Page 49 of Trick's Trap

Jason perked up. “It was ritualistic?”

Tahlia leaned back to stare at the ceiling, attempting to clear her mind enough to recall all those details. “I think so. I mean, I don’t have a clear image anymore. It’s like my brain stopped working after I saw him, but in my memory, I see a design on the carpet underneath him. Not a pentagram, but some other symbol in a circle. But the—the pieces formed a star shape.”

“There is nothing about dismemberment in this damn report.” Ethan waved the papers.

“There’s also no pictures, which is rather damning in a way, isn’t it?” Jason pointed out. “A prominent businessman like him is murdered, supposedly of a simple stab wound, but there’s not a single picture.”

Ethan appeared to mull that over. “What you describe would have taken a lot of time. You were in Boston early that morning. Do you remember how high the sun was after you crawled out the office window?”

“It was high but not overhead. It climbed higher as I left the grounds.”

He made a note on a pad. “So maybe late morning? Good.”

Her brow creased. “Why is it good?”

“Because the time of death on this report says he died in the pre-dawn hours, somewhere closer to three or four AM. I’m assuming it’s accurate, although the cause of death is obviously fake.”

He riffled through the papers again, holding up one of the sheets, and then sniffed. “They don’t know you have an alibi up until dawn,” he said, gesturing with the paper in Patrick’s direction.

Liam narrowed his eyes at them, but he didn’t ask what Ethan meant. Had Patrick not told his brother the story of meeting in the lobby afterward?

His consideration and concern for her reputation was sweet, but Tahlia didn’t care if Liam decided she was loose for going to Patrick’s room that night if it gave her an alibi for murder.

“Assuming they filed a flight plan, that alone should be enough to clear you,” Jason said. “But it doesn’t hurt to have Trick and Juan make statements establishing your whereabouts, in case they pull a fast one and want to alter the time of death so it points the finger at you.”

Ethan nodded in agreement. “In the meantime, we’ll pull whatever strings we can to get the un-doctored police report and any crime-scene photos, assuming they exist. One good shot of the body should be enough to get them to back off. Juries can’t picture a woman dismembering a body for a reason. It’s not easy to take one apart. Most don’t have the strength.”

Tahlia flinched, and Ethan winced. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” she mumbled, rubbing her head. It wasn’t sore, but she felt numb from head to toe.

“Just so we’re clear, we’re ignoring this summons for her to turn herself in?” Liam asked.

“Damn straight,” Patrick said, his hold on the back of her neck tightening.

Ethan and Jason stood. “We’ll lay it out for BPD. They still owe us for that mess with Dawson.”

Liam muttered something she couldn’t quite catch, but the agents ignored him.

Tahlia watched them leave with a heavy heart.

“I’m so sorry to have dragged you all into this mess,” she said.

Liam tsked and rose. “Don’t you worry about that. We take care of our own.”

With that, he left, leaving her and Patrick alone.

“He doesn’t really mean that, does he?”

Though gruff, Liam seemed very protective of his brother and sister, and to a lesser extent Peyton. He couldn’t be happy Tahlia was exposing them to such sordid, evil people.

“My brother’s a stubborn butthead about a lot of things, but he never says anything he doesn’t mean.”

There was something in his voice that made her twist to meet his eyes. Patrick’s expression was shuttered, his face all angles and planes.

I was worried about the wrong brother.

“Patrick?” she whispered, unable to keep the concern out of her voice.

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