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Mrs Barone hesitated “She was the sairls, but Tessa and Rebecca roup at the church”

“After what happened over the weekend” Lance let the i her home safely”

Mrs Barone nodded “Poor Tessa I can’t believe she was killed by a neighbor Just goes to show that you don’t really know folks, right?”

So uilty

Lance bit back his coe her son to cooperate with Lance’s investigation It wasn’t his place to educate the woman on the finer points of criminal law

“Will Robby be back later today?” Lance asked

“I don’t know” She pocketed the business card Lance handed her, then rubbed her arms as if she was cold “I’m sure he’ll do what he can to help you find Jamie”

Lance was equally sure Mrs Barone’s little angel would be happy to help—for another fifty bucks

“Thank you” Lance pulled a picture from his pocket, a still he’d printed fro with Nick Lance showed it to Mrs Barone “Do you know this kid?”

Mrs Barone took the picture “That’s Jacob Emerson”

“You’re sure”

“I’m sure Everyone around here knows the Eht rein on Jacob, but that boy was born to be a handful”

Good to know

A whiny engine sound announced the arrival of Robby’s ancient Toyota Robby spotted Lance through the windshield The car hesitated, as if Robby was considering turning around, but he parked alongside Lance’s Jeep Robby got out of the car and came up the front walk, his posture cocky

Hisabout Jamie Lewis”

“OK Robby nodded, but like histhe end of the driveway for whoever was due home next

“I was going to ask you if you kneho this was” Lance flashed the photo of Jacob Emerson “But your mom already helped me out”

“Then you got what you came for,” Robby said He shared a look with his o Now”

Lance turned to Mrs Barone “Thank you, ma’am”

Back in his Jeep, he sent Sharp a round checks on everyone else who lives at this address He typed the Barones’ rural route number into his phone

So on at the Barone house Robby and his ht be totally innocent, but Lance had learned the hard way not to ignore his instincts Was Mr Barone a criminal? Abusive? Both?

He drove away from the Barone house On the way back to toithout consulting his brain, Lance detoured down Morgan’s street He felt like a twelve-year-old cruising past his secret crush’s house on his Schwinn He turned the corner His foot shifted to the brake pedal Three houses away, a small crowd of people stood in the middle of the road All eyes watched the Zabrowski driveway

What the hell was going on?

Broken lengths of cri limply across the drive and around the property Bud stood at the head of his driveway An elderly couple blocked his path The old e The woht, but her fra wind swept dead leaves across the lawn Lance was surprised it hadn’t knocked her over

Morgan was jogging across the road

Lance opened his door and slid out of his vehicle Hurrying past the crowd of gawkers, he heard the ossip

“His father should have known”

“I always thought that kid was strange”

“I can’t believe we had a killer living here all this time”

Lance wanted to correct all their uilty, but noasn’t the time Crowds didn’t listen to facts or reason Crowds acted on e