Girls with braces.
Boys with dimples.
Mothers, fathers, young adults, teenagers.
People who were loved.
People someone still prayed for.
Simon’s voice echoed in his head, throbbing like a bruise pressed too hard.
You can’t save them all.
Buddy’s stomach tightened. He pressed his thumb against the edge of the board to ground himself, but his pulse didn’t ease.
Movement caught his eye—a sliver of glossy paper peeking out from behind another photo. Wrong. Out of place. Fallon kept this board meticulous, constantly checking it throughout the day. She curated every inch, made sure no one’s child was hidden. If the board got too crowded, she pulled out the backup board from the marina's storage room—and there were two full boards already.
But this picture had been tucked behind another, as if the placement was deliberate.
A tremor ran through him as he reached out, his fingertip unsteady as he nudged the top photo aside.
One picture slid forward.
Then another.
And his world narrowed to a pinpoint.
Two girls smiled back at him—dark hair, bright eyes, joy frozen in a moment of a life they never got to finish.
Maya. Sophie.
The ones he couldn’t save. The ones he lost.
The ones who still crawled into his chest at night and hollowed out the space beneath his ribs.
Sterling stilled beside him, sensing the shift. “Shit.”
Buddy’s throat tightened. “This jerk knew Fallon would check the boards. That she would make sure each victim was seen—that I’d care enough to look.”
“That’s a crazy game. A lot of things would have to align for you to see them.”
Buddy swallowed hard, every instinct in him lighting up like a flare. He scanned the crowd—the families at the raffle table, the teens laughing by the water, the older volunteers chatting near the stage.
Any of them.
All of them.
None of them.
“Not really. Our guy put them here,” Buddy said, voice rough. “He wanted me to see them. He wants me off balance. He wants me to know that while he’s not Simon, he’s bigger than Simon. Knows more.” Buddy scanned the crowd, his old instincts kicking in. “I thought Simon and this guy, EJ, knew each other peripherally. But now? I get the feeling that I didn’t shut down anything when I arrested Simon. I merely put a dent in a bigger operation.”
Sterling’s posture sharpened. “Jesus. You know what I’m thinking?”
“Besides, this bastard is already here?” Buddy stepped back from the board, eyes sweeping the marina. He focused on the males. Clocked what they were wearing. Who they were with. What they were doing. If they appeared suspicious or blended in seamlessly.
It was the latter that made him nervous.
His gaze stayed locked on Fallon across the walkway, her braid slipping over her shoulder as she laughed at something a volunteer said.
