Seven
Bryce wouldn’t talk to Thea about the photographs. Whenever Thea brought up the shed, she either changed the subject or snapped through barbed words that always made Thea recoil. In fact, they’d barely spoken at all since that day at Lake Nokona, and they could hardly report the shed to the police if Officer Shawwasthe killer, so when Bryce turned up at the bookstore early Sunday morning, before nine a.m. had even rolled around, relief fizzled through Thea.
It was quickly followed by dread, and then, after that, sheer panic. Because Bryce’s eyes were red-rimmed, her face wan and fear-stricken. And theGazettewas crumpled in her hands.
“No.” It came out as no more than a whisper. Because it couldn’t be happening again. Because Bryce’s face had been pinned next to Hannah’s in that shed, and if they’d found Hannah it meant… “No, Bryce.”
Bryce only gave a weak nod and laid the newspaper out.
‘Woman’s Body Found In Lake Tunwall Days After Disappearance.’
Lake Tunwall.
Thea had taken them to the wrong lake.
“Read the next page,” Bryce said.
Thea did, wetting her fingers to turn over the paper. Her heart turned to lead in her chest.
‘Suspect Taken In For Questioning, Curfew To Be Lifted’ The photograph of the suspect, a twenty-something man with a buzzcut, struck her cold. It was the guy she and Mikey had met in the Bloody Mary.
“But that’s Hannah’sfriend,”Thea frowned. “That’s Jace. He…” She trailed off when the memory of his praise echoed in her mind. “He was a fan of the podcast. He even knew who I was.”
It made sense now. If Jace loved the podcast as much as he’d claimed, of course that’s where he’d get the ideas from. Maybe they’d been wrong to think the killer was Officer Shaw. Maybe Jace had been behind this all along. Telling Thea and Mikey that he was a listener might even have been a taunt.
The caption didn’t just label him as Hannah’s friend, but her boyfriend. She wondered if Mikey knew. If he knew any of it.
“But if it was him,” she wondered aloud, “why Isaac? Why the photographs of Sara and Roger? Why… whyyou?”
Bryce shook her head, dumbfounded. Her fingers trembled where they rested on the counter. “None of it makes sense. I’ve never even seen this guy before.”
It didn’t sit right. When Thea looked at Jace, she didn’t see a killer. She didn’t see anything at all. She drummed an uneven beat with her knuckles, mind racing with too many different thoughts, arguments, reasons why this wasn’t right. “With every murder we’ve ever researched, who’s the first to be blamed?”
“The partner. The jealous boyfriend, the abusive husband, the money-grabbing wife.” Bryce didn’t miss a beat. Clearly, she’d already thought about it too. It was strange, how they could be so in sync sometimes, so out of it others. Strange, and terrifying. Thea worried that one day they’d never find that unison again. That one day, they’d fall out of tune and it would stay that way.
“And yet it rarely ends up being them. They pinned it on him because it’s easy. Because the more people die, the more incompetent the cops look and the less the town trusts them. And if the killerisa cop…”
“You still think it was Shaw?”
Before Bryce could reply, the door clattered open. Mikey stood on the threshold, his expression blank and his face drawn. He held a newspaper, too, already wilting between his fingers.
Sympathy welled in Thea, and she rounded the counter to pull him into a hug. “I’m sorry, Mikey.”
“They think it was that guy,” he whispered into her hair, gripping the back of her shirt. “Jace.”
“I know.”
“I didn’t even know they were together. She never mentioned it.”
“Maybe they weren’t. Maybe none of this is true.”
“She was found wearing white.” Bryce’s voice was hoarse. Thea pulled away to gauge her expression and found only the telltale set of her jaw as evidence of her distress. Even now, she was trying so hard to hold herself together. Thea would never have that kind of strength. “I wanted to believe it was all a coincidence, but it’s not. They’re imitating the deaths we talk about onPerfect Crimes.
“Mikey,” Thea asked, “is there a way to view our podcast subscribers in the area?”
“Maybe. Why?”
“I just… I don’t know. It doesn’t feel like it’s him. I don’t know. None of it makes sense.”