Page 63 of The Murder Club

“Unless he sold it to someone.”

“Exactly. Gage was obviously in need of money, and the quickest way to get his hands on some cash would be to sell the ring to a local pawnshop.” He sent her a wry smile. “Thankfully, that’s my one area of expertise.”

She took a second to consider the idea of Gage hocking his mother’s belongings.

“I don’t think there’s one around here,” she finally told him. “He’d probably have to go to Madison or Green Bay.”

Dom made a mental note to check out the nearest pawnshop. “There’s also the possibility that he still had the ring and it was stolen after he was dead,” he suggested, refusing to close his mind to any possibility.

“The killer?”

“Something to consider.”

She nodded. “We should check out the pawnshops. Just in case.”

“I agree.” He turned onto the narrow dirt path. “Would you recognize it?”

“Absolutely.”

Dom felt a small flare of hope. If they could locate the ring, the owner of the pawnshop would have a name and address of whoever sold it. They might even have video footage of the transaction, if he could convince them to share it with him. He wasn’t sure what it would prove beyond the fact that Gage was a lowlife who stole from his aging mother, but he wanted concrete proof the stalker wasn’t involved.

The thought of the stalker had Dom bypassing the private drive that would lead to the house and instead continued down the rough road that curled a path through the thick layer of trees that framed the large property.

“Where are we going?” Bailey asked.

“I’m taking the back road.”

“This goes behind the house, but there’s no way to get through the fence,” she warned.

“I want to check something out.”

“What?”

The expensive vehicle rattled over the rapidly deteriorating road. It was no wonder the locals avoided driving back here, and that was exactly how Kaden wanted to keep it.

“The night before the wedding Kaden and I walked down to the lake to talk about the future of Money Makers,” he said. It’d been a bittersweet night for Dom. He’d been pleased as hell for his friend. It was clear that Kaden had found his true love. But Dom knew there was going to be a huge hole in his life where his friend used to be. At the time he’d been fiercely attracted to Bailey, but he hadn’t yet realized she was destined to fill the emptiness in his heart. “It was dark, but there was enough moonlight to catch sight of someone standing next to the back fence.”

“Back here?” Bailey glanced out the window. There was nothing to see but a bunch of pine trees. “Who was it?”

“Kaden, being Kaden, took off chasing them, but by the time he could reach the fence whoever it was had jumped in a vehicle and driven away.”

“You all never said anything.”

Dom shrugged. “Kaden assumed it was one of the paparazzi sniffing around and didn’t want to worry Lia.”

Bailey visibly shuddered. “They were everywhere.” She wasn’t wrong. The small town of Pike had been overrun with journalists as well as the tabloid press. Not only because Kaden was getting married but he’d been at the center of an old, unsolved murder case. It was hard to walk down the streets without being harassed.

Dom slowed to a mere crawl, at last pressing on the brakes when he spotted the gap in dense branches.

“This is the place,” he said, putting the vehicle in Park and unbuckling his belt. He left the engine running, however. He wasn’t going to be caught anywhere without a quick getaway.

Leaving the Land Rover, they squeezed their way through the opening to discover a low wire fence directly in front of them, and beyond that were the rolling pastures that surrounded the large property. To the left they could see the lake and the new office for Lia, and to the right was the main house. Standing on the ridge of a hill, they were perched high enough to easily see over the back fence Lia had demanded be built for the dogs.

“There’s a clear view of the back of the house,” Bailey said in surprise. “And it’s a lot closer than I expected.”

Dom nodded. “With a pair of binoculars it would be easy to see inside the house.”

Bailey wrapped her arms around her waist as if she was suddenly cold. “I stood at the window last night. I would have been visible from here.”