Page 62 of Be Very Quiet

They approached the desk, and the woman glanced up at them over a pair of tortoiseshell half glasses. “Can I help you?”

“We’re residents. Where’s Warren?”

“He called in sick. I rotate to cover. I’ll need you all to sign in, even if you are residents.”

As they scribbled their names on the sheet, Luca asked, “What’s your name?”

“Pricilla Lott.”

“Ms. Lott, do you know why Warren couldn’t come in?”

She shook her head. “No idea. They don’t tell me details, just give me instructions on where to go. I assumed he wasn’t feeling well.”

Liliana had detoured to her post office box to pick up her mail. “Luca.”

He was beside her in an instant. Included among the bills and junk mail was a manilla envelope.

He returned to Pricilla. “Who distributed the mail today?”

“I did. A stack was piled on the desk, so I placed it in the resident boxes.”

“You don’t know who left it?”

She smirked. “I would guess the mailman.”

Luca bit his tongue. It wouldn’t do to get into a verbal argument with the woman. He’d already texted her name to the office to research.

Once inside Liliana’s condo, he used a letter opener to slice through the tape. A diamond ring and what looked like a cigarette holder dropped out. It was embossed with the letters c-a-t.

“Have you heard from Torres yet?” Christian asked.

“No.”

“I’m betting Cat was the name of the latest abductee.”

Luca agreed. The ring looked expensive, and if Rader had kept to a timeline, it would’ve belonged to Hyun Choi, his fifth victim ten years ago. There was no record of it having been missing, but that didn’t mean anything.

Before he could call SSA Reneau and Detective Torres to notify them of the latest package, his cell buzzed. Torres.

“Sorry to call so late . . . or early. I wanted to let you know we’ve located Officer Kelli Gilbert.”

“Is she—”

“Oh, she’s alive and relatively unharmed.”

“Thank God.” He moved the phone from his ear and told the others that she was safe, eliciting a chorus of relief. “What happened?”

“She was abducted by a college kid hoping to become a member of a secret club. He injected her with ketamine and took her to their hideout. Part of his initiation was that he had to have sex with a prostitute in front of the group.”

“Ah, hell, did he succeed?”

“No. She woke up when he was trying to undress her, broke his nose, and knocked him out. The others tried to scatter, but police arrived to round them up.”

“Good. What about the latest victim?”

“She’s been identified as Catherine Wilkins.”

“Goes by Cat,” Luca guessed.

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