Page 57 of Flynn

It was possible Steve hadn’t realized his bank was being used to launder money. And that once he’d discovered what was going on, the guy in charge had eliminated Steve and his wife as threats.

But that didn’t explain Roman Paulson’s murder. And the more he thought about that, the more he felt like he was missing something. That there was some key to the case that he was overlooking.

He caught a flash of light through the window. A car? Or someone walking by?

Sweeping his gun off the end table, he moved swiftly toward the window overlooking the street. There were no houses directly across from there, only the wooded area of the park. He’d gone through that portion of Greenland Park earlier so that he knew what the terrain was like.

The snow covering the trees was still intact. Whatever he’d seen hadn’t come from the woods. Most likely he’d caught a glimpse of a car passing by. They were in a regular neighborhood, and there were tire tracks in the snow on the street. More than one vehicle had been past in the time he’d slept.

Relaxing a bit, he watched for several more minutes to convince himself they were fine.

He stretched back out on the sofa, hoping to get a few more hours of sleep. No such luck. After changing cars so many times, they didn’t have the laptop anymore. Maybe he could ask Rhy to send one over later that morning.

Just as he dozed off, he heard a thumping sound that had him jackknifing off the sofa. The sound had been too close for comfort.

Then he saw Taylor walking into the kitchen. She didn’t seem to realize he was awake, as she grabbed a glass from the cupboard and filled it with water.

He waited until she was finished to make his presence known. “Hey, are you okay?”

She whirled to face him, her eyes wide. A moment later, she relaxed and nodded. “Sort of. I had a bad dream.”

“Would you like to talk about it?”

She shook her head. “No. The dream itself didn’t make any sense. I’m sure the stress of the day brought it on.”

He stayed in the living room, hoping she’d head back to her room. She set her water glass aside, then walked toward him.

He almost took a hasty step back but caught himself. “Have a seat by the fire.”

“Thanks.” She didn’t sit but stood holding her palms toward the flames. “It’s hard to sleep not knowing what the day will bring.”

“The good news is that we’re safe here.” He dropped back onto the sofa. “You still have time to get a few more hours of rest in.”

“Yeah.” She didn’t look away from the fire for a full minute. Then she turned to face him. “Okay, maybe I do want to talk about part of my dream.”

“Let’s hear it.” He was more than willing to be her sounding board.

“Don’t laugh.” She sat in the chair next to the couch. “I saw money raining down on the dead bodies of Steve, Robin, and Roman. I thought Max was dead, too, and ran toward him, but he wasn’t. As I turned away, money still floating down on us from the sky, I saw Detective Irving standing off in the corner of the room, laughing. When I demanded she do something, that she try to help them, she just looked at me like I was pathetic and turned away, her shoulders still shaking with laughter.”

He winced. “I know Irving is a hard case, but I’m sure she wouldn’t really do that.”

Taylor sighed. “Maybe not, but I just had the distinct impression that she couldn’t have cared less about the dead people in the room.”

He wasn’t sure what to say to that. Detective Irving wasn’t his favorite person, but he couldn’t use Taylor’s dream as a reason to accuse the woman of being dirty.

“I guess my subconscious knew I didn’t like her and featured her in my dream as a bad guy,” Taylor said. “Although that interview seems like weeks ago.”

“I know.” He smiled at her through the darkness. It wasn’t easy to read her expression, but she looked wistful as she watched the fire. “Try not to worry. We have a lot of people working this case. I’m sure we’ll learn something soon.”

She nodded without saying anything more.

Strangely, the silence wasn’t uncomfortable. It was almost as if he and Taylor had known each other for months rather than weeks.

She was still too beautiful for the likes of him, but he enjoyed watching her. As long as he didn’t allow himself to get too close.

Close enough to be hurt when she left him once this nightmare was over.

When it appeared as if Taylor wasn’t heading back to her room, he stood and moved to the window. He hadn’t been able to get a full view of the entire yard since he hadn’t gone into the two occupied bedrooms.

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