Page 41 of Silent Vendetta (Vendetta Duet)

We had talked about him looking into it, but I didn’t know how far he’d gone.

He cocked his head. “I’ve done a cursory look.”

“Did you find anything?” I pressed.

“I found some…inconsistencies, but I didn’t look into them deeper.”

“Well, look now. Do a deeper dive and get your hands on all the evidence.”

Barry shifted. “You’re presuming that there’s evidence we can test. What if there isn’t?”

“We run parallel plays. Have a team investigate witnesses again. And, I have a private medical examiner that I used to review my father’s autopsy in the past. I’ll call him and ask him to do an independent review of the autopsy of the boy that was killed. I’d like a fresh set of eyes on it to see what else we might be looking for.”

Barry twisted his pen. It had to be a good sign. If he was going to say no, he wouldn’t look so stressed out.

“And what about your father’s murder?”

“Same rules. No budget. No expense spared. I’ve had many autopsy reviews of it, and all conclude the same thing—that he died how I remembered—so nothing to be gained by doing that, but if you have enough guys, go for it. The bigger thing to chase down is motive. Find out what was going on in my father’s life around the time of his death. There has to be something in the case files—a statement, something—that will point us in the right direction.”

“If there was something, wouldn’t other PIs have found it?”

“They weren’t you,” I said.

Barry’s silence weighed on the room. Each passing second made my palms sweat and my throat tighten.

“I will make this worth your while, Barry. For the next forty-eight hours, money is no object. Pull every favor you have out there. If you pull off these two cases, I’ll write you a check in two days for $100 million,plusexpenses.”

Barry tried to hide the widening of his eyes, but I saw a flicker of it for just a moment. He cleared his throat.

“Sir, this isn’t about money. These things take time.”

Still trying to be rational. Reasonable.

“Barry, if you pull this off, you’ll be set for life.” Or maybe retiring was too boring for a guy like him. “Or think of all the career-making cases you could solve with a hundred million dollars. You could pick the ones youwantto work, not just the ones that pay.”

Barry’s face softened. Wheels turned in his eyes, and while he probably still thought this was impossible, Barry got off on solving things no one else had been able to. The thrill of it enticed him, and this was no different.

“You’ve already been sifting through my father’s case files, so you have a baseline to jump from,” I reminded him.

Barry rubbed his jaw.

“You have other people helping look into it too, don’t you?” I pressed.

Barry was known for his contacts with highly skilled specialists in investigative circles.

“I askedsomepeople to look into a few things, but a two-day turnaround isn’t going to happen.”

“Check in with them. See what they’ve found so far and offer them an incentive to dig faster.”

Even if Barry didn’t succeed, he had all-you-can-consume expenses to see what was possible. This was a treasure hunt, too delicious for him to pass up. But he shook his head, set the pen down in front of him, and folded his hands.

“I’m sorry, but—”

“Please,” I interrupted.

The room seemed to grow quieter, and time seemed to stretch as Barry was caught in a silent battle between his logic and the plea in my eyes. The weight of my single word hung in the air between us as he chewed the inside of his cheek, his gaze never leaving mine. Every tick of the clock heightening the tension.

After a few seconds, Barry let out a deep sigh and frowned.

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