Page 61 of Code Violation

Forrest – Saturday Night

“Has ‘stay out of trouble’ ever worked for you?” Nero asked him as he set his fork down and leaned back in the chair.

They’d been quiet since Lani and Dear left, focusing on their meal and—in Forrest’s case, at least—worrying about Rufus and wondering what the fuck was going on. Had Nero accidentally started something when he came to town?

“Nope,” Forrest replied once he’d finished the last bite on his plate. “Lani knows that, too.”

“Dinner was great, by the way. Thanks for feeding me.”

“I like to cook,” Forrest said. “Usually it’s just me.”

Forrest stared across the table at Nero. “What are we going to do until morning?” Regardless of how the day had gone and what they’d learned from Lani and Chief Dear, his guest appeared remarkably calm. And sexy. “Um, I’d rather you didn’t go back to the resort until this stuff is sorted out. It doesn’t feel safe. Lani said stay here and she meant you too.”

Nero was watching him, a small smile on his lips. Forrest shifted in his seat. He never—and by never, he meant with a capital N as in never—invited men that weren’t just friends to stay at his house.

“If I stay, will it be a big deal?” Nero asked. “Or can we treat it like an extended sexy sleepover?”

Forrest pretended to think about it for a moment. “I think that would work.”

“Plus, you don’t have a car. If I leave, you’d be stuck here.”

“Honestly, I don’t see the downside of being stuck here. I can go weeks without going into town if I have enough groceries. Besides, my new-to-me bus will be arriving sometime next week. I can drive to town in style.”

Forrest couldn’t wait to see the looks on people’s faces when they saw the bus for the first time.

“Cool. I’ve got these.” Nero collected their empty plates and carried them over to the sink.

Forrest watched because he wanted to and because he could. He liked Nero’s body as well as his quirky mind. After rinsing the dishes off and sticking them in the nearly empty dishwasher, Nero turned back around.

“I think we should make a murder board,” he announced. “Do you have any paper and pens? Markers if possible.”

“A what?”

“A murder board. Paper. Pens. You must have heard of them?”

“Yes, but,” Forrest sputtered. He’d been thinking about Nero and Nero had been thinking about murder. “Okay, I might have some paper in my office. Let me check.”

He did in fact have a partially used ream of eleven-by-seventeen paper and some black and red Sharpies. He had no idea why. Grabbing them, he took the collection back out to the kitchen.

“Will this do?”

“Yep,” Nero said, choosing several sheets of paper and laying them out on the kitchen table.

“Okay, let’s get started.”

* * *

Forrest’s body ached from the crash and he was beginning to rub sleep out of his eyes by the time Nero stepped back and declared the board finished. Several sheets of wadded-up paper had been tossed to the floor after some false starts, and one pen had run dry.

“The only incident I can’t really connect is Lizzy Harlow’s death. She’s older than the other victims and wasn’t found in the woods. That doesn’t mean that she isn’t connected though. It may just mean that we haven’t found the link.”

Lizzy was just a name with no lines heading from it.

“Ned was male and in his seventies,” Forrest pointed out just to be contrary.

“Yes. But you know as well as I do that there’s a connection, even if it’s not obvious right now. We don’t have enough pieces of the puzzle.” He turned to look at Forrest. “And I’m afraid that Rufus does.”

Nero had drawn boxes along the left side with all the names they could think of, living and dead. Rufus’s name was there, as well as Ernst Cooper’s and even Forrest’s and Lani’s. About the only name not listed was Nero’s.

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