Chapter 125

"So why did he do it?" I asked Detective Palmer. "Why did he fake his own death and then try to kill Chloe?"

We were doing slow laps around the second floor of the police station since the third floor had broken glass and the first was busy with Chauffeur Ethen getting booked. This floor was quiet and mostly empty, which gave me the chance to unload all 52,000 of my questions.

"Double the money," the detective answered. "If both he and Chloe died, Ethen's family would be paid handsomely."

"Even though he's not really dead?"

"His plan was to change both his identity and his appearance. He already had an appointment with a plastic surgeon for next week. He already had his new identity picked out, Chet Lee Volcano, owner of Eleventh Chocolate."

We turned a corner, and a bit of dirt speckled the tile floor. I brushed my broom against it to push it toward the wall, but my broom somehow sucked it up like a vacuum without a sound. Now, that was handy.