Page 38 of Run for Her Life
Flashes of a short man of medium build, with a missing tooth, zapped through her mind. “I think so… he always wore Hawaiian shirts, I think. Didn’t leave an impression though.”
“Not to you but his statement didn’t sit right with me. Too structured, too rehearsed. Gave unnecessary details, kept his narrative fluid so nothing ever caught him out. Classic countermeasure. His priors include breaking and entering and workplace harassment, altercation with ex?—”
“So what?” She pressed her fingers against her temples, the information dump making her dizzy. “What does that have to do with me?”
Aiden hesitated, as if carefully choosing his next words. “I pulled his movement patterns. Traffic cam hits, ALPR logs, and cell tower pings. That’s the part I was confirming. I don’t know if it’s a coincidence but he’s been orbiting you. Left Lakemore and moved to Seattle when you did, was in Harborwood when you were, and now he’s in Pineview Falls.”
Zoe’s tongue felt heavy. Was this man stalking her? She already suspected someone was watching her. How else would Viktor Axenov know where to show up and to take the deposit box key from her? Or could this be related to whyshehad been sent the lock of hair and letter?
“I have to talk to Simon,” she exclaimed without thinking. “He said he’d look into the letter.”
Aiden’s jaw clenched but he didn’t say anything. Fat drops of rain began cascading outside, making the asphalt slick and shiny. She winced, rotating her shoulder, still stiff from her beatdown. It was a miracle she had won the fight. She must have completely surrendered to her rage to win a fight so brutally.
“You’re still hurting,” Aiden said blankly.
“And you won’t let it go,” she hissed.
They stared at each other, neither of them backing down, until Zoe tore her gaze away, suddenly in a foul mood. She couldn’t let Aiden wear her down. She had a recurring nightmare that she was back in his office for a session, except this time Aiden was holding sharp knives. And he intended to use them to cut into her brain and feed his academic curiosity.
But could Darren be following her? From Lakemore to Harborwood to Pineview Falls? Aiden suspected he could be involved in the murders, but Zoe wondered about his connection to Viktor.
Viper.
The name echoed in Zoe’s ears, drifted around in her brain aimlessly, looking for some logic or context to latch on to.
Zoe didn’t say anything. He wouldn’t understand. She cleared her throat. “So, the fire was indeed a massacre. It was arson.”
He flattened his mouth in disapproval. “This level of arson takes preparation. This wasn’t a crime of passion. It was premeditated.”
“Why would anyone want to kill six teenagers?” she said. “And they didn’t even entirely know each other.”
“Unless we are missing something? Teenagers can be nasty. Maybe they bullied someone and this was payback?”
“They weren’t the same age, Aiden. The youngest was fourteen. Unlikely they engaged in some coordinated activity that led to this.”
He brooded for a while. “Unless… there was only one target.” A eureka moment. “That’s the only thing that makes sense.”
“What do you mean?”
“There’s no reason to kill six kids—especially when they didn’t really know each other. Then there’s the fact that they made it look like an accidental fire and circuits shorting leading to everything going haywire. Maybe there was only one target and the fire was to make it look like an accident?”
Dread filled Zoe’s senses. “Why would anyone want to kill a kid?”
“I have no idea,” he whispered.
A knock on the door and Lisa poked her head in. “Good time?”
“Yeah, of course. Where are we on Annabelle’s laptop?” Zoe said.
Lisa set the laptop on the desk. “They definitely deleted a lot of data and files before we got our hands on it. Our IT department is very basic. Could you guys retrieve everything that was wiped off?”
“For sure,” Zoe said. “Did you find anything useful?”
Lisa beamed and turned the screen in their direction. “She was in this chatroom talking to someone.”
Zoe and Aiden leaned forward to read the screen.
AnnPlays: So? You finally tried it?
