Page 115 of By the Time You Read This

“Not you,” Raisa snapped, keeping her eyes on Delaney. “Did you write Isabel letters?”

“No,” Delaney said, seeming hesitant for the first time since Raisa had entered the cabin.

“Did you write reviews on a hiking trails app?” Raisa asked, knowing she must sound unhinged at the moment.

Delaney confirmed that when she frowned. “No. What are you talking about?”

“Oh my god,” Raisa said, her knees nearly giving out. “She never wanted me to solve who killed her.”

Her eyes slid to the gun she now pointed at her own sister.

“Did you hit Kilkenny?” Raisa asked, jerking the weapon. “Answer me.”

“I was in Seattle,” Delaney said. “I got the alert on my phone.”

Raisa closed her eyes briefly. Delaney could have driven to Gig Harbor and then gone back to the city. But it had never made sense that Delaney would want to harm the one person who believed in her.

“Someone must have used a fake ID to rent a car in your name,” Raisa said. “It was all to push me into being so angry at you I would look for any reason to pull the trigger. Because Isabel doesn’t understand that wouldn’t have been enough to make me do it.”

“Was it Essi?” Gabriela offered.

Raisa tried to remember the still shot of the video, but her brain had told her it was Isabel and then the paperwork had told her it was Delaney and she hadn’t questioned it. So she no longer trusted her judgment there.

“Maybe,” Raisa said, and Delaney made a sound.

“No, don’t you see,” Delaney said, shaking Gabriela. “It’s Gabbi. It’s always been her.”

“No.” Raisa shook her head. “We made you think that. And ... And Isabel. She constructed all this. It’s her chessboard. We’re all playing her game.”

“You think Peter Stamkos and that man who shot himself last night both simply killed themselves?” Delaney asked. “Lindsey was in an accident, and Emily Logan ...?”

“Her boyfriend killed her,” Raisa said, on a humorless laugh. “Of course, it’s always the boyfriend.”

This wasn’t about anyone else. This had been about Raisa and Delaney this whole time.

“That would be nice and all, except Gabbi killed them all,” Delaney said, completely back to being the Delaney Raisa knew so well.

“We were the ones who put Gabriela onto your radar,” Raisa reasoned. “You think she did it because we made you think she might have.”

“No,” Delaney said slowly. “I think she did it because she did it.”

Raisa shook her head. “Look, we’ll get this figured out, okay? Just let Gabriela go, and we’ll all go into the police station—”

“And I’ll be arrested,” Delaney said. “Because you think I’ve been holding an innocent civilian against her will.”

“And threatening her with murder,” Gabriela added. “Not to put too fine a point on it, but that is what you’re doing.”

Raisa shot Gabriela a look, and she shrugged as much as she could, unabashed.

“If you had evidence she’d killed Emily, why wouldn’t you just go to the police with it?” Raisa asked. Her gun was now pointed at the floor, an unconscious acknowledgment of trust.

“Because you know she’s too good for that,” Delaney said. “Isabel was teaching her how to clean up her footprints. You ever wonder how that crime scene was so clean? It’s because she had one of the longest professional serial killers instructing her what to do.”

“But she never visited Isabel,” Raisa said, thinking about the visitor logs. Isabel had three visitors besides Raisa herself. The documentarian, Delaney, and Roan Carmichael.

Gabriela went rigid in Delaney’s arms.

“What? Yes, she did,” Delaney said.

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