Page 205 of No Headlines Please

With a scoff, Maddox told the guy, "You're gonna have to do better than that."

The guy cleared his throat and gave Cal another nervous glance. "What I mean is, I messed up."

Maddox muttered, "No shit, Sherlock."

The guy looked to Maddox and then to me before saying with obvious reluctance, "The thing is…I got the wrong place. It wasn't supposed to be yours."

Every thought in my head screeched to a halt. "Wait…what?"

He spread his hands. "Hey, it was the right address, just the wrong door. That's all."

I stared. "That's all? What exactly are you saying?" But part of me already knew. "You were supposed to threaten Lacy? The girl upstairs?"

The guy shifted in his seat. "Uh, yeah. Basically."

"Basically?" My voice rose. "Are you freaking serious? Does she know?"

The guy frowned. "Know what?"

I didn't even know how to put this. "That she's under threat?"

The guy scratched his cheek. "Um…well, actually, it's no longer a factor."

No longer a factor?

What the hell was that supposed to mean?

I felt the blood drain from my face. "Oh, my God. Don't tell me she's dead." The thought was enough to make me sick. I hadn't known Lacy well, but she'd been really friendly. "You didn't kill her, did you?"

The guy looked beyond insulted. "What? No. She's perfectly fine. What kind of guy do you think I am?"

I was glaring now. "Do you seriously expect me to answer that? And who are you, anyway?"

Next to me, Maddox said, "He's Brian Smelter."

I searched my memory banks, but came up empty. I looked to Maddox. "Is that supposed to mean something to me?"

"Brian Smelter," Maddox repeated. "Security for Greg Wickley."

Whoa. "You don't mean…the congressman?" Not being a news junkie, I normally wouldn't have known. But Greg Wickley had been the congressman for my district in West Haven, and I'd received so many re-election flyers, I could've started my own bonfire.

From what I recalled, Greg Wickley had a lot of money – and not from campaign contributions. Instead, he'd made his fortune in Silicon Valley before coming back home to run for Congress.

Brian gave a jerky nod. "Right. And, uh, the threat was coming from him, not me."

I almost laughed in his face. "But you were perfectly happy to deliver it, weren't you?"

"Hey, I wasn't that happy," he grumbled. "If you want the truth, it pissed me off."

"Oh, so I'm supposed to feel sorry for you?"

"I never said that. I'm just saying, it's not like I woke up on a random Tuesday and decided to threaten some girl I didn't even know."

My voice trembled as I said, "But you still did – and not even the right one."

"Yeah, but—"

I held up a hand. "You know what? Whether you were threatening me or Lacy, it was still wrong. And why would you want to threaten her at all?"