Page 8 of Lethal Deceit

Her shoulders droop. “All I’m saying is that she has the right to be concerned. We’reallconcerned. You’re… becoming obsessed with this woman.”

I choke out a laugh. “She strapped a bomb to my chest. Wouldn’t you be looking for her?”

She tilts her head to one side. “I’m just saying… no one faults you for wanting her to be caught, but it’s changing you. I haven’t heard you rejoice that you survived once. Aren’t you thankful?”

I rub my hand across my mouth. Thankful. My sister wants me to be thankful I was humiliated by a leggy blonde.

“Are you going to show me what you found or not?”

Brooke lets out a sigh. “You promise to visit Mom?”

I nod.

Her eyes narrow, but she relents. “I can’t stay long. My flight leaves in two hours, but I was talking to a secretary at the FBI, and he sent me the artist’s impression you worked on with them.”

Every muscle in my body tenses. Even I don’t have a copy of it. Too personally involved. “That’s it?”

Brooke’s lip catches on her teeth, and she taps her finger on the file. “The FBI is trialing new facial recognition software. Strictly hush-hush after the last debacle where two people were wrongly arrested, but they have an eighty percent positive match off two CCTV images.”

“Taken where?”

She clears her throat. “I’m getting to that. What you need to know is that the CCTV images connect her to at least one homicide victim.”

A chill snakes down my spine. “I’ve been saying all along she’s a killer.”

Brooke’s lips purse. “It’s not exactly a smoking gun. She could have just been talking to him. The man has been ID’d as a tourist with no prior convictions.”

“Has been? This is recent?”

She nods, pulls out a grainy photo, and points to the date stamp. “This was taken a month ago.”

As I squint at the photo, realization slams into me like a thunderclap. “That’s the Bayside Market.”

Brooke blows out a breath. “Yep. She was in Miami.”

Miami. Four hours’ drive from where I live and work.

“I need to do something.”

“The PD are working with the FBI and trying to locate her.”

I grab the photo and jab my finger into it. “This was taken a month ago. She could be long gone.”

Brooke nods. “Right. I know. Which is why they are appealing for members of the public to help locate her.”

I scrunch the paper in disgust. “Unless there’s a reward, we have no chance.”

She leans back in her chair. “You’re not thinking. If they offer a reward, they’ll be inundated with false reports.”

In annoyance, I push back from the chair. “She’s probably in South America by now.”

Brooke rises to her feet. “I knew I shouldn’t have told you. They’re making progress, but instead of being pleased, you’re angry.”

“No, I’m not pleased. I’m sitting here on my butt while the woman who tried to kill me is picking off her victims.”

She closes her eyes and mutters something under her breath. “Calm down. You’re going to bust a valve. If you react this way when I bring yougoodnews, I’m not helping anymore.”

I’m so agitated that I’ve started to pace. “There must be people who know her, know her plans.”

---