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“You’re sure?” Echo asked.

“Yes. He had a raspy voice.” The bartender lowered her voice and croaked. “He sounded like this.”

Echo’s face turned ghostly white. “He was here.”

“A couple days ago.”

“Do you remember anything else?” Liz asked.

“Nope. That was it. Raspy voice. Montabello cigar. Light beer.”

Floyd thanked Pam and the three of them headed out.

“Now what?” Liz asked. “We can confirm Echo’s former boss has been here for a couple of days. More than likely, Christi’s camera caught him near Echo’s place the night someone busted out her window.”

Ping. Echo jumped at the sound of her cell phone pinging. Her hand trembled as she turned it over. “It’s him,” she whispered. “He’s calling.”

“We need time to think,” Floyd said. “Let it go to voice mail.”

Echo dismissed the call. “He knows where I work and where I live. He knows I have the DNA sample, or at least had it.”

“Something tells me he’s here looking for it,” Liz said. “We need to come up with a plan to nail him. The Appolina case is back in the spotlight, which means if your former boss was in on it with the senator, they’re getting desperate, desperate to make sure there are no loose ends.”

“And I’m a loose end.”

“We could contact Sheriff Nelson, but we have no proof, other than Pam the bartender confirming Havane was here at the bar. ”

Echo began shaking her head. “I know how this works. It would be my word against his. It happened before. I put my trust in him. It backfired. I almost died when the place I was renting burned to the ground. I’m sorry, but I can’t trust the Montbay County Sheriff’s Department not to go right to Havane and tell him what’s going on.”

Liz blew air through thinned lips. “We need proof. Solid proof Havane was, or is, involved with Senator Appolina, and then we can turn it over to the local authorities.”

“Gloria always comes up with good ideas,” Floyd said.

“Let me see if we can get everyone together, Ruth, Lucy, Dot, Gloria and Margaret.”

Echo rubbed the sides of her arms. “We can’t do it in public. If Havane is following me, he could also be watching me, watching us, right now. ”

Liz motioned them to Floyd’s pickup truck. She waited until they were inside to dial her sister’s number.

“Hey, Liz.”

“We need help. Echo’s former boss, Mark Havane, is the one who’s been hanging around. We’re almost a hundred percent certain he was over at Echo’s place. He’s still in the area and there’s a good chance he wants to meet with her.”

“Oh no.”

“The Appolina case is heating back up. If Echo’s boss was involved, he’s desperate to get his hands on the potential evidence.”

“Has he threatened her?” Gloria asked.

“No,” Echo said. “Looking back, I never should have told him I had it. I didn’t know he was behind all of this or that he’d come after me.”

Gloria grew quiet, so quiet Liz thought their call had been disconnected .

“Are you still there?”

“I’m thinking. Paul and I finished eating dinner. Where are you?”

“Parked in front of Kip’s place,” Liz said.

“You’re right around the corner. Come on over. I’ll see if the others can meet us here and maybe we can put some sort of plan together.”

“The sooner, the better. If Havane is in on it, he’s only in town for a short amount of time before he heads back to Detroit. My guess is he’s going to make a move.”

“Let me make some calls. I’ll see you soon.”

Gloria and Paul’s farm was only a few miles out of town. They arrived to find the porch light on and the back door ajar with the couple waiting inside.

“Lucy, Margaret, and Ruth are on their way. Dot can’t make it. She and Ray are cleaning up from the evening food truck run. ”

Liz greeted Paul, who was seated at the table. “We’re sorry to barge in on you on such short notice.”

“Don’t give it a thought. It’s a common occurrence around here,” Paul joked.

Ruth arrived next, followed by Lucy and then Margaret.

Paul, along with Floyd, stood off to the side while the women gathered at the table.

Taking turns, Liz and Echo filled them in on the recent developments.

“To sum it up, we believe Mark Havane, Echo’s former boss who heads the county’s forensics team, was working with Senator Appolina, taking bribes and turning a blind eye to criminal activity,” Liz said. “The lead investigator died. Echo and her colleague questioned his death.”

Echo picked up. “Which is when we tried to turn the sample over to Havane. He wouldn’t listen to me. Maybe he didn’t believe I had anything worthwhile, which could be the case since the DNA sample came back as inconclusive.”

“But he, meaning Havane, doesn’t know that for sure,” Lucy said.

“If the authorities reopen the case, he could be trying to get his hands on it in the off-chance you had something,” Ruth said.

“Correct,” Echo confirmed. “He called me out of the blue, claiming he was in the area and wanted to meet.”

“Have you agreed to meet with him?” Margaret asked.

“No. He called me again a short time ago and left a message.”

“You haven’t listened to it?” Gloria asked.

“Not yet.” Echo tapped in her four-digit code, turned the phone on speaker and played the message .

“Hello, Echo. Havane here. I’m in the area and was wondering if we could meet first thing in the morning. I was thinking about our last conversation and how the senator’s case was drawing attention again. If you still have state’s evidence in your possession, you could be in very big trouble. Please call me back at your earliest convenience.” Havane rattled off a number, and the message ended.

“He wants to get his hands on that DNA sample,” Gloria said.

“I don’t have it. Mr. Sellers does,” Echo said. “He’s going to kill me, isn’t he?”

Paul spoke. “We won’t let that happen. If your former boss is involved and drove all the way across the state to get his hands on the sample, believing it to be potential evidence, he could become even more desperate.”

“So we give him a DNA sample,” Lucy said.

“How?” Margaret asked .

“I have a bunch of old DPD bottles,” Echo said. “They’re in a box in my hall closet.”

“That’s it.” Ruth gave a double thumbs up. “We create a new DNA sample and give it to Havane.”

“Let’s call Brian,” Paul suggested. “The original DNA sample could be inconclusive for several reasons.”

Gloria tracked Brian down at home, who confirmed the DNA results were inconclusive.

“But it could still be viable DNA.”

“Correct,” Brian said. “I’m no forensics expert, but that was what I was told.”

Echo waited until the call ended. “What he said is true. Inconclusive could be for any number of reasons. So I should call Havane back and set up a meeting?”

“My vote is yes,” Liz said. “Meet him at Dot’s Restaurant for breakfast, lunch, whatever. We collect his saliva and Voila! We have our own sample and can send it in to see if it matches the one you and your colleague collected.”

“Liz might be onto something.” Gloria tilted her head. “We need to make sure we get a clean sample. I’m sure Kip will let one of us fill in as a server.”

“I’ll do it,” Lucy volunteered. “I’ll be the server. It will be fun.”

“And I’ll hook Echo up with a recording device,” Ruth said.

“Gloria and I will be there too,” Paul said. “Only steps away in case things go sideways.”

“I can’t keep running and looking over my shoulder. It’s them or me and it’s not going to be me,” Echo vowed. “At the very least, I’ll go down fighting and prove not only did Vanessa not commit suicide, but neither did that investigator.”