Page 108 of Three for a Girl

He flung open the car door, and tore himself away from Romeo’s hand.

“Chad!” Romeo dove forward, grabbing Chad by a belt loop in his pants.

“I won’t go out of sight.”

“Be careful.” Romeo huffed and released him. He retreated into the darkness of the back seats.

Chad scrabbled up the verge, certain he could see the marks of their chase from hours before. His heart thundered as if the chase was back on, as if he was following the ghost of Andrew, demanding it show him the clue he’d missed. The numbness in his bones tingled, reviving with pins and needles, over sensitive itchiness ran through his veins.

He was on to something, his gut told him so.

The object Andrew had dropped had been long, light, it had caught on the wind, drifted along the clumps of dead grass.

Chad whipped his head to the left and froze. Snagged in the branches of a wilted sapling, it had wrapped itself around like a snake.

Chad reached for it, and pulled on the Scottsdale scarf. It unraveled for him, and he held it in his hands, knowing it was the very one that had been tucked under Zara’s chin in her last photograph.

He hurried back down the verge, scrunching the material. He got back in the car, and Romeo poked his head through the seats, fixing his curious gaze to the scarf in Chad’s hands.

“What’s that?”

“A Scottdale scarf.” Chad ran his hand down the length of it. Dead grass scratched his fingers, and he began picking the bits out, flicking each spiky shard in the passenger footwell. “Zara’s Scarf. Andrew’s daughter. He was holding it.”

Romeo’s hand found his shoulder again. “And dropped it.”

“It caught on the wind, drifted away, I spared it no thought.”

“And now?”

Chad ran his hand along the scarf. He smiled when nothing snagged against his fingers. He smiled at the weight of it, not light, but heavy with significance. “This is the piece of puzzle I was missing.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I wish I could’ve been the one to give it to them.” Chad mumbled. “I said about giving others closure, and that’s what he said. They were his last words, and I think I know why. There couldn’t be closure when justice was left unfinished.”

“Chad, you’re not making any sense.”

He closed his eyes again, breathing deep. His nostrils tickled with the scent of smoke, and he lifted the scarf to his nose.Definitely cigarette smoke.

A cigarette had fallen from Andrew’s lips when his eyes met Chad. His wide eyes had been full of anger and grief, and Chad was certain he could feel it from the scarf.

Despair, it reeked of it.

Ellen had been in the Scottsdale hat, tugged over her eyes. Kerion had been squeezed into the Scottsdale shirt, his shoulder dislocated to get his arm inside. Who had been destined for the scarf, to have it wrapped so tightly around their neck their eyes bulged?

“When was the last time you ate something—”

“I don’t think Andrew was done. I think he had one more to get.” Chad pointed at the road. “I think he was driving along here on purpose. I think he parked to wait for someone. Someone he knew would pass this way.”

His killer van had been awaiting its final victim. Andrew had the scarf, rope, and knife at the ready.

“You think he was after three?” Romeo asked.

“Yeah.”

“Three for a girl.”

“Three for his girl.” Chad said, giving Romeo a smile in the mirror.

---