Page 107 of Seven Deadly Sins

“No. This was a big boom, not small explosions converging together to burn this hot. A gas leak could do this.”

Harper moved to Liam’s side. “Witnesses say no one made it out. One minute the building was there, the next…boom.”

“No one felt a thing,” the chief said. “Small consolation, though.”

“Reynold couldn’t have done this. Not with what we saw him with.” Liam studied the cars in front of the building. Not a single one had any windows left, nor did nearby cars and businesses. Nothing burned except the salon.

“Why the salon?” He glanced at Harper.

“Going by the latest text, Robert wanted to take out a few at a time. Women gossip, they talk when getting their hair and nails done. I guess they might envy each other in some ways.” She pressed her lips together. “Let’s hope he gets through the rest of these sins, so the killings stop.”

She marched back to the jeep and stared at her phone as her shoulders slumped.

If Harper started to lose hope, they might never find Reynold. Robert and Lucy could finish the macabre game, and then disappear.

He leaned against the jeep next to her and bumped her with his shoulder. “You okay?”

“Watching Reynold.”

Liam glanced at the screen. “He’s got a bandage on his hand.”

“Trying to convince the watchers that he got burned while blowing up this business?”

“That’s my guess.”

She stared at him, her face set in grave lines. “Are we going to stop him, Liam? You do know the assassin will be coming for us with sin seven. That one is anger. Robert blames our relatives for the death of his father, and we have to pay the price.

“Neither one of us can outrun a sniper’s bullet.”

“That means he won’t have need of Reynold past envy and sloth.” His blood chilled. If they didn’t find Reynold soon, they’d be finding his body.

Chapter Two

Harper’s eyes widened. Her heart skipped a beat as she peered closer at her phone screen. “Liam.” She never took her eyes off the screen as he came to her side.

Reynold stood on the edge of a playground. For anyone with a discerning eye, it wasn’t hard to see he didn’t want to be there. Pale face, wide eyes, trembling hands.

“Let me get an officer in route. Where is this?”

“There’s only one park in this small town and that’s off Main Street.”

Reynold stepped onto the rubber ground below the play equipment and glanced to where a dark-haired woman typed on her phone. Then, he approached a little girl building a sandcastle, a stuffed animal on the ground next to her. He knelt and said something to her. The child slipped her hand in his and grabbed the toy with the other.

Reynold led her away. The whole thing took less than two minutes.

“Why would Robert have him kidnap a child?” What could a little girl have to do with envy?

“Annie is enroute. Let’s meet her there.” Liam rushed from the room.

As they sped toward the park, Harper received a text. “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife can also prove true as in Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s child.”

Liam slammed his hand on the steering wheel. “First a bunch of women in a salon and now a child. Robert is losing control.”

“Which makes me very worried.” She stared out the window. The death rate would escalate the more his mind spiraled downward. The fact he used one child to take another made her hands tremble. She clutched them tightly in her lap.

When they arrived at the playground, Liam rushed to her side and opened her door. “Hold it together, sweetheart. There’s a frantic mother who needs our help right now.”

A mother who had been so busy on her phone, that she hadn’t noticed a boy snatch her daughter. Harper took a deep breath through her nose, squared her shoulders, and marched to where the mother cried into her hands.