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“They were all picked up—all five of them—and questioned. But they closed ranks. And of course their daddies paid for the very best lawyers money can buy. In the end the police had to let them go. Couldn’t prove a thing.”

“And the car had disappeared.”

“Yeah, they never did find the car that hit my kids. It’s probably at the bottom of a lake somewhere, or shipped off to God knows where.”

“Do you think you’ll be able to do anything, Mrs. Kingsley?” asked Rick.

“I don’t know, Rick. But at the very least I’m going to talk to those men again.”

“Good luck,” Dominic scoffed. “We tried talking to them over the years, and you know what their answer was?”

“A restraining order, your wife told me.”

Dominic nodded.“They were rotten kids, who have turned into rotten adults.”

“Do you think they’ll still cover for each other?”

“Of course they will. That kind of person doesn’t change.”

“Your wife seems to think they fell out. So at least one of them might talk.”

“My wife is desperate, Mrs. Kingsley,” said Dominic, squarely facing Odelia. “It’s thirteen years she’s been confined to that house. It’s been hell on her—and us.”

We’d almost reached the car when Dominic caught up with us. He glanced back, but Rick had disappeared inside the cabin they used as their GHQ. “There’s something else you need to know,” Kristina’s husband said quietly.

“What is it?” asked Odelia.

“It’s my wife. She was recently diagnosed with cancer. The doctors have given her three months—at best.”

“Oh, God.”

Dominic glowered at the forest floor.“She’s hoping that before she dies, she’ll know that the animal who killed our little girl is finally made to pay for what he did.” He looked up. “Please don’t tell Rick. We haven’t told him yet. We’re hoping for some miracle. And in case she recovers, we don’t want to burden Ricky if it isn’t absolutely necessary.”

“Of course. I’m so sorry, Dominic.”

He nodded.“Please do your best, Mrs. Kingsley.”

“I will,” Odelia said, much impressed. “You have my word.”

Chapter 4

Jona Morro was grinning to himself as he studied a YouTube video on his phone. It was a demo from the newHigh-Speed Chaser game and looked really sick. It was only out next month, but Jona had a buddy who worked for the company that produced the game, and he’d been able to lay his hands on a copy three weeks before the official premiere. A real coup, and he was looking forward to spending all weekend playing on his computer.

He was behind his desk at Morro& Wissinski, the insurance company he and his buddy Omar had started years ago. And he was so engrossed in the preview that he didn’t even hear it when someone walked up behind him and suddenly gave him such a knock on the head that immediately he conked out, his phone dropping to the floor.

When he finally woke up again, he was suffering from a terrible headache. But that was not the worst part. He was strapped to his desk, and found himself looking up at the huge car he’d once had hauled up to the ceiling and which now hung there, suspended.

It was the first car he’d ever owned. A red Ferrari. Every single customer who walked into his office was impressed at the sight of that phenomenal car hanging over the desk. And all of them asked the same question: ‘Oh, Mr. Morro! Isn’t that dangerous?’ And every single time he answered them the same thing, ‘Not as dangerous as driving it was!’

In actual fact there wasn’t any danger in having a car hanging over your head at all, at least if you trusted the people who’d rigged it up there with powerful steel cables.

Only as he slowly regained consciousness, he suddenly realized that those powerful steel cables were making strange noises. The same kind of noises a suspension bridge makes. That loud twanging couldn’t be good! Nor could that terrible banging sound!

He now saw that the bolts that fastened the cables to the wall had been loosened, and the car was now suspended above him with only a single bolt! And as he glanced over, he suddenly became aware of the terrible danger he was in.

“Hey, are you crazy? Stop that!” he cried as he watched a sledgehammer pound the final remaining bolt that kept the Ferrari from crushing him. “Stop that right now!”

Suddenly, the bolt gave way and was torn from the wall. There was one final twang, then the car came crashing down.

Chapter 5

The first people Odelia decided to talk to were Jona Morro and Omar Wissinski. They had both filed a restraining order against Kristina’s family, so she reasoned they were the ones with the most to hide—and the most likely suspects in that fatal hit and run.

But when we arrived there the place was in turmoil for some reason, with police everywhere.