Page 60 of Cold as Hell

Grant lunges, but Marlon and Anders leap forward to grab him even as Dalton catches him and blocks his path.

“You can’t hide behind that old man forever,” Grant snaps.

“Grant…” I say. “If someone did kill Lynn, we will investigate. You need to—”

“He did it. Search his place. Interview him. He murdered my wife, and if you won’t do something about it, I will.”

Dalton shakes his head. “Grant? You’re under house arrest. Come with me—”

Grant snarls and lunges for Sebastian again, but the others easily hold him off and then haul him away. Once they’re gone, I turn to Sebastian.

“Non,” Mathias says.

Sebastian turns and murmurs something I don’t catch to the older man. Mathias scowls and stomps into the butcher shop, slamming the door behind him.

“Ignore him,” Sebastian says. “He’s just a little… overprotective.”

“Just a little,” I murmur.

“I know you need to talk to me and probably search the apartment again.”

“I do. Last time I was only looking at the sleeping pills.”

“I know. Come on up.”

Before I can climb the stairs to Sebastian’s apartment, Marlon comes loping back and motions that he needs to speak to me.

“I’ll go up—” Sebastian says, and then stops. “I’ll wait here.”

I nod my thanks for his understanding—if he’s even remotely a suspect, once again, I can’t let him enter his apartment before I search it. I lead Marlon off.

“I wasn’t going to come back,” Marlon says. “But Eric thought I should. I told him…” He rubs his arm, as if cold, and glances behind me. I look back to see Sebastian sitting on the porch, looking the other way, giving us privacy.

“I told him that the figure I saw with Lynn, it could have been the kid.”

I nod. “Sebastian’s the right size. I know.”

“So is Thierry. Hell, so are a bunch of others, menandwomen. I don’t think he’d ever hurt Lynn. He’s a good kid, and he’s crazy about his girlfriend, and I know that doesn’t mean he couldn’t… whatever, but I just can’t see it.”

“Okay.”

“It’s just…” Marlon trails off and shakes his head decisively. “That’s all. I’m just having… Shit, Casey. I was the last person to see Lynn alive. I probably saw her with her killer. I could have saved her.”

I squeeze his arm. “You had no way of knowing, and her killer was almost certainly armed. If you confronted them, they might still have killed her—and also killed you.”

I don’t know that, but I need to say something. I can’t imagine the guilt he must be feeling. He nods, slowly, mumbling, “Maybe. Okay. I should go.”

He glances toward Sebastian again.

“Marlon?” I say. “What is it?”

He hesitates, and then says, “Will asked whether I could say the guy I saw absolutelywasn’tthe kid. I think he hoped I’d say yeah, it wasn’t. I said he was the right size, and Eric said you need to know that. So…” He smacks his hands down at his sides. “That’s it. That’s all I had to say.”

He turns. I let him get two steps. Then I say, “Marlon…”

He turns, slowly, almost reluctantly. “Yeah?”

I walk over. “That’s not all, is it?”