Page 85 of By the Time You Read This

But what if she had?

Chapter Twenty-Six

Raisa

Day Four

Raisa had the question answered quickly. Delaney had, in fact, realized there was someone looking in her window.

Or, at the very least, she’d had the sensation of eyes on the back of her neck, and that had sent her into flight mode.

By the time Raisa risked peeking in the window again, Delaney was already pulling down a go-bag from her closet. The computer on her desk had a thumb drive shoved into the port. She was getting ready to burn the place.

Metaphorically, of course. Delaney was many things, but an arsonist she was not.

“Shit,” Raisa murmured and took off, the blood thrumming in her ears.

She nearly skidded to a halt in front of St. Ivany, who was already half-out of her seat, clearly reading the urgency in Raisa’s body language.

“She’s about to run,” Raisa said, grabbing her bag.

St. Ivany didn’t need to be hurried along. “Do we confront her?”

“I don’t know, I don’t know,” Raisa muttered as they sprinted back to the SUV. St. Ivany slid in the driver’s side and got them to where theycould see the door to Delaney’s place in under a minute. “She erased her laptop. And there’s nothing to arrest her over. I’m not even sure she’s done anything wrong, but I can tell you if we approach her now, she’s gonna book it.”

“Okay, what do you want to do? Just let her go?”

Raisa looked around. “Do you have an AirTag?”

“Her phone will alert her it’s there, even if you can get it on her,” St. Ivany said, which wasn’t an answer.

“No,” Raisa said, her eyes locked on the door.You know her best.Maybe she did, more than she thought. “She’s gonna drop the phone somewhere. Probably as a ruse to lead whoever is following her out of town.”

“You think she’ll drop it before the phone alerts her there’s a strange AirTag near her?” St. Ivany asked.

“I think we should at least try to figure out a way for her not to disappear off to Mexico, yeah,” Raisa said, and then looked over when St. Ivany made a sound. She was holding an AirTag up, one she’d pulled from her console. Raisa fist pumped. “Officially, un-invite me from the case.”

“You’re officially un-invited,” St. Ivany said, handing the thing over. Raisa wasn’t sure how much of this would hold up as quality police work, but she wasn’t about to let Delaney lose them without a fight. They would figure everything else out later.

Delaney chose that moment to step out onto the sidewalk, her bag slung over her shoulder. There were no keys in her hand, so they might get lucky. She was fleeing on foot.

“What do you want me to do?” St. Ivany asked.

“I’m going to get out and follow her. You’ll be backup in case I lose her,” Raisa said. “Stick with Delaney, not me.”

“You’re chopped liver. Got it,” St. Ivany said, giving her a jaunty salute.

Raisa grabbed her purse this time and left her bag. She had no interest in getting stuck in the middle of Seattle without any money.

She waited until the second Delaney was out of sight and then she hopped out of the SUV, following her at a fast clip. Running wouldbring attention to both of them, and considering how quiet the street was, she wanted to avoid that if at all possible.

For a brief moment, she considered simply calling out to Delaney. Her fleeing like this wasn’t necessarily a sign of her guilt—Raisa was sure she would have run no matter what as soon as she’d seen someone looking in her window. Maybe if Raisa asked, without the Gig Harbor police force behind her, whether Delaney was currently caught up in another one of Isabel’s schemes, she’d get an honest answer.

But why would Delaney tell her anything, when for two years Raisa had made her feel like she’d be locked up if she ever stepped a single toe over the line?

What if Delaney had been forced to do something heinous because of Isabel? She had visited Lindsey Cousins and left her “rattled.” She had been spotted outside Peter Stamkos’s house. Emily Logan had died the same way their parents had been killed, and Raisa had convinced herself that Delaney would never copy that.

But what if it had been a message to Isabel?

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