“You know, I’ve been thinking about you a lot.” Jerry spoke as if he’d intended the conversation to happen one sided, as though he didn’t care if she said a word back. “I really thought you would have returned already. Though, if you don’t know what’s going on, that makes more sense. Still, I spent time looking at your past as well. Your parents are rich and well known. That was the last thing I expected. Given your whole free-spirited thing, I thought you’d come from a line of hippies or some other absurdity. Imagine my surprise to find out you come from well-bred stock.”
“Leave my family out of this.”
“I can’t. I’ll use whatever I need to get what I want. However, I wasn’t threatening them. Given how little contact you’ve had with them, I doubt they’d make good leverage anyway. I’m just curious how you could have come from them? Maybe they were disappointed in you and that’s what drove you to be the wild one of the family?”
Kat hated that he was right… She didn’t like him seeing through her, being able to dissect her so easily.
It made her feel like a cliche. Instead of the free spirit she’d always wanted to call herself, it turned her into every girl rebelling against overly strict parents.
“Leave me alone,” Kat whispered. “Whatever you’re hoping for isn’t going to happen.”
Jerry’s voice came through the line as she went to hit the End button. “Just check the news.”
She clutched her phone in her hand after she hung up on him, his words swirling around in her head. She wanted to ignore him, to believe he was lying, that there was nothing to find. He wanted to manipulate her and playing his game would be foolish.
Still…this nagging sensation inside her wouldn’t quiet down. Jerry didn’t strike her as a liar, and he was too instant.
With trembling hands, she opened the browser on her phone and went to the local news page. At first, she saw a lot of nothing, a lot of drama she usually tried to ignore. Illegal grow raids, discussion of short-term rentals, road work warnings.
Then an image farther down caught her attention, that of a sheet covering a person.Eighth Body Found.
Kat gulped as she clicked on the headline, that fear inside her growing as she took in the details. The blonde hair, the pale skin, the age and body type…
This was what he wanted her to find, right? This was him admitting that he was doing this because of her, that these girls were gone, had suffered, all because of Kat.
Anger took over the fear inside her—or perhaps she just clung to the anger because it felt like she could do something about that. She couldn’t call Jerry back—each call had come from a restricted number—couldn’t do a damn thing about him, but she knew exactly where to land the rest of her impotent fury.
Right on Olin, who it seemed had purposely kept this information from her.