The Lies That Bind

4: Old Habits

She sniffed. "Anyway. They gave me a name and an address and told me to take care of the problem, and do it quietly, and send over a picture of the body once I'd...finished."

"Let me guess. It didn't stop there."

She cast him an impatient look. "Obviously not. One job turned into another. And another..."

He leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his knees. Softly, he asked, "How many?"

She took her time with the answer. The lie is easier, she'd told him. But he didn't want her lies. So she gave him the truth, as she had from the start. "Five, so far." She paused. "There's still one more to go."

"Five," he repeated slowly. "With one more to go. So that's..."

"Six in total," she finished for him, tucking her legs beneath her as she sat upright.

Six names. The irony was not lost on her.

Tracy. Jacob. Rachel. Jessica. Cory. Venus. Their deaths were on her head—each of them in their own way. And now she would have six more names to add to that tally.

"Six." Cooper closed his eyes. Balled his hands into fists. "Six people..." He faltered, daring a glance at her face. They examined one another in the stretch of silence that followed. Until— "So you really have no idea who's doing this?" he asked, for what had to be the third or fourth time.

"No." Her anger sparked. Hello, old friend. "But..."

"But?"

Calla rolled her eyes. "Well, obviously I've given it some thought, haven't I? This bastard, whoever they are, is actively trying to ruin my life. She hesitated. Just tell him. He already knows too much. "There are no obvious commonalities between the six targets. Five men. One woman. Only two in the group were felons. The others..." She sipped her wine. "Clean records, so far as I can tell. And scattered across the country. New York. California. Florida." She paused. "And Raleigh."

He perked up at that. "Raleigh's awful close to home." This pronouncement appeared to trouble him. His forehead creased, even as his teeth snagged the bottom of his lip. "Whoever's behind this has gotta be someone we know. And they'd probably have a grudge against you."

She tipped her glass in grudging agreement.

"Which leaves..." He frowned. "I mean, not that we should act on this theory, like...at all," he emphasized, most likely for her benefit. "But I guess...the twins know your secret. And Blake's a tech genius. If anyone could hide their digital tracks, it'd be him."

Calla settled back against her pillow. "I thought the same. Blake had access to Steph's computer, and all the evidence that came with it."

"He said he wiped it clean," Cooper argued. And then he sighed. "But there's no way to prove it. All we've got is his word to go on." He groaned in frustration. "I just don't see it. Blake's not the vengeful type. And even if he was, why would he have a grudge against you? You saved his brother's life."

Calla lifted a shoulder in puzzled acknowledgement. These were the same arguments she'd run through countless times before, in the quiet, solitary hours before dawn, her mind abuzz as she lay awake in the dark of her room, seeking some way, any way, to slip free of the noose around her neck.

"Right." Cooper's fingers danced across his knees in a nervous rhythm. "Well, while we're on the topic of grudges. What about the detective? Michaels has clearly got it out for us after what happened to his son. You, in particular," he added for good measure.