I swiveled my chair slowly toward the window, staring out at the trees.
“If they were just opportunistic criminals,” he continued, “the radius would widen. Copycats would branch outward. But this isn’t branching. It’s anchored.”
I didn’t like the sound of that.
“So, either,” I said slowly, “whoever’s behind it lives here and…”
Sherman finished for me, “They are having a devil of a time finding whatever it is they are looking for.”
Mo rose and moved closer to my chair, sensing how my eagerness turned anxious.
I glanced down at him, then back at the map I’d drawn. Willow Lake at the center, banks forming a ring around it.
“Keep digging,” I said quietly.
“Already am,” Sherman replied. “And Pepper?”
“Yes?”
“If Willow Lake is the center, then this isn’t random.”
“I know,” I said.
After we hung up, I sat there for a long moment, staring at the circle on my notepad. Somewhere inside that radius was the reason.
And suddenly, Willow Lake didn’t feel quite as peaceful as it had an hour ago.
CHAPTER 18
Ian shifted beside me. “So, if it’s not random…”
“It isn’t,” I said.
“Then the safety deposit boxes have something in common.”
I turned slightly towards him. “They have to.”
Mo adjusted himself on the rug, while Roxie moved, stretching languidly from her perch on the armchair before leaping gracefully onto the back ledge of the couch where we sat. She settled there like a silent overseer, tail curling neatly around her paws.
Ian glanced at her. “Supervision?”
“She doesn’t trust our conclusions,” I murmured.
He smiled faintly, then refocused. “What if it’s not the banks that share something,” he said slowly. “What if it’s the box holders?”
My brow lifted.
“Someone could have spread valuables across multiple banks,” he continued. “Safer that way. Diversify so you don’t lose it all.”
I sat up straighter.
“If someone did that,” I said carefully, “and the crew knew it…”
“They wouldn’t know which bank held what,” Ian finished. “So, they’d hit them all.”
That changed everything.
“If only we could find out who owned the safety deposit boxes in each of the robberies,” I said.
