Page 21 of Nine Lives

“Why nine people on the list, and why not ten? Isn’t ten standard practice for these sorts of things? What’s wrong?”

She noticed that Aaron was not so much listening to her as he was waiting to say something to her. She spun her chair the rest of the way around so that he was standing directly in front of her, both hands in his pants pockets.

“There’s been another death.”

“Who? Where?”

“Matthew Beaumont in Dartford, Massachusetts. He was shot while on his morning run.”

“It’s the same Matthew Beaumont—”

“Who got the letter? Yes. He works... worked in Boston. That was where his letter was collected from, yesterday.”

“Jesus,” Jessica said.

“You said it.”

“How was he killed? You said shot? At what time?”

“I don’t know what time he was shot, exactly, but I know that the body was discovered about ten in the morning. A local officer was able to identify him even though he wasn’t carrying any identification, and since we’d flagged the name...”

“So whoever is doing this is a few hours from that location.”

“Which could be almost anywhere,” Aaron said.

“I know. It’s just... that’s two in two days.”

“I think there was a part of me that still wondered whether there was just some massive cosmic coincidence at work. Nine random people wind up on a list, and one of those people is murdered. And then nothing more would happen. No more deaths, and we’d forget all about it.”

“It’s the second plane,” Jessica said.

“What do you mean?”

“On 9/11, I remember watching the news after the first plane hit, and the world just thought it was a terrible accident. Then the second plane hit, and everything changed.”

“Right, I remember that. This is the second plane, and now we need to get protection for everyone on that list. You included.”

Jessica nodded. “I wish we could find everyone. I’ve been trying all morning. Do you know how many Alison Hornes there are in this country?”

“How do you know the Alison Horne you are looking for is even in this country?”

“I don’t, obviously. But we need to find her. And we need to go to Dartford, Massachusetts.”

Aaron took a hand out of his pocket and put it on the partition that separated the cubicles. “I’m assuming by ‘we’ you mean someone in the FBI. You know you can’t be on this case.”

Jessica knew that, and even though she was shaking her head, said, “I can at least keep looking for the people we haven’t found, right?”

“Don’t look at me. This is up to Ruth. That’s really why I’m here. She’s briefing us all in ten.”

“Right,” Jessica said. “Shit, she’s going to put me on leave, isn’t she?”

“She should. Send you on a secret vacation until we catch whoever’s doing this. That’s what you’d do if you were her, right?”

“I guess so,” Jessica said, standing up, getting her phone from her desk. “Where was he shot?”

“Matthew Beaumont? In the back, apparently. He didn’t see it coming.”

“I just spoke with him yesterday. Jesus. I guess this is real.”

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