Page 65 of By the Time You Read This

“Yeah, I’m trying to get more information about Emily Logan, and how she fit into the FreeBell movement,” Raisa said. “Turns out, she wasn’t involved.”

“Really?” St. Ivany asked, sounding surprised.

“Nope, just true crime in general,” Raisa said, and then she realized she’d never asked St. Ivany a fairly important question. “Hey, who do you think killed Emily?”

“The boyfriend,” St. Ivany said, without hesitation.

“He was out of town.”

“Sort of. Just over in Seattle, and his alibi was that he was sleeping in a hotel room by himself,” St. Ivany said. “And there was no reason for him to go—he just wanted to catch a Mariners game.”

“Ah,” Raisa said, because they’d all seen enough cases like that.

“He also works for the hospital, so he’s used to cleaning up blood,” St. Ivany said. “Which might explain why the crime scene was so clean.”

“But you haven’t brought him in?” Raisa asked.

St. Ivany made a frustrated sound before looking away. “I can’t get him on anything. And the judge doesn’t agree with my assessment of the kid’s alibi.”

“Did they have a fight? What’s the motive?”

“Emily was apparently wildly jealous,” St. Ivany said. “She posted his ex-girlfriend’s nude photos on porn sites. He said he didn’t know about it—which lines up with what several of her friends told us independently of each other.”

“But he might have found out and flipped.” It would explain the overkill. “Well, there’s our obvious explanation if we believe in Occam’s razor.”

“Yeah,” St. Ivany said dryly. “A little more believable than she somehow got caught up in a scheme involving a serial killer’s protégé.”

Raisa shrugged, even though she had just been the one to suggest they shouldn’t be looking for zebras. Her life was full of unbelievable cases. It had started out with her parents being killed and her brother being framed for the murders, and had only gotten wilder from there. She did not struggle with suspending her disbelief.

“Didn’t you bring someone else in?”

“Yeah, it was some guy she was spotted having coffee with a few days before she died,” she said. “He said he was just an old friend passing through town, and we traced his whereabouts that night through a couple different security cameras. There was no way he could have been near Emily’s place when she died.”

St. Ivany paused and then laughed, though it wasn’t with any kind of humor. “That’s the first time you really asked about Emily Logan in a way an impartial detective would.”

Raisa winced. “I’m sorry. You’re right, we did come in with an agenda.”

“Yeah, and I’m trying not to get swept up in it,” St. Ivany said, running her fingers through her hair. “To me the boyfriend is still the most likely guy. And, honestly, it would be a dereliction of duty to proceed otherwise.”

Raisa got it, she did. St. Ivany was likely dealing with one of her first homicide cases. But there was a huge elephant in the room she wasn’t about to ignore.

“Then who do you think put Agent Kilkenny in the ICU?” Raisa asked. “And what exactly is your team doing to find that person?”

St. Ivany’s cheeks went pink, though it could’ve been from any number of emotions. Anger. Embarrassment. Shame. Raisa wasn’t about to presume she’d actually landed a blow.

“We’re pulling red light cameras,” St. Ivany said. “And I’ve got several guys out there looking for the SUV that hit him.”

“That’s going to be a fruitful search. One of the most popular versions of a black SUV,” Raisa drawled. “Look, I don’t know what’s going on here any more than you do, but acting like there isn’t a potential killer gallivanting about town with the balls to run down an FBI agent is dangerous.”

“Thank you, Agent Susanto,” St. Ivany said. “I don’t know what our tiny backwater town would do without all your excellent advice.”

“Right.” Raisa reached for the door handle of her SUV so she wouldn’t say what she wanted to, the movement forcing St. Ivany out of the way. “As fun as this has been ...”

St. Ivany made a frustrated sound. “I’m trying my best, believe it or not, Agent Susanto.”

“Oh, I believe it,” Raisa said, before immediately regretting the barb. St. Ivany’s face completely shut down. She turned and headed back to her cruiser.

Raisa felt Kilkenny’s silent judgment all the way from the hospital, and she wondered when he’d become her Jiminy Cricket. “Hey.”

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