“At first glance,” Jethro agreed. “But when you delve into the life of the chess master, a guy by the name of Norm Litehnshaw, you see more. He fell in love with his brother’s wife and turned quite mad. Oh, he was probably nuts in the first place, but she became all he thought about, and he lost the ability to play chess. He lost everything until he killed her.”

Nari swallowed. “Then what?”

“Then he returned to chess, won for a while, and finally was killed by his brother as revenge.” Jethro looked up from his computer.

Angus’s green gaze flicked to Nari. “So the logical conclusion is that Lassiter is in love with Nari and has to kill her to continue the game?”

Jethro shrugged. “I just find the data. You analyze it.”

Angus frowned. “It doesn’t feel right. Or at least not complete.”

“Maybe he’s in love with you, Angus,” Pippa said, tossing hand mitts to the counter. “Maybe he can’t concentrate because he’s obsessed with you and knows that if he gets Nari, you’ll come to him.”

Dana frowned from the other chair by the sofa. “So you think the person trying to shoot Angus is Lassiter?”

Angus shook his head. “Lassiter would never work with a partner, and the night of the bombing there were two of them. Same with the first time that navy-blue truck chased me down and shot at me. I don’t know who that was, but it definitely wasn’t Lassiter.”

It was impressive how quickly Angus could put himself in the mind of a killer. Impressive and a little daunting. Nari smiled and he smiled back, relieving her. Okay. He was all right.

Angus cleared his throat. “He failed twice to get Nari, and he’s going to become desperate. He’s already killed the doctor who pronounced him dead, so anybody he’s ever been associated with is in danger. We have to find him now, and the key to that is to find where he’s been since I shot him six years ago.”

Brigid opened her laptop, her curly, red hair falling over her shoulders. “So far, nothing. I’ve looked everywhere. It’s like he just disappeared. I even searched hospitals and rehab places during that time period, figuring he would’ve needed a while to recuperate after being shot several times. Not only is there no record of him, there’s no record of anybody having that kind of injuries that I haven’t been able to track down and verify.”

Nari patted her hand. Brigid was the best; if anybody could find the information, it’d be her.

Angus looked at Jethro. “How about the last note? The one found with the deceased doctor?”