“How would he know you were involved? I have no intention of telling him. The only way he would know is if he was arrested and you had to testify against him. And honestly, at that point, he wouldn’t have the capacity to do anything to you. He’d be behind bars.”

Val wanted to do this. She wanted it badly. If Blythe was guilty, she wanted to help catch him. But it was such a risk. For some reason tonight, she loved the idea of taking a chance. She looked at her hand, at the scar. The images of the attack were far away as she studied the odd pattern that would be forever on her palm and thumb. This had made her an insecure victim just as much as her dental career molded a confident professional.

She had taken a big risk lying to get this job, a job that she was enjoying tremendously, more so than dentistry. Val knew it was time to take another risk. Plus, to work on a case with Thomas Hayden was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, one that was either going to make her, or destroy her. She could see the desire in Gwen’s eyes. Gwen wanted the same thing.

The waiter came by, set a bottle of beer down in front of each of them and asked if they were ready to order. Jack, Gwen and Val had been so preoccupied they hadn’t even looked at the menu. After a moment, Val flipped it over to the last page and pointed to a series of choices which offered a range of smaller dishes for a set number of people. “Let’s just have this one to save choosing. We can share.”

“Good call,” said Jack. “It all looks great.”

Gwen nodded in agreement. “All of my favorites are there.”

Val pointed to the menu. “We’ll have this one for three people.”

The waiter nodded his head in approval. “Excellent choice. Naan for the table?”

“Of course,” Val said.

The waiter hurried off to put the order through.

The conversation quickly moved to the latest skull.

“Where was it discovered?” Jack asked.

“Dr. Blythe thinks it belongs to someone who went over Niagara Falls. It was caught on some rocks four miles downstream along the shoreline of the Lower Niagara River. It’s the part that runs next to the trail in Devil’s Hole Park. In his opinion, that’s where the damage came from,” Gwen said. “It did have good sized breaks in it.”

“What’s the area like?” Jack asked, “I’m not familiar with it.”

Val tried to explain what she knew of Niagara Falls. She had purposely prepared for the meeting with Jack tonight, hoping to sound knowledgeable on this issue, especially after her less than stellar performance that afternoon.