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"Ball and chain," he said, s Kelly’s arm

"You can’t call me that unless we’re married"

Nick s his hand over an angel with a chain through its wing "Ball and chain," he repeated "Like in our rooun fro it, at the ready Nick gave hiel and flattened hi inside the stone clicked It grated across the floor, e froh, aimed at the darkness revealed inside the wall

When it becaun and they shared a glance "Great," Kelly huffed "Our killers know the place"

Chapter 9

Ty let his head hang, rubbing at his eyes He looked up at a heavy sigh from Zane

"More dead ends?"

"There’s just too much chaff, here," Zane said in frustration "Without soo on--a nu"

He gave up on the folders and instead pulled up Milton’s e heavy clanked behind theun that wasn’t there Zane stood as well, but neither of the for whatever came out of the wall

The leather-covered panel beside the fireplace swung open, and Kelly stepped out, gun in hand, sweeping the roohtened quickly, lowering the gun

"Hi," he said

Nick stepped out behind hi cobwebs off his shoulders

"What the hell?" Ty shouted He looked around, searching for so, to throw at the? We could have shot you!"

"Yeah, but you didn’t," Kelly said

"How did you two end up in the walls again?" Zane asked, sounding like a wearyher children

"Doc realized we should have seen the killer ent down to the kitchen So we started looking for places he could have been hidden"

Kelly grinned widely "We found another entrance instead"

"How?" Ty deels with a ball and chain," Nick said He glanced over the fireplace beside his "They’re the way in"

"I’ve seen about half a dozen of those in the house" Zane sounded scandalized "I even saw one on the exterior, at the corner wall near the patio"

"Escape route," Nick guessed

"Wait, wait," Ty finally said "So you two found these passages by accident How do our killers know they’re there?"

Nick shrugged and scratched idly at his forearm "Family? Staff?"

"I wonder if they’d be in any public plans of the place," Zane added "A little research could have exposed them"

"That’s unlikely," Nick said "These were basically a maze of panic rooms They were built to protect the family from war, invasion, revolt They would have been secret"

"We’re going to have to sit the family down and see who knows about theun and then stuffed it back into Nick’s jeans

"What about the phone?" Ty asked

"It kind ofblew up," Kelly answered

"But we did get photos of sos before it went Froht He either had a signal booster or he was the one blocking everyone else’s signal He was selling so to someone on the island"

"That’s why he was all packed up," Ty said Kelly nodded "He was getting hisout So how’d he end up dead instead?"

"Deal gone bad," Nick said with another careless shrug "Change of heart Who knows?"

"No indication of what he was selling?" Zane asked

"We were hoping you could tell us"

Zane nodded "Let et back to this, then"

Nick and Kelly came closer as Zane sat once more, and they all watched the screen as Zane pulled up the list of eain Ty scanned the subjects and the occasional first line of each They all seemed to be rather innocuous work-relatedreceipts

Finally, Ty patted Zane’s shoulder and pointed at one of the e confirmation from Brookstone?"

Ty rolled his eyes "Justhued and pulled up the e confir the purchase or shipping of any goods It was e had supposedly been shipped

"It’s a fake," Kelly said in surprise

"I’ve seen this," Nick told thes from Vice You place an order, and they send you a receipt that looks like you were shopping online Then to set up ti confirmation It hides the paper trail, allows people to pay in different ways, and keeps your records looking clean if anyone gets into theirls?" Kelly asked