“What would you have done differently had you known?” Tom asked wearily.

Rafe opened his mouth. Shut it. Then huffed out a sigh. “Probably canceled the party because Mercy would have felt too guilty.”

“Which is why we didn’t tell you. Mercy did nothing to feel guilty about and we—Gideon and I—wanted her to have a worry-free day. We wanted all of you to have a worry-free day.”

“I guess now I know why Gideon and Daisy took our phones last night. They said that they didn’t want us to cheat at trivia. They really wanted to make sure that we didn’t hear about what happened.” Rafe sagged against the door. “Mercy still doesn’t know. I don’t want to tell her.”

“I’ll tell her. And I’ll tell her that I recommended we keep it a secret. She can be mad at me. At least she will have had this day.”

Rafe swallowed. “Shit. Now I have to apologize for getting mad at you, don’t I?”

“Nah. It’s fine.”

“Thank you,” Rafe murmured. “Mercy needed this. We all did. She and I made a pact this morning that we weren’t going to think about DJ Belmont until tomorrow. But you were acting weird, so I checked. The article said that you were at the scene.”

“It wasn’t good.” That was all Tom could say.

“And the woman he killed?”

“Innocent bystander. Belmont stole her car. We still haven’t ID’d her or her car.”

Rafe frowned. “I thought he stole the cruiser.”

“He did, along with one of the cops’ shirts, his vest, and his gun belt. We assume he used the cruiser to pull her over. The woman’s body was found in the back seat. He killed her there.”

Rafe closed his eyes. “That woman died thinking she’d been killed by a cop.”

“Yeah.” Tom wasn’t surprised that had been one of Rafe’s first takeaways. It had been his, too, as soon as he’d seen the body. “Her phone was found on the shoulder. It appears that Belmont shot the phone and ran over it with her car. Once we get an ID on the victim, we’ll try to track her car—if he still has it. Hopefully it’ll lead us to where he’s hiding.”

“He’s here, isn’t he?” Rafe asked grimly. “Somewhere around here? In the neighborhood?”

“I think so. At least he was. But we’re proceeding as if he still is, taking all the precautions we can. We’ve knocked on doors, done searches where we legally can. We have the neighbors who are here on alert, helping us watch for anything suspicious. In the meantime, Mercy’s family will be safe. And then, tomorrow, we start looking again.”

Rafe hung his head. “I’m sorry, Tom. I acted like an ass.”

“I would have done the same. We’re good.”

“Thanks. Now, because you’ve done something for me, I’m going to return the favor.” He found something on his phone, then held the screen so that Tom could see. “Look.”

Tom reluctantly shifted his gaze to the phone’s screen, then frowned. It was a photo of himself, his expression so incredibly vulnerable, so very sad, that he had to look away.