Page 125 of Everything She Feared

No, I’m not done here.

He couldn’t rule out any of the women on his list yet. He was still waiting on his request for DNA analysis. It wasn’t over in Seattle. Not yet. One thing he needed to do was deal with the claim that Magda had died in a car crash in Canada.

Ryan returned to his apartment to work on it. When he got to his desk, his phone rang. The ID displayed and he answered.

“Hi, Mom.”

“Hi, Ryan, how are you?”

It’d been a long time since their last call.

“Hanging in there, and you?”

“Day by day, son. So, I see from the return address, you’re in Seattle this time?”

“Yes.”

“I saw the show with you in disguise, theTell-Tale Heartsshow.”

“What did you think?”

A heavy silence passed between them.

“You know what I think, Ryan.”

He didn’t respond as the quiet between them grew taut.

“I am concerned,” she said. “When will this end?”

“You know when.”

“It’s been years. You need to build your life. This can’t be your life.”

“Mom.”

“I can’t lose both of my children and my husband to that monster.”

“Mom, please.”

“Maybe you could get back with Olivia, you know, settle down and—”

“Mom, how’s Dad?”

She said nothing, as if deciding whether or not to answer.

“He called me a week ago. It was three in the morning, he’d been drinking, and—” Her voice broke. “He said Carrie had come to him in a dream to say she was alive.”

Ryan allowed her time to compose herself.

“I told him to go back to sleep,” she said. “He has to accept that she’s gone forever, we know that, and—and that monster—”

“Mom, this pain is why I can’t stop, I’ll never stop. And this time, part of me feels I’m close.”

“Are you? Were you close in Brooklyn, were you close in Pittsburgh, or Minneapolis, or Dallas, or any of those other places?”

“Mom, please.”

“Maybe the monster’s finally dead, like that woman on the show said.”

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