“You loved her,” he said gently.

Presto’s chest heaved once and he dropped his chin, his fists clenched at his sides. No further answer was required.

“Daniel.” Toby Granville had come up behind him, sympathy on his face. “Let him go. He can answer your questions tomorrow.” Toby put his arm around Presto’s shoulders and led him from the restaurant. Ed Randall passed them on his way in.

Ed took one look at the restaurant and whistled softly. “My God.”

“One of the bodies has already been moved,” Daniel said. “I can give you a detailed description of the scene when I came in. Deputy?”

The young officer who’d been taking pictures looked startled. “Y-yes?”

“If you could give us your camera, I can make a copy of the files and return it to you.”

The deputy looked at Frank, who nodded. “That’s fine. You’re dismissed, Alvin.”

The deputy looked infinitely relieved and made a quick exit.

“I’d just finished securing the scene at Bailey Crighton’s when I got your call,” Ed said. “I wasn’t more than twenty minutes out of Dutton when I turned around. I’m guessing the ME guys’ll be here in twenty. Until then, tell me what you saw.”

Luke arrived as Malcolm and his partner Trey were pushing the gunman out on a gurney zipped up in a body bag. Sheila was lying on a second gurney, the body bag zipped only to the middle of her chest. Luke walked straight to Sheila’s body and stood for a moment studying her face, his expression hard.

“You’re right,” he murmured. “I’d hoped you were wrong.”

“Where are they?” Daniel asked quietly.

“Locked in my trunk. My mother’s birthday is June first, by the way, not the fourth.”

“Don’t tell her, okay?”

“Your secret’s safe with me,” he said, but didn’t smile. “You sure about doing this?”

Daniel looked at Sheila’s waxen face and knew he’d never been more sure of anything. “Yeah. If I’d said something a week ago, she might still be alive.”

“You don’t know that.”

“And I never will. Neither will she.”

Luke sighed. “I’ll go get the envelope.”

Daniel stood to one side when Malcolm and Trey came back for the other gurney. Chase came in as they were zipping Sheila up. His boss stood in the middle of the restaurant looking around before bringing his gaze squarely to Daniel’s.

“In my car,” he said.

“Okay.” Daniel passed Luke and Luke slipped the envelope under his arm.

“I’ll wait,” Luke said and Daniel only nodded.

Feeling like a dead man walking, Daniel got into Chase’s car and pulled the door closed. Chase got behind the wheel.

“What’s in the envelope, Daniel?”

Daniel cleared his throat. “My demons.”

“I kind of figured that.”

He watched Malcolm and Trey lift the gurney into the rig and slam the back doors shut. Sheila’s blood is on my hands. No more secrets. No more lies. “It ends here.”

“What ends here, Daniel?”

“Hopefully not my career. Although if it comes to that, I won’t fight you.”

“Why not let me be the judge?”

An appropriate starting place, Daniel thought. “My father was a judge,” he said.

“Yes, I know. Daniel, spit it out. We’ll deal with whatever we need to deal with.”

“I am spitting it out. It all started with my father, the judge.” And Daniel told him the entire story, including the details he had not shared with Alex earlier-the part when he’d first laid eyes on the pictures eleven years before, but his father had burned them to keep him from revealing the secret to the police. When he finished, Chase was staring straight ahead, elbows on his steering wheel, his chin propped on his fists.

“So you technically have had these pictures only a week.”

“I gave a set to Vito Ciccotelli in Philadelphia the day I got them.”

“And that’s the one thing that’s going to save your ass. Why didn’t you come to me?”

Daniel pressed the heels of his hands to his brow bones. “God. Chase, have you ever done anything so horrible, you were ashamed for anyone to know?”

Chase was silent so long Daniel thought he wouldn’t answer. But he finally nodded. “Yes.” And that appeared to be all Chase planned to say on the topic.

“Then you know why. For eleven years I have lived with the knowledge that these girls were victimized. That I knew and I said nothing. I promised myself I’d find them, that I’d fix this. Then the moment Alicia’s ID was dumped in my lap I found every reason not to tell. I didn’t want to jeopardize the case. I wanted to atone. I didn’t want to hurt Alex.”

“Did you tell Alex?”

Daniel nodded. “Yeah. She wasn’t as mad as I thought she’d be. Are you?”

“What? Mad as you thought I’d be?” Chase sighed. “I’m disappointed. I thought you trusted me. But I have been in your shoes and it’s not a place where right and wrong are black and white.” He looked at the envelope. “Those are the pictures?”

“Yes. I was thinking Alex might be able to identify some of the other girls. She recognized Sheila from high school.”

Chase put out his hand and Daniel gave him the envelope, feeling as though a weight rolled off his shoulders as he did so.

Chase looked at the pictures, his face tightening in disgust. “Hell.” He put them back in the envelope and slid it next to his seat. “Okay. This is what we’re going to do from here on out. You’re going to put in a formal request for the pictures to Ciccotelli in Philly ASAP. You’re going to say you thought Alicia was one of the girls but that you didn’t know any of the others until you saw Sheila tonight. So we requested the pictures back.”

“That’s not actually untrue,” Daniel said slowly and Chase shot him a rueful look.

“That’s why they pay me the big bucks. You will not mention that you made copies and kept the originals. Who else knows you have these, besides Luke?”

“Alex and her cousin Meredith.”

“Can they be trusted?”

“Yes. But Chase, I want to use those originals tonight. I need to find out who the other girls were. Maybe one of them knows who did this to them. Somebody out there doesn’t want their identity known.”

Chase shook his head thoughtfully. “Killing Sheila supports that theory, but killing Janet and Claudia doesn’t. Why call attention to themselves?”

“Maybe somebody found out,” Daniel said quietly. “And we can’t forget about the keys. It’s important. I just don’t know how.”

“And the hair. Did you get Alex’s hair down to the lab so they can compare them?’

“I did. Wallin’s going to run the PCR on overtime. He thinks he can have a DNA comparison by tomorrow afternoon.” Daniel glanced at his watch. “I mean, today.”

Chase slapped his own face lightly. “We need to get some sleep, Daniel. You especially. You’ve been burning the candle at both ends for three weeks.”

“I want Alex to look at the pictures tonight.”

“Fine. You drive to her bungalow. I’ll follow you.”

Daniel lifted his brows. “You’re coming?”

Chase’s smile was tight and not terribly friendly. “Pal, I’m your new partner. You don’t go anywhere or do anything without telling me.”

Daniel blinked at him. “Forever or for just this case?”

“Just this case unless you pull some other dumbass stunt. You only get so many get-out-of-trouble-free cards.”

“Get out of jail,” Daniel corrected with a smile.

“If this had gone a different way, you might’ve ended up there,” Chase warned, not smiling back. “No more secrets. You tell me everything.”

“Fine. I’m going to sleep on Alex’s sofa tonight.”

Chase leveled him a long look. “Fine. Just stay on the sofa.”

Daniel lifted his chin. “And if I don’t?”

Chase rolled his eyes. “Then just lie and tell me you did. Go on. If we’re gonna show her the pictures, let’s do it before sunup.”