Page 49 of Devil's Riches

“Holy shit. You’re right,” he said, eyes widening. “Hiding in plain sight.”

“Yup. Do any of the other symbols look familiar to you?”

Nate peered at the circle with furrowed brows. Eventually he pointed to the Scorpio symbol, which looked like an M with an arrow on the tail end. “I’ve seen this one before,” he said.

“Where?”

“I dated a girl called Anna Montgomery in my first year at Blackthorne. Her father had a signet ring with that exact pattern.”

I tried my best to ignore the spike of jealousy I felt in my guts at the mention of another girl. “Is the Montgomery family on our list?”

“Yes. Right there,” he said, pointing to a spot on the upper third of the page.

“So that’s three we have so far. Lockwood, Holland, and Montgomery,” I said, circling the names. “Does anything else jump out at you?”

Nate fell silent again as he stared at the star symbols. “This one looks familiar,” he said slowly, pointing to the Capricorn symbol.

“Any idea where you might’ve seen it?”

“On some guy my mom invited to a charity gala she hosted a while ago. I can’t remember his name right now, but I’m pretty sure he owns a bank in Arcadia Bay,” he said. “I think he was wearing a pin on his suit jacket when I saw him, and it looked like that. But I’m not sure. I could be remembering it wrong.”

I googled ‘Arcadia Bay banks’ and skimmed through the results. “There’s a Beck, Hilson, Van Zandt, Chamb—”

Nate cut me off. “That’s it. Van Zandt,” he said, sitting up straighter. “The guy’s name is Horace Van Zandt.”

“Do you remember what the gala was for? There might be photos online.”

“Breast cancer research, I think. Last year.”

I searched for ‘breast cancer fundraiser gala Arcadia Bay 2018’ and found an online photo gallery. “Can you see if he’s in any of these photos?” I asked.

Nate clicked through the photo sets and eventually stopped on a picture of a short man with gray hair standing next to a slim blonde. “That’s him.”

“Zoom in on his jacket.” I leaned forward and squinted at the screen. Then I nodded. “You were right. That’s the Capricorn symbol.”

Nate circled Van Zandt on our list. “That’s four down.”

“Do you recognize any other symbols?”

“No. Sorry.”

“Damn.” My shoulders slumped. “None of them look familiar to me either.”

Nate leaned over to me, eyes flashing with a mixture of sympathy and excitement. “Don’t feel bad,” he said, taking one of my hands in his and squeezing it firmly. “This is good. Your symbol idea was right on the money. Now we’ve identified four of the families, and we know exactly what we’re looking for with the rest. We might not even need Greg or Mom anymore.”

“I know. I’m just wondering how we can actually find the rest,” I said, brows dipping in a frown. “I mean, they’re all over the place. Your family put their symbol in their crest, the Montgomery family put theirs in signet rings, and the Hollands and Van Zandts put theirs in lapel pins. The others in the Golden Circle could’ve put theirs anywhere.”

“True. But my grandpa had a signet ring with the family crest on it, so jewelry seems to be the common theme. We should focus on that,” Nate replied.

“How exactly would we do that?” I asked, throwing my hands up. “Break into the houses of every person on this list and go through their jewelry boxes?”

“That was your original plan when you moved back to Avalon, wasn’t it?” he said, lips curving into a smirk. “Breaking and entering?”

My cheeks flushed hot. “Well, yes, but that was only because I had no idea where else to start.”

Nate went silent for a moment, eyes focusing on the window.

“We could get on the guestlist to the next major philanthropic event on the island,” he finally said, turning back to look at me. “The big names on our list are always invited to stuff like that, and they’d probably all wear their signet rings and pins. The only issue with that is we’d have to wait a while. I don’t think there’s another major gala until December.”

“And by then, more people could be missing or dead.” I leaned back in my seat and let out a tired sigh. “I wish there was some sort of place on the island where the people on our list always hang out. Like an exclusive nightclub for billionaires, or something like that. Then we could go there and watch them all to see if any of them are wearing things that match the other symbols without having to wait for a big event to roll around.”

“Actually, now that you’ve mentioned it…” Nate frowned and cocked his head slightly to one side. “I know of a place just like that.”

“Really? What is it?”

He leaned forward and raised a brow. “Ever heard of the Devil’s Playhouse?”

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