The Unspoken

was where your thinking earned you high marks. You knew that Chopper’s uncle runs the opposing Gangster Apostles, so make it look like a gang conflict. But it was also bad thinking, because the two gangs are respecting a peace right now, and a hit like this would never be approved. You wouldn’t know about that, either, because rich girls like you don’t really know the day-to-day of gang business. It’s dark and you’re panicking, and you don’t want anyone to see you. So, you draw the crown as quickly as possible, but you forget a minor detail that is actually a major detail, the most important part of the tag. The numbers two and nine. You either didn’t know about them or were in too much of a rush to draw them at the base corners of the crown. You jump back in the car and, for whatever reason—maybe the way his body had fallen and you couldn’t stomach rolling over it, or maybe there was something else you saw down the street that you didn’t like. Whatever the reason, you decide to back up out of South Wallace. So, you reverse onto Seventieth Street and head east to the expressway. All in seven minutes and fifteen seconds.”

Hunter stood up to leave. “I’ve entertained you long enough,” she said. “Everything you’re saying is a total lie and circumstantial at best.”

I pulled the still photograph of the rental car out of my jacket and placed it on the table. “You were smart about the rental car. The airport location is open twenty-four hours. You could bring it back anytime you wanted.”

She looked down at the photograph. This time the tell was in the way her shoulders stiffened. “That means absolutely nothing,” she said.

“So, was it your stepfather driving the rental car in Englewood that night? But that wouldn’t make sense according to you. You just said he doesn’t even know Chopper. Why would Chopper be in the car with someone he didn’t know, unless you were in the car with them?”

She sat back down and closed her eyes. I gave her time. She looked down at the picture again. The noisy children vacated the table next to us and rambled out the door. I always wondered what went through the mind of a guilty person when struggling to decide whether to continue the charade of innocence or admit their guilt.

“Tins just wouldn’t listen to me. She couldn’t see beyond him. She was so stubborn. She liked to come across as the perfect little angel, but she had her faults too. She could be really selfish. Dating him against everyone’s warnings, threatening everyone about the real estate deal—that was all because she wanted to prove a point. She made things more difficult than they had to be.”

“Where is Tinsley?” I said.

“I don’t know.”

“Was it you who called Chopper?”

“I tried to protect her. I tried to help her. Chopper was not right for her.”

She didn’t answer my question, but she didn’t have to. I knew she’d made the call.

“Isn’t it up to Tinsley to decide who she wants to be with?”

“You don’t understand. We’ve known each other our entire lives. We’re best friends. I understood her better than anyone. I loved her with everything I had. I didn’t want her to be hurt. Chopper was pulling her away from all of us. You can’t relate to what it feels like losing someone who you love so much.”

“I understand very well what that feels like,” I said. “The woman I was supposed to marry left me on my thirtieth birthday, flew to Paris to be with someone else, and sent the engagement ring I had given her back in the mail. I was beyond crushed. I felt like I couldn’t get the air to move through my throat. I was suffocating. But as much as I wanted to, I didn’t fly over there and shoot her lover. Leaving me for someone else was her decision, and while it was the last one I ever expected her to make, I had to live with it. Sometimes there’s a justification for murder. Trying to avoid a broken heart isn’t one of them.”

Hunter Morgan lowered her head, her chest heaving violently, her sobs muffled by the din of activity around us. Everyone was either too busy or too indifferent to pay us any attention. For a fleeting moment I felt sad for her. Heartbreak is the most uniquely agonizing emotion a person can ever experience. But as I got up from the table and looked down at her, I couldn’t stop thinking about Chopper McNair and how suddenly and unexpectedly his life had ended, his young body dumped like rotting trash in a dark, forgotten alley. Did he even have a chance to beg for his life?

I walked out of the bakery and locked eyes with Burke as a swarm of his men rushed through the door behind me. I shook my head. They were going to arrest her and question her a lot more forcefully than I had. But I was now certain that while she might have lured Chopper to his death that night, she wasn’t the one who pulled the trigger. I wasn’t sure it had been her stepfather, either, but I needed to get to him before he was aware Hunter was in custody.

I PULLED INTO THE Morgan driveway and parked behind Cecily’s BMW. A silver Maserati was parked in front of Cecily’s car. The license plate read RVM. I walked up the front steps and rang the bell. Gertie opened the door. She looked at me solemnly.

“Is Mr. Merriweather home?” I asked.

“Come in,” she said, nodding.

As I walked into the marbled foyer, a tall, elegantly dressed man in a plaid blazer and tailored black trousers descended the winding staircase. He looked like he belonged watching a polo match at a country estate. He smiled once he reached me.

“How can I help you?” Robert Merriweather said.

“Ashe Cayne,” I said, extending