Page 33 of Bleed the Shadows

Interesting.

“Tell us what you know.” I headed for the fridge to pull out the ingredients for my smoothie but caught my foot on the leg of Maeve’s chair.

I flailed, trying to catch myself on the island, and sent Bram’s donut flying.

The plate clattered to the floor.

“Goddammit,” Bram muttered.

I put the fallen plate in the sink and the donut in the trash while Bram got a fresh plate.

Maeve moved to the coffee maker and started brewing a cup of coffee. “What I know about Ethan?”

“Yeah.” I started loading ingredients into the blender. “We’ll do our own research, but anything you know might help.”

“Well, I think he’s living here for one.” She removed the cup from under the coffee maker, inhaled from the steam, and took a drink.

“Here as in Blackwell Falls here?” Poe asked.

She nodded. “Anyone else want a coffee?”

“I’ll take one,” Poe said.

“How do you know he’s here?” Bram asked.

“I don’t know for sure, but I know he’sfromhere, and I suspected he would come back after he left Hungary to avoid being charged with sex trafficking.”

Poe shook his head. “Wait a minute, you’re saying Ethan Todd is from Blackwell Falls?”

She nodded, then handed him a cup of coffee. “Went to Blackwell High and everything.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Poe asked.

She shrugged. “You didn’t ask.”

“We’re asking now,” Bram grumbled, wiping his hands on his jeans.

“What year?” I asked.

“Almost twenty years ago.” She took her coffee to her place at the island. “Long before my time — although I didn’t go to Blackwell High — and yours too.”

Poe rubbed his jaw. “I assume you checked the yearbooks.”

It was a safe assumption. Maeve was smart, and she’d been on Ethan Todd’s trail for over a year.

She nodded. “His last name was Borkowski then, but there’s no trace of him after high school.”

“What did you mean when you said Ethan Todd was back in Blackwell Falls?” My smoothie was ready to go but I didn’t want to disrupt the conversation with the blender.

That was only fun when I could do it to piss off Poe or Bram.

“When I heard he was coming back from Hungary, I started following local real estate listings. Not every house for sale, just the big ones.” She hesitated. “One of them sold to a company, not a person.”

“That’s not super unusual,” Poe said. “Property is sometimes purchased through holding companies for tax purposes.”

“I know,” she said. “But this company was registered in Hungary.”

A beat of silence settled between us.