Page 92 of Zero Chance

“W?”I wrinkled my nose and tapped my pen against the drawing.“Dude, this is an M.AnM!”

I’d found myself drawing the logo Mystery Girl had left on her letter over and over again: during class, in the middle of studying, and apparently now, while waiting for Younger to stop fondling his new, fancy program and just show me the finished results already.

“It’s for Mistress,” I explained.“And Mystery Girl.And—and not W.Why the hell would I draw a W?Nothing starts with W.”

Tilting his head to the side, he continued to squint at my M.“Still looks like a W to me.”

Sending him a get-real glance, I assured, “Well, it’s not.”Except when I looked back at the M, I blinked because now it looked like a fucking W to me too.

Son of a bitch.This was not important.Grabbing the paper, I crumpled the whole sheet into a ball to refocus on what was important here.

“So it’sdone, done?”I asked, tipping my face toward Alec’s laptop.

Vibrating with excitement, he bit his lip.“I think so.”Making a production of spinning his screen to face me, he waved a hand over the image and demanded eagerly, “What do you think?”

I paused, not sure what to think.“She doesn’t have a face.”

Alec rolled his eyes.“Because you don’t remember any facial features.I didn’t want to distract from the body and outfit by faking facial features.Now focus.What about thebodyand clothes?Anything need to change?”

Tilting my head, I studied it a moment longer before saying, “Longer legs, smaller breasts, slimmer frame, shorter skirt.”

“Okay, good.”Nodding, he spun the screen back to himself and started to type.“This is great.Anything else?”

“Longer hair maybe,” I said.“But not by much.With a couple of blond highlights thrown in.”

“Alright.”After a few corrections, he showed me the new results.“How about this?”

I screwed my mouth thoughtfully, still skeeved by the featureless face.“Now the skirt’s too short.And the green of her shirt was darker.MoreWizard of Oz, I’d say.”

Younger made a face.“You mean, emerald?”

“That’s what I said.The legs still need to be longer, too.”

“If I make her legs any longer, they won’t look natural.”

“I don’t care,” I insisted.“They were the first thing I saw, so they need to really stand out.”

He shrugged as if he didn’t agree but would comply.“Okay.”Seconds later, he showed me the revision.

“Yes.”I pointed immediately.“That’s her.Holy shit.That isher.”

He beamed, clearly proud of himself.“Yeah?”

“Yes!”I jostled his arm and hooted.“You’re a genius.That’s exactly how I remember her looking.”

“Remember who?”Hope asked as she swept open the back door and stepped inside, carrying a backpack over one arm.

“We made a composite of Keene’s mystery girl,” Alec answered excitedly as he lifted his laptop to show her.“What do you think?”

Hope looked up and immediately jarred to a halt, her mouth falling open in shock.

At her reaction, I fisted my hands and shook them victoriously.“It’s spot on, isn’t it?”

“Holy shit.”Swinging a panicked glance my way, Hope shook her head in confusion.“But how—how did you know what she was wearing?I thought you didn’t see her.But you even got the color of that top, like, perfect.”

Yes!I knew I’d been right.

“I saw a glimpse of this chick inside by the stairs right before I went out to meet Makayla,” I explained.“And I could mark off everyone else from the list except her.Ergo, by reasons of deduction,this”—I motioned to the animated likeness of her—“has to be my mystery girl.”

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