Page 164 of The Silent Note

He wakes up with a snort. “Huh, what? I’m listening.”

Finn glances at each of us, and then he looks down and chews on the inside of his cheek. It’s so un-Finn-like. He’s never hesitated over anything.

Cadence groans. “Finn, don’t drag it out.”

He sighs and looks up with his usual, emotionless face. “The flash drive had a lot of dirt unrelated to Sloane’s case. You can go through it later, Miss Jamieson, but my contact did find something. A video Slavno took that night.”

Grey’s eyes meet mine across the room.

I nod.

Her nostrils flare slightly and she turns her attention to the projector screen. The lights go dark.

As the video plays, I hear the crunch of boots and the hum of a car engine rolling to a stop. A door slams open and shut.

Slavno’s heavy breaths are followed by his gruff voice saying,“She’s in the back.”

My eyes whip to Grey’s. She’s leaning forward, back ramrod straight. Marion’s story about a younger Grey studying by moonlight wafts to mind. Grey is still burning with thatdetermination. How many years has it been since her friend died? Since she decided to take it upon herself to investigate? After so many years, after all the danger she’s faced, she still hasn’t given up hope.

“Whoa. You can’t just take her. Where’s my cut?”Slavno barks.

Slowly, a man comes into the camera’s frame. He’s tall and lean and dressed in all black. Something about the way he moves scratches at my memory, but the video’s too dark and fuzzy to make out details.

A bag thumps to Slavno’s feet.

“Take the girl,”a heavily accented voice growls.

My eyes shoot up.

I don’t realize I’m standing until the lights are on and heavy silence falls.

“That’s the video,” Finn says quietly.

Behind him, the footage is frozen on the last frame. Slavno didn’t record the man’s face, but he did catch the inside of his collar. And the very same tattoo I spotted on the delivery driver is on the man in the video.

My eyes slam into Finn’s and my brother looks warily back at me.

In the jarring stillness, a phone rings.

Cadence jumps.

Grey looks startled out of a bad dream.

Sol checks his phone. “Not me.”

“It’s mine.” Dutch pulls out his phone. Anger grinding his jaw, he announces. “Dad.”

I walk over to Grey as Dutch answers the call. She looked fine from a distance but, up close, she’s barely holding on. Her teeth are gritted and her eyes are swollen with unshed tears.

“Hey.” I use my uninjured hand to smooth her hair back. “Hey, it’s okay.”

“She was still alive. She was still alive when Slavno had her.”

“It’s okay.” I pull her into me.

Cadence puts a hand of comfort on Grey’s shoulder.

Dutch ends the phone call and speaks quietly to the room. “Dad says he needs to see his sons now.”