Betrayal

Brian Co

He was also right.

Chapter 15

HAYLEY AND TAYLOR WERE CLEARING the dishes after di

CASE FILE #613-7H: SHE DESERVED WHAT SHE GOT.

If Text Creeper’s first text had spooked Hayley and Taylor on Monday, this second message had them jumping out of their skin. Both girls knew they had to ignore it, but that was going to be far from easy.

“Nobody deserves to die like that! What does it mean?” Taylor asked as she turned off the stream of hot water that ran over the dishes in the sink.

Hayley shook her head. She didn’t know. Who could?

Taylor reached for a paper towel. “Should we tell Mom and Dad?”

“Tell me what?” Kevin Ryan asked, popping his head into the kitchen. The call of the coffee pot had brought him back to the kitchen. It was a much-needed break from writing his latest book, Killer Smile, about a handsome serial killer from Iowa who charmed women into posing for a “classy” nude calendar before bludgeoning them to death. The real killer was neither charming nor handsome, but his publisher insisted that’s what readers wanted to read.

“The tip-off, girls,” he had told Hayley and Taylor when he had started the project that summer, “is that there is no such thing as a ‘classy nude’ calendar. If a photographer suggests that you or your friends should pose for one, report him to the police pronto. Don’t even think about it. You’ll save a life, for sure.”

“It’s about Olivia’s murder,” Hayley said, pouring soap into the sink.

“People are . . . saying stuff about what happened. We’re all freaking out big-time,” Taylor said. “Have you heard anything?”

Kevin dropped into a seat at the kitchen table. “I don’t really have any inside info,” he said. “You’ll probably find out more on Twitter or Facebook.”

The sisters knew that their father was probably spot-on in some ways, but they weren’t really seeking specifics about the case. They were looking for reassurance.

“Do you think whoever killed Olivia might kill someone else?” Taylor asked. “Maybe another student at the high school?”

“Maybe that’s what’s happened to Bria

Kevin understood how fear enveloped people whenever a terrible crime occurred. A crime like what happened to Olivia was the scariest, most paranoia-inducing of all. At the moment, there was no telling if anyone else was in danger or not. Olivia’s murder might have been random, which was potentially more terrifying than thinking that it had been premeditated.

The idea of a serial killer lurking around Kingston and Port Gamble hadn’t really occurred to any of the Ryans until that moment. Kevin’s first thought had been that some kid had gotten high and went berserk—a drug-addled killing. If not that, then maybe it was one of Bria

“Let me see what I can find out,” he said. He knew that A

“Thanks, Dad,” Hayley said.

STILL JOGGING EACH DAY—and still unable to shake off those last ten pounds—Kevin “ran into” A

She was there, getting her coffee, as he predicted.

The police chief smiled wearily when she saw him.

“Hey, A

“I’m here every day at this time,” she said. “Like you didn’t know that.”

Kevin shrugged and placed his order—a triple tall one Splenda latte.

“I guess I did. Anyway, I wanted to get your take on the Grant case,” he said.

She sipped her coffee. “Open investigation, Kev. You know I can’t talk about it.”

“My girls are scared. All the girls in town are. They think there’s a crazed serial killer out there. I just wanted to, you know, put them at ease.”

The police chief narrowed her gaze. “This isn’t for a book, is it?”

Kevin shook his head, a little too vigorously. “No. I’m not that kind of crime writer. You know that.”

She took off the a

“You know you don’t have to ask that,” Kevin said.

“I was just burned by Inside Edition.”

“I won’t lie to you, A

“You know me too well.” A

“Closer? Like Bria

A

Kevin’s interest piqued, thinking for a moment that if Olivia had been killed by her best friend, maybe there was a book in it after all.

“Maybe the kid was in shock?” he suggested.

A

“Possibly.” She lowered her voice. “Hell, probably. I don’t know. She was strange, and Drew wasn’t much better. I don’t want to put it lightly, because I’m not like that, but, honestly, someone made cold cuts out of a party guest and neither of them seemed to care much. Not about the girl or her parents or her friends. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life.”

She stopped, realizing she’d probably said too much.

Kevin drank his latte. “I read somewhere that kids who play violent video games become desensitized and don’t have a clue about the real thing or its impact on people.”

“I don’t buy that,” A

A

“What was Bria

A