Page 36 of By the Time You Read This

“Yeah, I didn’t need it for Emily, obvs,” Gabriela said. “It did flag Isabel’s death as suspicious, though. So I’m glad someone is taking it seriously.”

Raisa rocked back on her heels. “Did it really?”

“Yeah, her age and environment, plus the fact that she has probably four billion enemies who want to kill her, did the trick,” Gabriela said. “There’s, like, a point-five percent chance she died of natural causes.”

“Have you talked to anyone except Detective St. Ivany about this?” Raisa asked, and Gabriela went a little shifty eyed.

“I may have floated a theory or two to some close friends who follow the crime reports, too,” Gabriela admitted. “But I didn’t put it on main anywhere.”

“On main,” Kilkenny repeated, and Gabriela rolled her eyes.

“Like in the main Discord channel or on Reddit under our subthread,” Gabriela said, in that very-young-person voice that came out whenever they had to explain new technology to the olds.

“Right,” Kilkenny said. “Of course.”

“Well ... that’s all I’ve got for you guys. So ...,” Gabriela said, gesturing toward the door.

They stood and asked her to call them if she remembered anything important. Raisa also took a photo of the whiteboard, with Gabriela’s permission. Because why not have it?

“Does Peter Stamkos’s death undermine our theory that someone’s out there targeting psychopaths?” Raisa asked when they got back to the SUV.

“Why would it?”

Raisa cut him a look. She knew they saw the worst of the worst in their jobs, but the world wasn’t actually that bad. “You think there were three in such a small radius? Peter, Isabel, and Lindsey.”

“The rate of psychopathy in the US is one percent or so,” Kilkenny said. “Though some studies have estimated it’s as high as four-point-five percent.”

“So in a state of about eight million people,” Raisa mused. “Holy shit. There’s eighty thousand psychopaths in Washington State?”

“In theory.”

“Huh,” Raisa said. “So maybe hewasa psychopath. He did get a visit from CPS.”

“Before killing himself, in theory,” Kilkenny said. “Psychopathy and suicide have an interesting relationship that I won’t get into. But it’s unlikely that a psychopath would kill himself over the shame of a CPS visit.”

“I would have guessed they wouldn’t kill themselves at all,” Raisa mused.

“They do actually have suicidal ideation, but it’s not tied to an emotion like shame,” Kilkenny said. “You see it connected to their tendency for impulsivity.”

“None of this matters if he didn’t kill himselforhe wasn’t a psychopath,” Raisa said. “Or we’re wrong about someone targeting psychopaths.” She paused. “Especially if they’remimickingIsabel, right? Why would they mimic her while taking out her brethren?”

“Her brethren,” Kilkenny repeated, amused. “Maybe it’s meant as the ultimate insult? Not necessarily as an homage to her, but as a middle finger?”

Raisa cracked her neck. “All we have right now is speculation.”

“And Isabel’s message to you.”

“Check the dates of the letters,” Raisa said, some of the tension leaving her body.

Every time in her life, not just her professional career, she had been able to seek solace in language, in the quirks that could only be found in someone’s choice of words.

The answer didn’t lie in these interviews with Essi or Helen or Gabriela, as helpful as they might be.

The answer, as always, lay in the writing.

Chapter Twelve

Delaney

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