“That goddamned bastard,” he muttered. “No wonder he left Leah there to die.”

He’d set up Leah.

He’d set up Matt.

He’d set up the entire Forum.

Joey had turned his back to Matt, hunching over the phone as he spoke to his mother. But certain words started breaking through Matt’s concentration: “key”, “Leah’s apartment”, and “laptop.” He glanced up. Joey’s face was bright red. He twisted a strand of white-blond hair on his finger.

“No, Mom, I told you already that I don’t have a key.” Joey hunched deeper into the sofa. “Leah asked for it back. She needed to…to lend it to someone.” A pause. “I don’t know who.” Another pause. “I know it’s important. But I really don’t know who.”

Matt could hear the voice of Joey’s mother. Then Joey said, “I gotta go, Mom. I’ll be home by curfew.”

Joey shoved his phone in his pocket and looked at Matt. “We are in deep shit.”

If only you knew.

“Why?”

“My mother told me that Leah was offered an immunity deal—”

Matt’s heart leaped.

“But she’d have to give up Aiden and her laptop.”

Nothing he’d like better than to see Aiden have his head served on a platter to the cops. But he needed to think this through. The Forum might be served along with him if they weren’t careful. And if that were to happen, he was going to make sure that they didn’t go down in vain. They needed a big finish. One that showed that their entire motive had been for the public good. It might be the only thing that saved their reputation if things kept going the way they were going. “The laptop isn’t a big deal. We get the files, doxx Harry Owen, and then dump it somewhere for the police to find.”

Joey shot him a startled look. “What do you mean, we doxx Harry Owen? You still want to do it?”

“Yeah. I do. There’s a lot of shit going down right now but we can’t forget why we started all this.”

“No.” Joey shook his head. “Leah was almost killed. The police are all over this.”

“That’s exactly why we need to do this. The police will double down on these files. No one will know why Leah did this. What her true motive was. Have you seen the news? Public sympathy is on the side of the Owens. She’s being ripped to shreds by the media. Everyone hates her. And no one knows that she was shot at point-blank range by Harry Owen. If we don’t doxx Harry now, he’s going to get away with everything.”

Matt’s phone rang. He didn’t recognize the number, but it was Halifax-based. Could it be Leah somehow calling him? “Hello?”