Page 54 of The Perfect Poise

Lila Warwick checked the mirror one more time.

Satisfied that her dark hair perfectly framed her face and that her hazel eyes popped nicely, she looked at the time. It was 7:08.

She reminded herself that she was a smart, sophisticated, sexy bitch as she turned on the ring light, adjusted the angle of her phone camera, and prepared to start the livestream. They always began at 7:09 p.m., to match her birthday, July 9th.

It was a little cheesy, but she didn’t care. And it had taken off with her followers. Most nights, she had a couple of hundred thousand viewers, and for big ones like tonight, that number could climb to half a million.

Lila was proud of what she’d accomplished in such a short time. She could have rested on her laurels and lived off the money that came from being an heir to the Bubblicity Sodas fortune. That’s what both her older brother and sister had done. Neither of them had jobs, at least not real ones.

But Lila was different. She’d only been doing this for two years now and she’d already been listed at #26 on the most recent ranking of social media influencers. This year, she was aiming for the top ten.

But that could only happen if she brought it consistently. That’s what her fans expected. And that’s what she would give them tonight. In fact, she’d be coming in hot in four, three, two…

“What is up my darlings!” she squealed delightedly into the camera. “So good to see you all again, especially on what we all know is a big night here at Lila’s Lounge. As I promised last night, there is a big announcement coming that I think you’re all going to be as excited about as I am. Should I share it right now or wait?”

She looked at the stream of comments pouring in on the monitor to her right and smiled.

“Peanutbaby231 says I should spill right now,” she announced. “But NeverEverBunnyBoy is begging me to hold off because his boyfriend won’t be home from work for another twenty minutes. I’m sorry, Bunny. I don’t think I can keep people waiting that long, but maybe we’ll compromise and hold off just a couple of minutes for the late-comers to join.”

She stopped for a second to take a sip of water. As she did, she felt an odd shiver go up her spine. She had no idea where it came from, but she couldn't let her fans notice that anything was off, so she dived right back into it.

“In the meantime, while we wait for stragglers—and shame on you! —I have to tell you that I just tried these amazing new plantain chips,” she said holding up a bag in in one hand and a chip in the other, “I mean, what the heck is a plantain even? Like a mutant banana or something? Whatever they are, these things are awesome. They’re like, sweet, but not too sweet, with like, a little kick of savory, you know? When they were pitched to me, I almost said no, because as you all know—calories count! But then I found out—.”

There was a clicking sound off to the left behind her that threw Lila off slightly, almost making her look over in that direction. She recognized it as the studio booth door unlocking, which was weird because she had the key, and she was the only one here. Instead of getting another shiver, she noticed the hairs on her arms were standing up. Luckily, she was a professional and only stopped talking for the tiniest of seconds.

“Sorry, guys, but my mouth started watering at the thought of a bite of one of these and I had to swallow,” she said, covering nicely. “So I was saying, we hate the empty calories right, which is why—.”

Suddenly there was movement off to the side of the booth. Lila couldn’t help but look over. What she saw made her scream. There was someone inside the booth. They were dressed all in black and had some kind of hood over their face. Then she saw the knife and screamed again.

CHAPTER THIRTY TWO

“Are you sure you’re okay? Because I can drive down there right now.”

Jessie waited anxiously for the answer, hoping that she could read her sister’s tone well enough over speakerphone to determine if she was being honest or just acting tough.

“No, Jessie, it’s okay, I swear,” Hannah told her. “I was kind of freaked out there for a while, I’ll admit. But the guy is in custody now, and I’ve got a friend here with me. Besides, the police say they want to go over my statement again. I just thought you should know what was going on.”

“I can’t tell if you’re just trying to make me feel better or if you’re really all right,” Jessie admitted.

“Listen, if you want to come visit once your case is resolved, I’m happy to have you,” Hannah said. “But I’ll be fine for now. I certainly don’t want you to short-circuit a serial killer investigation just to hold my hand. Maybe bring me some ice cream when your case is over.”

“Okay,” Jessie said, still not entirely convinced that her sister was doing as well as she insisted, but not sensing a full-blown crisis, “but I’m going to be down there as soon as this is done.”

“We both will,” Ryan added.

“Thanks guys,” Hannah replied, “now enough talking to me. Go catch this killer.”

She hung up, leaving them to focus on the task at hand.

“You know,” Jessie said to Ryan as they left the privacy of the small conference room that they’d been in and returned to the Research department, “I meant to mention this earlier and what Hannah said reminded me.”

“What?” he asked.

"She called this a serial killer investigation but when I talked with Haddonfield earlier, he noted something that I'd been thinking about too. This case feels much more like a combination between a serial killer and a spree killer. Yes, we've had multiple victims over more than just one calendar day. But they've all been in the last twenty-four hours, and the frequency of the attacks seems to be escalating. And maybe more crucially, he pointed out that they lack the cold, methodical nature of a lot of serial killers. They're more intimate than that. They feel personal."

“Okay, so where does that leave us?” Ryan asked as they walked into Research, where both Jamil and Beth looked up from their keyboards.

"I think we should focus less on the UHNW element here and more on what set our killer off in the first place," she said, addressing all of them. "Haddonfield was right when he said these people have been rich for a while. That didn't change recently, but something about our killer's connection to them did. Something made them snap. I think we should go back to the first murder again. I have to believe that something about Chloe Baptiste's death is the key here. What if she wronged someone in an irreparable way?"

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