High Risk 10.5

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[Concluding chapter ten]

"And now we're left with two important questions," Casey said. Desiree bit into her cotton candy, then passed the pink cloud to him; she had persuaded Casey to stay on the pier for a trip down the Bamboo Slide, and now they were slowly making their way back to Windward Avenue.

After dissolving the spun sugar on his tongue, Casey continued. "One: what does Michael Buckley have to do with Lily Cross's death? And two: why, if Buckley is involved, did Neal erase his name from the list of people he was going to interview?"

"And three," Desiree said: "Who the hell is Michael Buckley?"

"Good point," Casey said. "Not only do I have no idea who he is, I have no idea of how to go about finding out." He took the cotton candy from her again. "Did you enjoy your evening?"

"We went on the Flying Circus," she said with a grin. "It was loads of fun. Did you know that those airplanes swoop up and down while they're spinning around? I was terrified the first time it happened!"

"How did your friend handle your sudden appearance?"

"Oh, he was fine. I didn't even have to tell him who I was. It was enough that I was female, I suppose. Though I doubt his wife saw it that way. Say, Casey, will you take me up in one of your airplanes? If it's only a little bit more fun than the Flying Circus, it'll be the cat's pajamas."

"They're not my airplanes," Casey said. "But if Hogan says yes, and Straebo says yes—or we can do it without him finding out—then sure, I'll take you up."

"You're a pal," she said, and bulged out both eyes and cheeks at him while stuffing pink fluff into her mouth. "You know," she said when she finished working through the candy, "it figures that if Neal decided to erase Buckley's name from his list, he was doing it because somebody told him to."

"Somebody like McMahon, or Straebo?"

"Exactly. They're the two with the best reasons for calling him off, anyway."

"So presumably one of them will have information that'll tell us who Buckley is and why he's had some monster following us around the last two nights."

"Well…" Desiree drawled the word until it sounded polysyllabic. "Maybe. Though if either of those guys was involved in something nasty it's not likely they'd have incriminating evidence around them, is it? But unless we can just look him up in the phone book, I don't think there's a better way of tracking the mysterious Mr. Buckley."

Next     Prologue    Chapter One    Chapter Two    Chapter Three    Chapter Four    Chapter Five
Chapter Six    Chapter Seven    Chapter Eight    Chapter Nine     Chapter Ten