Page 104 of A Step You Shouldn't Take

He’d come with me to Dulles International, quick to forgive me for shutting the door in his face when he realised we could be a step closer to finding the man who took Emma. After she disappeared, I’d been fast to assume he didn’t care about her anymore, but during the past few days, I’d come to learn the opposite was true. Even though he’d redecorated, he still had reminders of her all over his apartment. Her picture sat on his nightstand. Her clothes took up half of his closet. He had a packet of Graham crackers in the cupboard even though he hated them, because my sister had loved s’mores. And the night before last, he’d confessed he still loved her and until now, he’d never given up hope that she’d come back if he gave her the space she’d asked for.

“Yeah, he’s bringing his partner.”

“And this guy can see ghosts too?”

“Tell the whole world, why don’t you?”

I glanced around the arrivals area, but luckily nobody was listening to us. The girl standing next to me squealed and flung herself into the arms of a shaggy-haired guy carrying a backpack.

“Sorry.”

“Lawson didn’t give me any details, just said ‘they’ were coming right away. I was too grateful to interrogate him.”

And they must have driven straight to London Heathrow, because I’d gotten an email an hour and a half later saying they were boarding a plane. With a flight time of seven hours, they’d be here before eight p.m. our time.

Wyatt nodded at the arrivals board. “Flight’s landed.”

I didn’t even know what Will Lawson looked like, so I’d written his name on a bag from the fast-food place where we’d grabbed a late lunch, and now I was holding it up like a bargain-basement cab driver. The uniformed chauffeur a few feet to my right had already given me a filthy look and taken a pace farther away.

Fifteen minutes passed, and I clenched my teeth as an image of Kim came into my head. Not happy Kim, twisting her paper clips as she compared wedding invitations and flower arrangements, but Kim lying cold on the ground, her lips blue. My fists balled up of their own accord, itching to pound Tim’s face into a bloody pulp.

Then two people veered away from the throng of businessmen and vacationers and walked in our direction. A man around my height but thinner, with brown hair and an assessing gaze, and a woman six inches shorter with dark hair, dark skin, and dark eyes. Exotic looking. I glanced down at their joined hands. More than partners. He was dating her? A gold necklace glinted through a gap in her jacket. This was one of the Electi?

“Reed Cullen?” the guy asked.

“That’s me. And this is Wyatt Banks. He’s a cop working the investigation, and he’s also a…friend.”

Lawson held out a hand for me to shake. “Will Lawson. And this is Rania Algafari.”

She reached out as well, her skin cool to the touch. Rania was no Kim, that was for sure. Where Kim was outgoing and a little nervy, Rania was suspicious, guarded. Closed off.

“You’re…her?” I asked.

Lawson cut his eyes in Wyatt’s direction. “Does he know?”

“Yeah, he knows.” I’d filled him in on everything else I knew about the Electi after I got off the phone earlier. If we were going to work as a team, we couldn’t keep one member in the dark. “We think the person who took Kim has taken more girls. My sister was one of them, and Wyatt was dating her.”

“Kim?” Rania spoke for the first time, and her accent was a mix of English and something else. Something Middle Eastern. “Her name’s Kim?”

“Kimberly. Kimberly Jennings. Shall we go? We can talk in the car on the way.”

They hadn’t brought much luggage, just a duffel bag for Will and a backpack for Rania. My offer to carry it was met with a shake of her head.

“Want me to drive?” Wyatt offered when we reached my SUV.

I tossed him the keys. At least with Wyatt behind the wheel, I’d be able to concentrate on the case rather than the road. Will opened the nearest back door for Rania then walked to the passenger side.

“So,” he said when we were underway. “It’s been an interesting day so far. Want to fill us in on the rest?”

I gave him a recap on the case, from Kim getting drugged to our trip to the car wash where she spoke to Georgette, then our realisation that Emma was involved in the same case and Kim’s subsequent disappearance. In return, Will told us how he and Rania met—while he was investigating a murder case, how else?

“I’m still having trouble with this ghost stuff,” Wyatt admitted.

Will nodded. “I can understand that. Rania’s best mate basically tries to pretend they don’t exist most of the time.”

“How many people know about Rania?”

“Just me and two other friends. And now you guys.”

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