Page 76 of Insidious Threats

“We found Cinco last night.”

“Where was he?”

“Hiding in his closet.”

“Didn’t see that coming,” Connelly admitted.

Petra arched an eyebrow, listening intently.

Sasha took a long gulp of coffee. “That makes two of us. Long story short, Cinco got a visit from Bella Steptoe—you remember, the real estate agent who tried to kill Maisy?”

Petra’s expression was one of sheer fascination. “What kind of life do you two lead?”

“A complicated one,” Sasha told her.

“Okay, yeah, I remember Bella. What does she have to do with Cinco?”

“Leith Delone sent her to threaten Cinco to keep his mouth shut. Connelly, Delone’s behind Landon’s death. Landon sold his stupid AI thing to Delone, who wants to turn it into … something even worse.” She reached into her bag and pulled out Cinco’s sketches.

She smoothed them out on the table and gestured toward the one with the hammer. “This one,‘Unintended Consequences’?It’s a warning about what might happen if they successfully turn Cesare into Thor’s Hammer.”

What little color Connelly’s fatigued face contained suddenly drained away. “Mjölnir.”

“That’s the word Maisy used last night on the phone. She said you have something to tell me. So, tell me.”

Petra leaned forward eager to hear what came next. Sasha took close note of Connelly’s uncomfortable, defensive body language. He crossed his arms over his chest and averted his gaze.

“I know I should have told you this sooner. Believe me, Iknow.I should’ve told you right away because the more time that passed, the more I rationalized not telling you.”

“Not telling mewhat?” Sasha demanded.

“After Landon died, a package was delivered to my office. Hank brought it to the house.”

“What was it?”

“It was from Landon. You know that note that everyone thought was a suicide note? It wasn’t. It was a draft of a letter to me.”

He took out his phone and passed it to Sasha. She studied the picture of the handwritten message from Landon to her husband. Then she read it a second time before handing it off to Petra.

“I still don’t know how you figure into all of this, but since my husband left our twins to come out here and accost you, I assume you have a central role.”

Petra said nothing.

Connelly looked queasy. “I can see that you’re angry,” he said to Sasha in a low voice.

“We’ll talk about it later,” she gritted out. “I mean, you waited six months, what’s another couple hours?”

He blew out a long breath. “So, the other thing in the package was this drive that I was showing Petra when you came in.”

Sasha studied it. “Is that thing what you and August had your heads together about?”

“Yeah. Obviously, Landon wanted me to be able to access the program, but I didn’t know the PIN.”

“August figured it out?”

“No, that was Maisy, actually. It was the date of Josh’s murder.”

“Of course,” Sasha said. That was the least surprising part of all of this.