Page 347 of A Matter of Time

“The second victim, Ron McCall, was killed around the time Mr. Har⁠—”

“Just Dane is fine,” my brother corrected the detective.

“Okay,” Detective Moore said to him, then looked back at me. “The second killing happened right around the time that Dane made you his brother.”

I had no idea what to say.

“The third victim, Nolan Allen, was killed right after Dane’s engagement party, and the fourth, Donald Bower, was found after his wedding.”

“Why would someone be killing guys who look like me to hurt Dane? That makes zero sense. On top of that, why try and kidnap Aja and me? Why not just her?”

“We think that the brunt of his anger is focused on you, but with the opportunity presenting itself to take both you and Mrs. Harcourt…we believe it was too good to pass up.”

“But—”

“This was the reason for Mr. Reid being taken as well. Opportunity.”

“Sorry, but that’s just crap,” I began. “Because I was taken by two guys. One was driving and one had a gun on me. That’s why the murders, and Caleb’s and my kidnapping, can’t be the same guy. You’re saying one nutjob killed all four men. This kidnapping had two, or maybe even more people involved.”

“We don’t know if he hired a crew. We have no idea other than they are connected.”

“But you can’t say that for certain, and this guy, he let himself be carjacked, so he’s clearly an idiot and⁠—”

“Make no mistake—” Moore shut me down hard. “—this man has murdered four people. He has been cunning enough to kill them and leave no trace of his identity, only the similarity of the killings being enough to link them. He has left no DNA evidence at any of his crime scenes, so he’s a complete unknown.”

I took that in. “I appreciate you telling us all this, but for me, I’m not going to live my life in fear, no matter what.”

“Jory,” Moore began, “we don’t want you to be afraid, we just want you to be⁠—”

“May I just say that compared to the first time I was kidnapped, this was a walk in the park?”

“Jory,” Sam warned me.

“What?” I snapped at him, standing up. “It was. You guys forget I’ve been kidnapped by a cop.”

Two agents and two detectives stared at me.

“Can I speak to you, please,” Sam said before he stood and yanked me after him, his hand like a vise on my bicep as he walked me into the bedroom.

He shoved me away from him before he closed the door behind us.

“What?” I asked, exasperated.

“You think this is a joke?”

“No, but I think whoever this guy is has got nothing on Dominic Kairov, so fuck him.”

He shoved his hands deep into his pockets.

“Do you want me to be afraid, Sam?”

“A little bit, yeah.”

“Well, fine, I am a little bit, but not much more. As long as I’m more careful, I’ll be all right.”

We were silent for several seconds.

“So, can we talk about something else?”