Page 9 of By the Time You Read This

“I’m surprised she didn’t have them running more errands before this,” Kilkenny said.

“I guess she was saving them for the grand finale.”

Kilkenny made a sound of amusement. “So, what are you thinking?”

Raisa sighed and said what she’d been thinking since she’d opened the envelope. “She wants me to find her killer.”

“Classic Isabel,” Kilkenny murmured and Raisa huffed.

“I’m just surprised she didn’t add any moreincentives,” Raisa said. She wouldn’t have put it past her sister to frame Raisa just to make sure she actually tried to solve the murder. “I guess we should add the caveat: if there is a killer.”

“I’m inclined to agree with you,” Kilkenny said. “But it would have had to be something that looked like natural causes.”

“Right.” Isabel had been young and relatively healthy as far as Raisa knew. There were only a few ways to kill someone like that and not raise suspicions. “Didn’t the Bureau just send out a memo about an increase in insulin-related homicides?”

Kilkenny nodded. He was as much a teacher’s pet as she was, and read all those updates, no matter how tedious. “Hard to trace and yet one of the easier substances to get in prison. Someone could have paid off a guard to do the actual injecting—it wouldn’t take much or very long.”

“And if the person who wanted the killing done had paid in cash, there won’t even be a trace,” Raisa said. “But we should tell the facility to look for close, possibly incidental, contact in the hours before roll call.”

The coffeepot beeped, interrupting them, and Raisa poured two hefty doses in her overlarge mismatched mugs. Once she handed Kilkenny his, she waved him into the living room, where she showed him the letter.

He studied it carefully for several quiet moments. “The address?”

“Residential, from what I can tell from a quick search,” Raisa said.

He nodded and then lifted his eyes to hers. She saw the question there, but she made him ask it.

“Have you tried Delaney?” His tone was neutral, but she knew if she said no, he would gently chastise her. The topic of Delaney was the main source of conflict in their friendship.

Kilkenny saw Delaney as a victim of Isabel’s manipulative personality. And he’d worked with her for years before realizing she was Raisa’s biological sister, so he had a past with her that, strangely, was deeper than Raisa’s.

He also liked to remind Raisa that Delaney had helped on the investigation into Shay’s death, and, in his eyes, that had earned her a fair amount of grace.

“No answer.” When he made a considering sound, she asked, “What?”

“You’re not concerned?”

“That she hasn’t responded in the past half hour? No,” Raisa said slowly. “She might not even have my number saved.”

“She does,” he said, sounding more sure than he should be able to. “You might not like that she’s your sister, but she definitely sees herself that way and would act accordingly.”

“Well ...” Raisa trailed off, not sure what else there was to say. “I’m sure she’ll respond eventually.”

“Hmmm.”

A tiny voice she didn’t want to listen to whispered that if Isabel had been a target, Delaney could be one as well. Someone out there seeking vengeance might have taken the same stance Raisa had—that Delaney should have paid more for her role in Isabel’s killing career.

“Do you know where she lives?” she asked, a bit resentful that she was being dragged into caring.

“Seattle, but that’s the extent of it,” Kilkenny said, and Raisa didn’t know why she was surprised. Delaney, a tech wizard and all around odd-girl would fit in perfectly in the city. Maybe because she’d thought Delaney would try to put as much space between herself and their hometown as possible. “I can try to send out some feelers.”

“Thanks.”

“So, what do we do next?” Kilkenny asked.

She hid her smile with another gulp of coffee. She liked that she finally had someone on her team, no questions asked.

“The correctional center first,” she said when she reemerged from her mug. “But then that address.”

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