There’s a message waiting for me when I leave Adam’s. I pace at the empty bus stop while I listen to it.
“Elena, I got your message,” Lynne says, sounding worried. “Call me back right away.”
This is it. I can confront her right now about being the killer, about shooting the others and setting me up…but there’s still a slight chance I’m wrong. I want to be wrong.
I dial the number she gave me, and she picks up on the first ring.
“Oh, Elena, thank goodness. Are you okay?”
I sit down hard on the bus stop bench, gripping the phone. For a second I can’t speak, can’t decide what to say to her. “I’m okay. But the others…they’re dead.”
“What? Are you sure?”
“Yeah. I saw them. I-I think Aether killed them.”
She sucks in a breath. “I tried to stop them. I told my boss you had evidence and would use it if something happened, but…No, we shouldn’t talk about this over the phone. They could be listening. I can help you, but we need to need to meet in person.”
A chill creeps along my bare skin. “Where?”
“Somewhere we can talk in private. Aether is looking for you, and I’m sure they’re watching me. We need to be careful.”
“How about…the beach?”
“Oh—I was just about to suggest that. Perfect. Maybe at the fifth lifeguard tower north of the pier?”
I close my eyes, all my suspicions confirmed with those few words. There’s no way Lynne could know my body was found there. She is the killer.
If I hadn’t gone to see Adam, I would have trusted Lynne in this moment. I would have met her at the beach, hoping she would help me, never suspecting she was the killer. No wonder she was able to take me down so easily. She used my trust and my desperation against me.
“Elena…are you there?” Lynne sounds so worried that I almost believe she actually cares.
“Yeah. That place sounds good.”
“Perfect. Can you be there around eleven thirty?”
“I’ll be there.”
“I’ll see you then.” Lynne pauses. “And, Elena, be careful.”
“I will.”
The call ends, and I clutch my phone in my lap. In a few minutes this will all be over, one way or another.
I check my watch. It’s after ten, near the end of Chris’s window. For all I know he’s already dead, but I have to try to warn him one last time.
I dial his number, the one the guy at Downey Automotive wrote on the Post-it. It rings twice and then clicks to voice mail. As soon as it beeps, the words rush out of me. “Chris, this is Elena. The killer is Lynne. Stay away from her. Get Shawnda and run—just whatever you do, don’t meet with Lynne. I know you don’t trust me, but please, please believe me about this.”
There’s nothing more I can say, so I hang up. Dammit. I’m too late. If only he had listened to me earlier, if only I had been up-front with him from the beginning…but he’s probably already dead, and now his son will grow up without a father. Lynne’s taken both of their futures.
I don’t need to see Chris’s body to know how he died. I remember the crime scene photos perfectly. Shot like the other two and ditched on a street corner two blocks from Downey Automotive. I clench my fists, white-hot anger building at the thought of what she’s done. Of how she almost got away with it.
Not this time.
The fifth lifeguard tower stands alone before the waves, a raised white box against the dark sea. I make my way toward it, shoes sinking in the sand, and each step reminds me of when I came here with Adam. I couldn’t understand then why I would kill myself in this spot, but now it seems like I was fated to come here to fight for my future.
By the time I reach the tower, I’m clutching my side and breathing heavily, and I’ve stumbled twice on my weak ankle. Everything hurts, but I can’t lose focus now. I’m early—it’s only eleven—and I check the voice recorder app I downloaded on the bus. I switch it on and then stuff my phone in my underwear, a place I figure Lynne won’t search me if I die. But the police will find it. I just have to get Lynne to confess, so that she won’t get away with our murders. I won’t let Adam spend the rest of his life trusting a murderer.