Silas: Alright, what’s wrong?
Me: Nothing’s wrong.
Silas: Then why are you acting weird?
Me: I’m not acting weird, you’re acting weird.
Silas: You’re the one that messaged me!
“Suspicious bastard,” I snorted.
Me: All I did was ask how you were, asshole.
Silas:…
Me: You’ve known me long enough, you’d think you’d trust me by now.
Silas: That’s exactly why I don’t trust you.
Me: Fine then. Go back to your girlfriend.
Silas: I will.
Me: Wait, before you go…
Silas: What?
Me: Have you seen your gramps lately?
Silas: Yeah I saw him this morning. Why?
Me: No reason.
I sent him the pictures I took then pocketed my phone, ignoring the series of dings that followed. That should sufficiently ruin his relaxing afternoon. Maybe I’d send him a bouquet of flowers later, brought by a barber-shop quartet, of course. It’d been awhile since I sent him a strip-o-gram. Star would love that. If she wasn’t such a pain in my ass, I might send her one too.
Huh? That wasn’t a bad idea. I’d love to see the look on my best friend’s face when some ripped, naked guy ground up against his girl. Now that would make my day.
“Hey,” Parker waved me over to him. “Trent is going to let us have a look at his footage. Isn’t that nice of him?”
I scowled right back at the old man behind the counter. “Yeah, that’s real generous.”
There was a reason we were interested in this store in particular. One of the exterior cameras was pointing at the only road leading to Cherry Lake. I tried to argue that someone could’ve walked Tico in. From what I heard, he wasn’t a very big guy. But then Micha pointed out that that would be a long way to carry a body without being seen.
Sometimes I really hated logic. Especially when it had me stuck in a back room with Parker Whitley scrolling through hours of footage. This whole thing would’ve been a lot easier if Trent dated his tapes. I was about to walk out when Parker tapped the screen.
“Here we go.”
There was Star’s car, driving right past the camera. About a half hour before that a black town car rolled down the street. I couldn’t tell who was driving, and the car itself didn’t have any defining features. But I did pick up on one thing. Silas’s Hummer drove by before we saw it leave. Meaning the fucker stayed to watch.
Judging by the look Parker gave me, he picked up on the same thing.
“You think he was after Star?”
Yes, but not for the same reason’s Parker did. “I think it’s a message.”
There was only one thing Star and Tico had in common. Harper. Riley and Shelby had never been to Harper’s house. I knew this, because I overheard them asking Lana where she lived. Why hadn’t my little liar invited her friends over? I didn’t think she had anything to do with Tico’s death, but I think she knew who did. It was all making sense now.
Harper’s mother disappearing, her constant excuses, and now Tico. A great way to scare a little girl into compliance was by taking away the things she loved. And I contributed to her downfall. If I’d paid a little more attention…
