Page 13 of Run for Her Life
Zoe exchanged a helpless look with Aiden, who seemed more at ease than her. She wandered around the house while Lisa pressed Trevor for more details. The fridge had a series of photographs stuck to it—Annabelle and Trevor at different wonders of the world from Petra to the Colosseum.
There were only six photographs. They never visited the last one—the Taj Mahal.
She walked through the rest of the house, seemingly looking for the baby’s burp cloth but actually focused on finding a clueand a connection. What was it about this victim that the killer sent Zoe a riddle? It didn’t make any sense. Her mind stretched in all directions as she trailed the hallways with yellow walls, reaching a doorway with markings on it. A child growing up.
The master bedroom was a mess, like it had been turned upside down. Zoe didn’t know where to start as she waded through the crumpled bedsheets on the floor. Her eyes fixed on a wall with pictures of all kinds of birds.
“She was into birds.” A voice said. “She learned it from my grandpa.”
Zoe reeled back at the young boy standing next to her. She wouldn’t have expected a calm voice to come out of such a small boy. He was the mirror image of Annabelle. His brown hair was silky. A slightly crooked nose with a bulbous tip and too thin lips crowning a long chin. There was a sharp awareness in his teary eyes—a rarity, and another inheritance from his mother.
“One time Mom told me she saw the marbled murrelet but she was too late to take the camera out. It was our thing. Watching birds.”
“I’m Zoe.”
“Kevin.”
“How old are you, Kevin?”
“Twelve.” His mouth twisted. “My dad says she’s lost. Did you find her?”
Zoe didn’t know what to say. She could see the boy was holding back tears—his lips quivered and his eyes fluttered. Zoe wanted to say something reassuring him but she was silent for too long. His face turned red and he scampered away.
As they left the house, Zoe felt like a rock was sitting on her chest. A small family now decimated. She couldn’t get Kevin’s haunted eyes out of her mind. “Aiden, what do you think?”
He adjusted his thick glasses. “Well, I was thinking about why Annabelle. It’s a small town. Everyone knows each other. They’re lifers. Rooted. Small-town cycles, same faces, same routines. but she wasn’t part of that. She was more ambitious and educated than the average resident here, I would say.”
“Someone was jealous?”
“The current portfolio points to a stranger. Someone who exists on the fringes of society decides to exert some control and even get attention by targeting a high-achieving woman. But with just one data point, I won’t draw any conclusions.” He shrugged, his eyes boring into hers. “All I know for certain is that a killer who sends riddles to the FBI doesn’t just stop at one body.”
EIGHT
Pineview Falls reminded Zoe of an abandoned theme park. One where rust ate through the beams of roller coasters, a skeletal Ferris wheel sat frozen with the cars creaking in the occasional wind, and the carousal had cracked horses with missing glass eyes. The air was heavy and the silence was deafening except for the occasional screeching of metal and creaking of rides.
Zoe could imagine stories being spun about this town. Legends and myths about how it was haunted. She could see herself spreading those lies.
The lashing wind slammed a stray newspaper right on the windshield, blocking Aiden’s view, causing him to hit the brakes.
“Ouch!” Zoe moaned, her head banging back against the headrest.
“Sorry.” He turned on the wiper to clear the view of the spiraling road ahead, weaving through the forested patches of land on either side. The green tips of the trees tickled the strip of gray, cloudless sky. Zoe could feel the strength of the wind as it pushed against the car. It felt like it was gathering for a tornado.
“Is it always like this here?” Zoe said, without meaning to ask out loud.
“Shouldn’t you be used to the wind, being from Chicago?”
She sniffed. “The wind here feels… stale.”
“Did Simon send that lock of hair for testing?” Aiden’s voice carried an edge when he said Simon’s name. She wondered if they had history.
“Yeah, the lab will coordinate with the county lab to match the DNA. It’s sad…” She looked at the crime scene pictures in her lap. “Her youngest son won’t remember her at all.”
Aiden swallowed hard and Zoe felt the weight of her words settle on them. She cleared her throat and sipped on the strawberry milkshake she had picked up for the ride. She checked her phone. In his last text, Benny refused to accommodate her. She stifled a rough breath and squirmed in her seat. She could feel a solid heat building up within. The rage that she kept buried deep inside her chest was threatening to claw out.
“Promise me. You will move on with your life if anything happens to me. You will forget about me. Promise me, Zoe.”
“I promise.”
