“I gotta tell you something.” He shifted, blew out a breath and adjusted his shoulder strap on his backpack. “I don’t think you should be hanging out with Stone.”
“I’m picking that up. Calm down, it was just lunch—”
“He didn’t reveal all his secrets in that memoir of his.”
She slowly rose from her seat. “I’m listening.”
Silas stepped back from her door, and she closed it, then leaned against it, arms folded.
“Listen, I’m not trying to get him into trouble. It’s just—”
“Tell me.”
He ran his hand across his jaw. “Okay, so there was a case involving this missing four-year-old girl.”
“We talked about it today, over lunch. She was kidnapped from Minnehaha Park.”
“Yeah. Took them three days to find her—and when they did, she was dead.”
“Sad—”
“Horrifying, because she’d also been raped. And when the coroner found that out, rumor is that your friend Rembrandt sort of lost it.” He blew out a breath. “See, it was after they picked up the perp, and when the semen analysis came back, it was from…well, her father. And although there was nothing to tie the father to the kidnapping, he had contact with her either before or during the abduction. But the guy alibied out for the entire time, so…”
A chill had started in her core, begun to wring through her.
Silas seemed to be considering his next words, the way he stared out into the street, watching late night traffic cruise down the strip. The heat of the day had released from the sidewalks, now simmered in the air, mixing with the dirt and must of the city. A siren shot through the silence, whining in the distance.
“What happened?”
Silas met her eyes. “No one can prove it, but…well, the father was found beaten, nearly to death, outside a bar in St. Paul. One witness said they saw a Camaro parked on the street, but retracted it later.”
“A Camaro?”
“Black.” Silas’ eyes narrowed. “Stone drives a black Camaro.”
His words dropped through her like a stone. “You don’t think…”
“I absolutely do think. Everyone knows he’s a fighter—works out with his partner all the time at a local boxing ring.”
She just stared at him. “He wouldn’t…” she said softly.
He shrugged. “IA did some investigation, but rumor was Burke confirmed his alibi. Of course.”
She made a non-committal noise. Then, “I might be on his side, just a little.”
Silas raised an eyebrow. “No doubt it strikes a nerve in all of us to think about that little girl…and…” He shook his head. “But he nearly killed the guy, Eve.”
“Supposedly.”
“Really?”
“You don’t know. And he was cleared.”
Silas held up his hands. “All I’m saying is that the guy has a dark side. Don’t get too close, okay?”
Huh. But she nodded.
He let her climb in her car, and stood there watching as she backed out. Waved before heading to his own car.