Page 54 of Watch Me
A few steps from the classroom, I saw April leaning against the wall, waiting. April was dressed to go to class with Reagan and make it look less conspicuous, more like a friend or classmate of Reagan’s. She gave a smallwave.
“Hey,” Igreeted.
“Find anything?”
I shrugged slightly. “Will’s doing his thing now. Anything here?”
“No. It’s been quiet.”
“Good.”
April turned to me, leaning a shoulder against the wall. “I’ve been thinking. Do you think this is personal?”
I thought for a moment. “Against Reagan or me?”
“Either.”
The problem with her question was that I hadn’t technicallyknownReagan long enough to know if she’d done anything to piss someone off. I was a good judge of character, and I didn’t think Reagan would have done anything to anyone, but it could beanyonewho had some sort of jealous vendetta against her.
“It has to be someone who knows her,” I replied. “They gave her that fucking plaque with her name on it.”
“Could still be a stranger,” Aprilstated.
“Why do you think that?”
“Think about all the places you say your name out loud: coffee shops, fast food places, there’s a sign-up sheet at a bank if you want to meet with a banker, and even some nail salons make you sign in.”
“So, you think they overheard Reagan’s name or saw her write it and are just fucking with us since I’m on the cases?”
“Could be.” She shrugged slightly. “Someone could know that you’d be the one on the case. This school is in your jurisdiction, is it not?” she asked, waving her arm slightly to indicate the school we were standing in. I nodded, not liking where she was going. “Maybe someone is taunting you because they have something againstyou.”
April’s theory slowly sank in. Was Jessica behind this? Was it her way to get full custody of our kids? I would lose everything if she were successful, killing Reagan and getting custody of myboys.
But Amy’s murder was the night after Reagan and I reconnected, before we were even a couple again. Jessica didn’t know about her at the time. Then again, if she had someone tailing me, trying to come up with some sort of dirt on me, then she would know that Reagan was someone special to me. Even that first night at Judy’s, we’d left together, and she’d spent the night at my place. Was killing Amy some sort of way to pin the connection on me? To prove that my job was dangerous to my family? I wasn’t sure the timeline added up, but it was atheory.
“I hope you’re not right,” I finallysaid.
“Me too, but my aunt used to be a cop in Florida, and she’s paranoid as fuck. Now that I’m on the force, I understand where she’s coming from.”
Except if April was correct, it would be more than a criminal wanting to get back at me for sending them to jail. The boys would lose their mother because she would go toprison.
“You’re going to make a good detective one day,” Istated.
April grinned. “You think so?”
I smiled back. “Yes. You’re thinking outside of the box, and that’s good.”
“Thanks, Sarge.” She was stillgrinning.
Reagan’s class was dismissed. Her gaze met mine, and she smirked when she walked out the door. My heart clenched. Every second for the past three days, I’d been thinking the fucking worst—and now even more so, given my conversation with April. If the killer wasn’t connected to Jess, why would he place the plaque in Amy’s and Daisy’s homebeforekilling them as he had with Reagan? Wouldn’t that be suspicious? I didn’t think that was the case.
Another thought came to me. If he was, in fact, watching Reagan—us—through her webcam, did he know everything I’d done on the case since I’d worked on it a few nights over the last month?Fuck.That might be why the killer was always one step ahead of us. But, did it mean that Reagan was or wasn’t a target? Was it possible he was only fucking with me, and Jess was behind it? But then, how did he get Reagan’s IP address to connect it to me? Was it random and they stumbled upon us? Did they not watch her while I was there?
I had too many fuckingquestions.
“Buttercup.” I kissed her lips softly when she walked up to me. I was trying to act normal—as normal as I could be. “How was class?”
“Good.” All three of us started to head out. “How was whatever you were doing?” I gave her a sideways look. “I know,” she sighed. “You can’t tell me.”
