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As soon as Floyd arrived home, Liz showed him the composite sketch of the woman resembling Echo. “I have to admit, it kinda looks like Echo, but I’m not a hundred percent convinced.”

“Let’s go with the assumption it’s not her. It doesn’t change the fact that Echo knew the guy or knew of him,” Liz insisted.

“You always have to be worrying your pretty little head about something.” Floyd gave her a peck on the cheek. “I’m gonna go feed Pepper and Piper before we eat dinner.”

“You’re in for a treat. We’re having the chicken souvlaki along with a trio of Mediterranean dipping sauces that Echo and I whipped up earlier.”

Floyd playfully sniffed the air. “I don’t smell anything burning. ”

“Very funny.” Liz wagged her finger. “I’ll have you know there wasn’t a smidgen of smoke in the kitchen during the entire meal preparation.”

“I can’t wait to taste it.”

Liz warmed their dinner while Floyd took care of chores. She started setting the table and noticed Treece standing near the end of the driveway, talking to his father.

Floyd motioned toward the house and then to Echo’s place. Both shook their head and then Treece left.

Liz waited for him to return inside. “You didn’t tell Treece what was going on with Echo, did you?”

“No. He was complimenting both of you and told me the food was delicious.” Floyd washed his hands in the sink and reached for the towel. “He likes Echo.”

“I believe the feeling is mutual.” Liz filled their plates and took her place at the table. “I hope she’s not trouble. ”

“We can theorize and hypothesize until we’re blue in the face,” Floyd said. “I think you should give it a rest until we have concrete evidence one way or the other.”

Liz let it go but spent the rest of the evening and part of the long night mulling over the possibility Echo had somehow been involved in the man’s attack.

Floyd was up and out of the RV early the next morning. Liz, who wasn’t far behind, was determined to remove the decades-old varnish from the living room bookcases. Her plan was to give them a fresh coat of stain, one that was lighter and brighter than the depressing shade of black.

Duchess, who had been running from the living room to the front window and then to the back porch door, circled the ladder. “What are you doing, silly girl?”

Woof.

“What is it?” She removed her work gloves and followed Duchess to the kitchen’s back door. As soon as Liz opened it, the pup bolted across the yard and took off at a dead run, heading toward Echo’s place.

A sense of dread filled Liz as soon as she crested the small hill. Echo’s front door was wide open. Teddy was racing back and forth, but Echo was nowhere in sight.

“Echo?” Liz jogged to the front deck. She hovered in the doorway, calling the woman’s name. There was no answer.

Her heart skipped a beat, and her scalp tingled. “Echo? Are you here?”

Still no answer. Liz checked every room, but there was no sign of her young tenant. She ran around the side of the house and found Echo staring at the back, cell phone in hand. “Is everything okay? ”

“No.” Echo’s expression grew grim as she motioned toward the back door’s cracked glass. “It wasn’t like this yesterday.”

On closer inspection, Liz could see the glass was pressing inward. Whoever had busted the window had done it from the outside, and a chill ran down her spine. “Someone tried breaking into your place.”

“Teddy woke me up last night barking. I looked around but didn’t find anything. I never noticed the cracked glass.” Fear filled the young woman’s eyes. “Someone is after me. I knew this was going to happen.”

She began babbling about a case in Detroit involving a high-profile politician. “The lead investigator was onto that senator. He didn’t commit suicide. We had proof. Vanessa, my co-worker, knew it and then she died, too. They were coming after me. I tried to tell my boss, Havane, but he wouldn’t listen. Looking back, he may have been in on it. ”

“Hold on.” Liz did a timeout. “You were working on a case where an investigator was going after a senator?”

“For taking bribes. The case was getting a lot of publicity and then bam!” Echo slammed her palms together. “The investigator committed suicide. I knew him. He didn’t kill himself. He was about to ruin Appolina’s career and he took him out.”

“What sort of proof did you have the investigator didn’t commit suicide?” Liz asked.

“There was DNA under his fingernails. Why would he have DNA tissue under his nails if he overdosed? He didn’t kill himself.” Echo started rambling again, this time mentioning how her house had caught fire. “Appolina took out the investigator, took out Vanessa and now he’s after me. I’m as good as gone.”

“Did you know Mick Grotto?”

“No. I swear, I don’t know who he is. When you said this shady guy came looking for me, I figured they’d found me even though I thought I did a good job of disappearing. Grotto is an ex-con from Detroit. My guess is Appolina hired him to come after me. Something happened. He was attacked and I’m next.”

“Where’s the evidence…this DNA evidence?”

“In a safe place,” Echo said. “I tried turning it in right after it happened, but now I’m afraid to. It’s the only thing keeping me alive.”

“You have evidence but no one to present it to.” Liz tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Brian Sellers, a close family friend and former circuit judge, might be able to help.”

Echo’s eyes lit. Her excitement quickly faded. “Can we trust him?”

“One hundred percent. Let me make a few calls.” Liz pressed a hand to her forehead, eyeing the damaged door. “I think you should come to the house until we can figure something out. ”

Liz kept guard while Echo ran inside to throw some things into an overnight bag. She placed Teddy and the bag inside her car and drove down the hill to the main house, where Liz caught up with her.

“Hang tight and let me see what I can do.” Liz grabbed her cell phone off the counter and discovered she’d missed several calls. One was from Lucy. Another was from Ruth. The other two were from Gloria.

She called her sister first. Gloria picked up right away. “Have the police showed up looking for Echo?”

“No. She’s here with me.” Liz’s eyes slid to Echo, who was nervously pacing back and forth. “Someone tried to break into her place last night.”

“Seriously?”

“Echo thinks someone is after her because of an investigation she was involved in while working in Detroit. She’s convinced Mick Grotto was sent here to take her out.” Liz filled her in on what Echo had told her, from the senator’s investigation to the lead investigator’s alleged suicide and then her colleague’s untimely death. “Echo has proof the investigator didn’t kill himself, but doesn’t know who to give it to. She’s been in hiding and it appears Appolina and his hitmen have tracked her down.”

“How awful. The poor thing must be scared out of her mind,” Gloria said.

“I was thinking maybe we could ask Brian to help us. He has connections.”

“True. He might be the perfect person to get involved. Have you watched the morning news?”

“No.”

“You should check it out. If someone came looking for Echo, it wasn’t Mick Grotto,” Gloria said. “He died late last night.”