Page 82 of Silent Vendetta (Vendetta Duet)

Rinaldi and Mayor Kepler looked at each other. “The footage was too grainy to get plate numbers.”

They were fake anyway. I changed out the plates every single time I used that car, but I was trying to fish for how strongly they suspected me.

“We know the make and model, though. If you’d be so kind as to let us look in your garage.”

Dammit, I loved that car. Now I’d have to get rid of it.

“You still haven’t answered my question. Why are youhere, wanting to look inmygarage?”

Sean’s lips curled into the perfect target for a fist.

“There’s someone who has been researching the Windy City Vigilante case for quite some time,” Sean said.

“An armchair detective,” I said with a raised brow. “I guess you’ve been busy then.”

Sean’s fists clenched. “They found something interesting.”

“Please tell me you didn’t convince the city’smayorto drop what he was doing based on some armchair detective’s conspiracy theory.”

Sean’s face reddened. Whether it was from embarrassment or rage, I couldn’t be sure, but it was satisfying all the same.

“You know what they found?” Sean narrowed his eyes.

“Nothing significant, or you’d be at thecorrecthouse with a warrant.”

Sean took a step toward me, the asshole. He was baiting me into a fight, and my fingers were twitching at my side, begging me to oblige.

Luna laced her hand in mine.

Sean looked down at our clasped hands, his glare growing angrier.

“The day Dominic Hopkins was killed at the courthouse, no one saw the Vigilante, or anyone else for that matter, fleeing through the parking lot after the murder,” Sean said.

“If you can get to your point, I have things to do,” I said.

I had been trying to keep my tone respectful with the detective and the mayor, but I didn’t intend to do that with Sean. In fact, doing so only made me look more suspicious.

“The Vigilante went back inside the courthouse,” Sean said.

I looked at my watch to make a show of it. “What does that have to do with me?”

“Mr. Lockwood.” Rinaldi stepped forward. “You’re a very prominent figure with a busy social calendar. And yet, when we cross-referenced the dates that the Vigilante struck against your social commitments, they don’t overlap.”

“In a city of three million people, I’m sure many of them weren’t seen in public at the times in question. You talking to all of them, too?” I asked.

Rinaldi’s lips tightened. Maybe she couldn’t give me everything—suspect 101—but I wasn’t stupid, and I knew they had to have more to show up here like this. If they wanted access to anything, they were damn sure going to lay out the broad strokes that led them here.

“We believe the Vigilante has knowledge of law enforcement, based on evasive tactics and lack of forensics. Obviously, you have that knowledge, Mr. Lockwood.”

“As does the entire Chicago Police Department.”

“There wasonesocial commitment that did overlap, though,” she continued. “You told a coworker you’d be at a charity event the night of one of the Vigilante’s attacks but never showed.”

“For a person who was evading law enforcement, that would be a pretty dumb move, to no-show at an event,” I countered.

That asshole took way longer to kill than I’d planned.

“You have similar motives as the Vigilante.”

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