Page 28 of By the Time You Read This

“Okay, right. They hate psychopaths, which is clearly a rarity. They start hunting them down, and Isabel saw it coming,” Kilkenny said, his lips still twitching. “That’s why she sent us to Lindsey Cousins’s house. No one would have figured out that connection otherwise.”

“Or,” Raisa said, “she’s messing with us.”

“Lindsey and Emily died and she wants to insert herself in the middle of it all?” Kilkenny asked. “How does that fit with her essentially tasking you to find her killer?”

“I don’t know. I just like to always assume she’s messing with me and go from there,” Raisa said, cracking her neck. Isabel liked to pretend she had more sway over things than she actually did. Maybe she really had noticed a pattern in deaths, and figured she might be next. Or someone warned her. Or she just wanted Raisa caught up in the hunt for a psychopath-killer. Not to be confused with a psychopath who was also a killer.

She loved language sometimes.

Always, really.

“So, we don’t really know what we’re doing,” Kilkenny summed up. “And the locals have no interest in helping us.”

“Bingo,” Raisa said. “The most likely scenario here seems like Lindsey’s death was an accident; Emily Logan’s boyfriend colluded with someone to murder her, or somehow faked his alibi; and Isabel was killed by someone seeking justice for a loved one.”

“That would all make sense,” Kilkenny said, neutrally.

“Which, of course, the way our lives go, means they’re all actually connected,” Raisa said, with a sigh. Kilkenny grimaced, but she could tell he agreed. “Okay, I think the best we can do right now is follow where Isabel’s clues take us, while also remembering that we’re not trying to figure out who killed Lindsey or Emily.”

“So where are Isabel’s clues taking us right now?”

“Well, she kept those letters for me to find,” Raisa said. “The ones from her ‘Biggest Fan.’ I’m sure she received plenty of other mail and she didn’t bother to save any of it. Just those letters.”

Kilkenny nodded. “So we go talk to her fans.”

Raisa made a considering sound, and followed him to his feet. “You know, while we’re there, we also might want to talk to the people who hate her, too.”

They got two names from the crowd of people gathered at the prison’s gates.

A group of tearful mourners told them to talk to Gabriela Cruz. The three young women all had a pink streak dyed into their hair and wore outfits similar to the style Isabel had been adopting when she was caught.

On the other side, they were told to talk to Essi Halla, the woman Kilkenny had been telling Raisa about earlier. The ringleader of the anti-Isabel movement.

“Oh, you just missed her,” a middle-aged woman named Mildred Evans told them, taking a rather large swig out of the champagne glass she held. “Drove up from California the moment she heard the news this morning. She rented a boat to stay on in the harbor, but she wanted to swing by here first to check on all of us.”

Mildred swiped at her lips. “She’s such a strong woman and a real inspiration to all of us. In fact, she got me through the past year. If not for her, I’m not sure I’d still be here.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Raisa said. “Did you ... did you know someone who was killed by Isabel?”

“Oh, no. No. My dog, he died,” Mildred said, and Raisa tried to nod sympathetically, but some of the confusion must have shown on her face. “It’s a common misconception that all Essi does is talk about Isabel. She offers so much more than that. She really held my hand throughout the whole grieving process.”

Raisa hummed, going for neutral, which she thought was the best she’d be able to give this woman. “Did Essi say what boat she’s staying on?”

“Oh, yes,” Mildred said, looking thrilled. “It’s calledBig Deck Energy.”

Raisa couldn’t help but laugh. Behind her, Kilkenny snorted, and even Mildred giggled through her tears.

Big Deck Energyproved easy to find.

A woman stood at the rail, taking a phone call.

“Is that her?” Raisa murmured and Kilkenny nodded.

Kilkenny had been right—she was very pretty. She had an athletic build with white-gold hair and the glow-y skin of someone who’d probably never burned a day in their life. Her plum-colored pantsuit was tailored to perfection to show off stilettos that must have cost just shy of a thousand dollars.

When she turned and caught sight of Raisa and Kilkenny, she glanced at the watch on her wrist and then waved them aboard.

Kilkenny hopped on the boat with an easy grace that Raisa admired but would never be able to emulate.

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