Free Silent Scream by Maria Rachel Hooley, Stephen Moeller Page A

know.  How is Maddie doing?”
    David peered at the ring from a different angle.  “She’s pretty rattled, but she’s holding up well considering the perp threatened to kill her if she ratted.” 
    Gabriel cinched his fingers into fists as tension corded his neck and shoulder muscles.  “Do you think he’s serious or just trying to keep her quiet?”
    David picked up the small bag.  “Who knows?”  After he closed the zip-lock on it, he ran his finger across the crest as though familiar with it.
    Gabriel’s heart rate sped up, and he shoved his hands deep into his pockets just to find something to occupy them.  “What does your gut tell you?”
    “That he’s trying to keep her quiet.”  He slipped the bag into his pocket.  “If he’d really wanted to kill her, he could have done that from the start.  She was too badly hurt to put up a fight.”
    An image of Maddie with her bruised face and broken arm filled Gabriel’s head.  “Yeah, you’re probably right.”
    “Still, better to be safe than sorry.  We’ve beefed up the patrols in the neighborhood where she’s staying.”  David glanced at the ground.  “Can you show me where you found this?”
    Gabriel nodded and started walking to the patch of ground where he’d found it.  Donner whined and scratched at the window.  Gabriel shook a chiding finger at him.  “I think you’ve been more than enough help in this case.”  He headed to the fence, just a few feet from where Maddie had lain and pointed to the grass.  “Damned dog led me to it.”
    “Just like he led you to her, eh?”  David knelt down and brushed his fingers across the dead grass, peering closely to see if his fingers would dredge up anything else.
    “I’ll probably be out here a while.  There’s no need for you to wait on me unless there’s anything else you need to tell me.”
    “Nothing I can think of,” Gabriel replied.
    “Did you find anything else?” David asked.
    Gabriel shook his head.  “No, that was it.  It should help with the investigation, shouldn’t it?”
    “First of all,” David said, “We have to make sure this is related to the case.  It could be a coincidence.”
    Frowning, Gabriel nodded, “Yeah, it could, but I don’t think so.”
    “I guess we’ll just have to see how things turn out.”  He headed back toward his vehicle.  “I’ll contact you if I need anything else.  You know where to reach me in case you remember something.”
    “Of course,” Gabriel replied.  He walked back to his truck, watching as the cop strode away.
    * * *
    Back at the station, Gabriel sat in front of his computer and looked at the pictures he’d taken.  The laptop screen tended to enhance the smallest details.  Donner lay sleeping at his feet.
    “What’s that?” Ramsey asked, staring at the screen as he entered.  He pulled out a chair and sat next to Gabriel.
    “Evidence, I think.”
    “Evidence?”
    Gabriel ran his fingers through his hair and leaned back while propping his feet on the chair across from him.  Something troubled him about the way Ramsey stared at it. “Does it look familiar?”
    Shrugging, Ramsey touched the crest.  “No, it doesn’t.  But,” he added.  “It does appear to be a formal piece of jewelry, doesn’t it?”
    “I thought as much.”  He pushed the keys on the laptop to enlarge the picture.  “So did David, I think.  Perhaps he even recognized the meaning of this crest.”
    “What makes you think that?”
    Gabriel rubbed his chin and thought about the shift of emotions in David’s eyes as he gave the ring to the cop.  “The surprised expression on his face when he saw the ring.  It was like he knew something he wasn’t about to share.”
    “Maybe it had nothing to do with the ring.  Maybe it had to do with the case.”
    “No, I don’t think so,” Gabriel said and shook his head.  “He was reluctant even to tie the ring to this case, even though I found it very close to where Maddie