Page 102 of No Safe Place

“He had other business to attend to.”

“Cowards always do,” I said.

Shaw smiled.

I looked around the beautifully appointed craft. It had to have a beam of what? Forty feet? I thought. There had to be multiple thousands of square feet of interior cabin. Half a dozen staterooms below deck. It was like a floating mansion.

“Look at the three of us,” Shaw said. “Is there anything better than enjoying a day out on the water?”

“Not in my book,” I said.

“What do you think, Olivia? Having fun?”

The college girl said nothing.

“She doesn’t talk much,” Shaw said. “Just like her old man. The silent type.”

Olivia looked at him.

“Oh, wait,” Shaw said. “Did I forget to tell you? I killed your father.”

Even my eyes went wide at that one. He’d killed her dad? Colleen’s client who’d been in jail?

“Bullshit,” I said.

“’Fraid not,” Shaw said. “I strangled him at his shit box in Washington Heights. No client no case, right?”

Olivia started to shake. Silent tears started to pour down her cheeks.

“Look, she even cries quiet,” Shaw said. “Remarkable.”

He looked back at me.

“So, what are we doing here?” he said.

I took out a thumb drive, flicked it across the table.

Shaw took out a tablet and stuck it in, hit some buttons. He watched Jodi’s video twice.

I looked at the sociopath’s face for some emotion as he viewed. There was nothing at all.

“You weren’t kidding. That’s some damning tape there,” Shaw finally said after he was done.

He laid the tablet down on the highly varnished outdoor table between them.

“But where’s the rest? The blackmail from the college.”

I tossed him the padlock key.

“All the servers are in a storage locker in East Hampton. Address and locker number is on the fob.”

“Right on the fob. Gee, thoughtful. Thanks,” Shaw said with a chuckle. “But you have other copies of this footage, right?”

He began tapping the table beside the tablet with a finger.

I smiled. There was a sudden grayish tint in the air as a cloud slipped over the sun. I kept smiling.

“Of course, I do. But only for insurance. Once you let us go, you won’t have to worry about it.”

---