Lyman opened the sack he’d been carrying with him. “Okay, but make sure there’s no one looking.”

As soon as Terry swiveled his head to check, Lyman pulled out the butcher knife he’d purchased that morning and plunged it into Terry’s heart.

“W-why?” Terry gasped, his jaw sagging in stunned disbelief as he gazed down at the handle protruding from his chest.

“You should’ve done your homework,” Lyman replied. “You would’ve known I don’t have any money. My legal defense took almost everything I had. And I can’t have you and Emmett going to the police, telling them you know where Evelyn Talbot is.”

A desperate, choking gurgle was the only reply Terry could make. Which was fine with Lyman.

“It sounds like Emmett found the perfect place. I might want to stay there a while. But don’t take it personally,” he added. “It’s me. I’m a fastidious person, can’t leave any loose ends.”

“Emmett will … k-kill you … for this,” Terry somehow managed to say as his body began to convulse.

“Not if I kill him first.” Lyman pulled the knife out and wiped it clean with some paper towels he’d also purchased and put it all back in the sack. Then he got out, walked around to the driver’s side and opened the door.

The knowledge that he was absolutely powerless registered on Terry’s face, along with the pain and fear. He clutched his chest as blood spread over his shirt like a blooming flower, and he tried to get out of the car. Perhaps he intended to flag down a passing motorist. There were plenty of other vehicles flowing past, all oblivious to what was occurring right in front of their eyes.

Bishop blocked him in, standing casually as though he were merely talking to a friend who’d dropped him off. One person honked; the driver didn’t like that they were partway in the road, but after flipping the bird, he simply went around.

“I guess I haven’t lost my touch,” Bishop said when Terry quit moving and stared sightlessly through the windshield. “Surprise provides such an advantage.”

Whistling as he reached in to put the transmission in Drive, he closed the door, pulled his hood back up and started to walk away as though he’d had no part in sending the car rolling over into the ravine.

When it crashed a few seconds later, the noise drew some attention, but the few who heard it were so shocked and so clueless as to what could’ve happened that Lyman was stepping inside a taxi on Payne Avenue and heading to the airport before a crowd could even form.

Sometimes doing things right in the middle of the day, and in plain sight, raised far less suspicion.

Hilltop, AK—Thursday, 11:40 a.m. AKDT

Amarok had spent the time since he’d been back from Anchorage pulling Evelyn’s old files down from the garage and searching through them. He heard a knock at the front door while he was just getting another box. Makita started to bark, but he didn’t want to take the time to answer it. He wouldn’t have, if his visitor hadn’t continued to knock.