Page 39 of Dangerous Lies

“From what I can find, Evan bounced in and out of foster homes, but Aden had a temper. They couldn’t place him.”

Her head spun. “So Evan is the killer?”

Lucas tapped on the keyboard a couple more times and brought up an old photo of Aden, but he was dead. “If I had to guess, yes.”

She blinked to stop the tears. “When did Aden die?”

“From the death certificate, it was approximately fourteen years ago. They found him in an alley. Give me a second, and I can pull the police report.” The image on the screen blurred. Her gut told her his murder was now her fault. All because of a necklace she hadn’t put back on since that night.

“Here it is. It seems he got into a knife fight with another person. Strange, the officer on duty was also the foster dad of Evan. That seems a little off to me, I’ll keep digging, but I think Detective Miller is the serial killer. Would explain why he covered up the murders and showed up to see you find your gifts.”

Her stomach turned at the thought she’d been alone with him so many times. He could have killed her, but why the long game? Furthermore, how did he know so much about her fascination with bugs? The only thing she could think of was Aden had told him, but Evan had waited. She’d worked with the police department for the past six years, and he was on the force the whole time.

Rose frowned. “People just don’t become serial killers overnight. Don’t they have the urge from a young age?”

Grim rested her hip against the seat. “Or something traumatic happens in their lives. Look to see if something with Evan changed.”

Lucas’s fingers flew over the keyboard.

“How would he have had time to put the note on the SUV at the station? He was in the conference room with us the whole time,” Rose said.

“Not the entire time,” Casanova said. “Remember, the Chief sent him to his office. He had time to go outside, place the note, and slash the tires.”

“Shot out Ginger’s tires and took over his car?” Rose shook her head. “Not possible.”

“To me, it feels like a two-person job,” Grim said. “I measured out the shot he took to hit Ginger. The person had to be decent. I’m not sure Evan could hit that shot from his firing range scores. I think he has an accomplice.”

Xavier took off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves. “It’s not common, but not unheard of. The Zodiac killer and the Candy Man were both rumored to have help.”

Rose had watched a documentary on the Zodiac Killer and remembered the cops had not caught him, so there was no way to know if he had a second person to help him.

Lucas spun his laptop and showed a crime scene photo of the man Aden had killed and Aden in a street. “That’s not where the second man died.”

Every set of eyes on the plane turned toward her. This was where she admitted to covering up a murder. Would they hate her after she told them? She had to let them know though because it would assist in the case.

“That man came into the room. I was staying in an abandoned building and rushed at me. He fell and cut my stomach open with his knife.” She took a deep breath. “I know Lucas said Aden had a temper earlier, but I don’t remember him ever getting mad until that night. He went crazy and killed him. Aden told me to go to the doctor, and he would clean up. That was the last time I saw him, but the guy was dead.”

Xavier paced down the short aisle of the plane.

“Evan helped his brother, killed him, and then years later turned on Rose?” He shook his head. “We are missing something key.”

“Wait, how did you find this? There were no reports of the death. I called the morgue and funeral homes.”

Lucas took a sip of his cherry coke. “Someone buried the information deep in the Las Vegas police department servers.”

Xavier groaned. “I like that you hack. I just don’t want to hear about it.”

“Too bad. Eighteen months ago, Evan’s foster dad died, there’s the life event you wanted. Boss, you need to pay me more.” Lucas shut his laptop.

Rose wanted to hear more about how he hacked the server. She’d watched a few hacker shows, and it seemed cool. None of the people she saw online were GQ-looking models like Lucas, but the guy was good.

“I’ll call the chief when we land,” Xavier said.

She took a deep breath. “What about the murder? Will I go to jail?”

Xavier’s brows drew together. “No. You have nothing to worry about.”

“I could have given the guy what he wanted,” she said with a frown.

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