Page 61 of Dead Man's List

“He was freaked out before we walked through the front entrance,” Kit said quietly. “But he’s right, Sam. That was a master class.” Hoping to comfort him, she ran her hand down Sam’s arm, feeling him tremble. “Come on. We’ll call Navarro from the car and see if Tasker’s info can be added to the search warrant. And then we’ll get lunch. And maybe a margarita for you.”

Sam stood, then straightened his back. “That sounds like the best idea I’ve heard in forever.”

Scripps Ranch, San Diego, California

Monday, January 9, 1:30 p.m.

“It was good to see the old ladies again,” Connor said as he and Kit left the Shady Oaks Retirement Village.

Kit waved fondly at the two elderly women who stood on either side of a slightly tipsy Sam Reeves. Kit hadn’t wanted to leave him alone at home after his margarita lunch and knew Miss Georgia and Miss Eloise would take good care of him.

Sam had earned those two drinks and then some. Kit was only mildly surprised that it had taken only two rather weakmargaritas to make the psychologist wobbly. Sam didn’t drink much.

It was one of the things she liked about him.

“Don’t let them hear you call them old,” Kit warned. Because Georgia and Eloise were still forces of nature despite being octogenarians.

Connor shuddered. “Not on your life.”

Kit slid into the passenger seat. Neither she nor Connor was tipsy, having refrained from any alcohol at lunch. They were still on duty, after all. But Kit would have stayed sober anyway. Sam was far more shaken than he’d let Connor see, and she’d needed to take care of him.

It was a new feeling, this protectiveness. She felt it for her parents, for her sisters and brothers, but she’d never felt this way for anyone else.

It scared her to death.

Because what if Tasker changed his mind? What if he did send hired thugs to hurt Sam? Or worse?

He could do the same to you.

Which was true, she allowed.But I can take care of myself.

So can Sam.

He’d proven that many times.

But she still worried. The only thing to take her mind off the worry was work. “So we have a dead-man’s-switch list out there somewhere. I wonder who Munro was blackmailing.”

“Movers and shakers, according to Tasker,” Connor said, pulling out of the Shady Oaks parking lot. “That could include a lot of people who’d never be on our radar.”

“Because they all keep it secret. Presumably no one knows who else is on the list,” Kit mused.

“Telling would trip them up, too. It’s a pretty ingenious way of keeping his victims in check.”

“Somebody objected. Or multiple somebodies, if Alicia is right about multiple hands stabbing him.”

Connor sighed. “It might not have been anyone on that list. It still could have been angry constituents or a jealous husband. Or even a local developer who didn’t get a contract.”

“But blackmail makes a lot of sense. Especially since Veronica is looking for something she hasn’t been able to find.”

Connor’s mouth bent down thoughtfully. “I wonder if she was the mechanism for the list getting out. Someone or something had to be triggered by news of Munro’s death. That’s the whole point of a dead man’s switch.”

“I wondered the same thing while we were talking to Tasker. I hope Marshall and Ashton have made some progress searching the files we took from Munro’s home office. Maybe the list is in those papers. If it were me, I’d have kept the list close at hand.”

“There wasn’t anything on his home computer,” Connor said. “Nothing that screamed ‘I’m a list of scumbags who’re paying for Munro’s Ferrari.’ ”

Kit chuckled at the image. “That would be too easy.”

“I personally wouldn’t have kept it close at hand. I would have put it in a safe-deposit box and would have given both a key and written permission to access the box to the person charged with making sure the list was shared. My lawyer would have had the key.”