the police, then I’ll be back.”
This is it. My chance to sneak out to the sex shop. I’m going to walk straight in there and ask for the vibrator with the earthquake setting.
“Sounds good,” I respond with a grin.
His eyes narrow suspiciously at my bright tone and I busy myself with cleaning up.
Myles looks like he wants to say something, but he turns and leaves, closing the door with a firm click behind him.
Jude steps into my line of vision. “All right. What are you up to?”
There are some things a girl can’t even tell her non-judgmental best friend/brother. As in, I’m so hard up for an orgasm that I’m sneaking out while there is a murderer on the loose. “Nothing.” I hide my face behind a cabinet, pretending to search for something. “That was me trying not to point out to Myles that he’s finally sharing clues. I was trying to be casual.”
“Right.” Jude opens his mouth to say more, but his phone vibrates in his pocket. He pulls it out and looks at the screen, shoving it right back into hiding. “If you’re sneaking out behind Mad Myles’s back, I’m coming with you, though. Just to be safe.”
“I’m going to buy a vibrator,” I blurt.
“Cool.” He limps over to the counter and scoops up his keys, waggling his eyebrows at me when the roar of the motorcycle engine recedes into the darkness. “I’ll grab a drink at the closest bar while you browse.”
Chapter 12
Myles
* * *
I knew Taylor had something up her sleeve.
Not in my wildest imagination did I think it was this.
Across the street from the Sweet Nothings—the most discreet sex toy shop I’ve ever seen in my life—I sit on my bike in the shadows, watching as she casually strolls past the entrance, waiting until she’s alone on the sidewalk, passersby having ducked into the tavern next door. Then she backs up one step at a time, throwing herself into the shop in a blur.
Just like that, she’s in a sex toy boutique. You’ve got to be joking.
Am I pissed? Hell yeah, I’m pissed.
The fact that she would put herself at risk by coming out at night without me means my skin is roughly the temperature of the sun. At least she brought Jude with her. Initially, that gave me some form of relief. But after they parked in the municipal parking lot, they parted ways on the other side of the road. Jude vanished into the tavern and I can see through the window that some fella has already bought him a drink. He’s distracted. Who is with Taylor now? No one, that’s who. And far stranger things have happened than a woman being assaulted or abducted in public. Goddammit.
I get off my bike and start to pace.