Through the glass, Keller stood near the wall. Pale. Sweating. Watching exits.
Raines sat silent.
“Bring Keller back in,” Tucker said.
“On what?” Burke asked.
“Pattern,” Calder said. “Stalking. Theft. Coercion. Link to Lauren.”
“If he kept that journal,” Tucker said, “he kept others.”
“Which means he didn’t stop,” Scout said.
Tessa was still missing.
Tucker turned toward the door.
“Lock the wing. Nobody leaves.”
“Bring them all back,” Burke said.
49
Tessa — The Voice at the Worst Moment
Tessa didn’t hear the intercom come on.
She was buried in the journal—in Sara’s handwriting, in the soft hope between the lines, in the one sentence that made her throat close.
Part of me wonders if I could ever tell him what he means to me.
Scout.
Tessa stared at the words until they blurred.
Scout had torn through hell to find Sara. He would tear through hell again.
The way his voice sharpened when Sara’s name came up. The way he didn’t hesitate.
Maybe she’d stepped into something that had never closed.
The intercom crackled.
A hiss of static.
Then a voice—smooth, quiet, pleased.
“Poor Tessa.”
Her hands stilled.
“It hurts, doesn’t it?”
She looked toward the ceiling.
“It hurts to read it in her handwriting,” he continued. “To see how long she felt it.”
“Stop.”
