Page 66 of By the Time You Read This

St. Ivany stopped but only half turned.

“I’m fucking up left and right,” Raisa admitted. “I can’t tell my ass from my head in this case. I’m scared as hell that my best friend is going to die and our last conversation was a fight. And on top of all that, I’m worried that the sister I think should be locked up anyway is actually involved in all of this, because it means not only am I right that everyone in my family is a monster, but also ... I wanted her to be better than that. I wanted her to be good.”

At some point during that word vomit, St. Ivany had fully turned toward her. She’d even stepped closer.

Raisa exhaled and laughed at herself. “So. Yeah. I apologize for the sarcasm.”

“Why do you think your sister is involved?” St. Ivany asked.

“That’s what you got out of all that?” Raisa shot back.

“I mean, we can sing ‘Kumbaya’ and talk about your feelings if you prefer,” St. Ivany said, with a tiny grin that seemed to mean Raisa’s bloodletting had actually worked in repairing whatever had been fracturing here. “But I’m trying to solve a couple homicides and an attempted one along with it.”

Raisa’s lips twitched, before she sobered once more. “Delaney Moore, I mentioned her before.”

“Right, you thought she might need protection,” St. Ivany said. She tilted her head. “You’re a bit of a worrier, aren’t you?”

For my people,Raisa thought but then shook her head. Delaney wasn’t her people.

“Maybe,” she conceded. “But maybe ask Kilkenny if I worried enough.”

“That wasn’t your fault.”

A blur of movement, pavement, blood. A cracked skull that was incompatible with life.

“Wasn’t it?” Raisa asked, but then shook her head. She couldn’t think about Kilkenny right now and she certainly couldn’t thinkabout the fact that he had been in the path of that SUV—that he’d been in Gig Harbor at all—because of her. “Anyway. It’s just a feeling, about Delaney. I’m going to head to the correctional facility to check the visitors’ logs. Kilkenny and I got derailed from doing that by the hit-and-run.”

St. Ivany studied her for a moment. “Do you have an address for Delaney?”

Part of her wished she’d kept her mouth shut about it—but she knew that made her a hypocrite. “No. Just somewhere in Seattle. She’s hard to find.”

“Well, she’s never had to hide fromme,” St. Ivany said, cocky.

“She’s shaking in her boots, I’m sure,” Raisa said, but it felt like banter rather than the insult from earlier. She climbed into the driver’s seat. “I’ll keep you updated.”

“Sure you will,” St. Ivany said. “I’ll do the same.”

Raisa rolled her eyes right before shutting the door. “Sure you will.”

Still, she drove away from the curb thinking that she might have created an ally by letting her guard down. It was quite the concept.

Kilkenny would be proud.

Discussion on R/Isabelparkervictims

Moderator:Hey guys, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how many people are trying to claim Isabel Parker killed their family member. Like, I’m really sorry for them and everything, but you can’t just pin every accident or suicide or whatever on Isabel. I think we have to figure out a way to get an accurate list of her victims so these fame-whores can’t get their fifteen minutes of attention any more.

Bellybeliever:IKnow! It’s actually soooooooo frustrating to have every conversation taken over by these “victims,” it’s like get a grip your dad OD’d because he was a deadbeat drug addict who didn’t love you not because Isabel is some type of comicbook villain who can be all over the country in the blink of an eye

MOD:That’s what gets me!Mostof her victims were on the west coast—like she actuallydidhave a pattern if you followed her even a little bit. Yet people in like Maine are crawling out of the woodwork and going on podcasts, it’s so infuriating ...

Parkthatbus:But what can we even do about it? It’s not like she’s going to just write a list out—she never has before, she won’t even admit to the ones she was charged for.

MOD:I’m going to try to visit her. Maybe if she sees that there are people out there who want to make sure she’s not pinned for every single death in the past twenty-five years, she’ll share her real list. It’s not like she can getmoretime on her sentence.

Bellybeliever:ohhhhhhhhh!!!! So jealous!!! If you get to see her, tell her we love her and are rooting for her

MOD:I absolutely will

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