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Nervously, she clicked on it. It was from Shannon Barker—the sixteen-year-old gymnast who the dead Julie had been training at the gym and who was destined to be an Olympic contender.
With pains in her chest, she read:
Please call me, Julie. I understand why you ran. It was probably you they were after. We need to talk. I’m completely unhinged. I don’t know what to do. Should I go to the police? What did you find out about Jim Robbins? Who else is he working with? Is it someone at the Olympic training center? Call me on my new cell at 312-555-4929.
Julie’s throat was so tight she could barely speak. She shoved the laptop aside and ran into Milo’s doorway, waving for him to cut his call short.
“Come in here,” she begged, a tremor in her voice. “Now.”
Three minutes later, Milo was reading the PM, his forehead creased in a frown.
“Okay,” he said. “Let’s stay calm. We knew that the old Julie was killed for a reason. We just didn’t know why. Clearly, this kid has some idea. She’s looking for advice on what to do. Give it to her.”
“What?” Julie stared. “What the hell am I supposed to tell her? I have no idea what’s going on or why the murder happened.”
“Interesting.” Milo was off in his own little world of thought. “It looks like the killers weren’t targeting Lisa after all. I wonder who this Jim Robbins is. He obviously works at an Olympic training center. If Shannon trained there regularly, the place must be in the Chicago area. Should take about three minutes to find out everything there is to know about him.”
“Maybe this kid Shannon is a drama queen,” Julie muttered. “Maybe she just rents too many thriller movies and has conjured up this whole thing.”
“Yeah, except that we have a dead body to back her up,” Milo reminded her.
“You’re right.” Julie dragged a hand through her hair. “What do we do?”
“You message her back ASAP,” Milo instructed in his usual pragmatic way. “Calm her down. Use Jim Robbins’ name to coax out whatever info you can without arousing her suspicions. Most of all, keep her from going to the cops.”
“What do I tell her about me?” Julie spread her hands wide in question. “Do I tell her where I am? Do I ask her to keep it a secret? I can’t very well lie to her. Clearly, she and dead Julie had a personal relationship. I saw Julie training her once or twice. She acted kind of big sisterly toward her.”
“Then that’s what you’ll be. Tell her you’re in New Jersey, opening a gym. Ask her to keep that information quiet, since you’re scared that the killers will come after you. Tell her you didn’t find out anything, even though you tried. Let her do most of the talking,” Milo ended by advising. “You do the listening. You’ll learn more and give away less.”
“And where do I call her from? Julie’s cell?”
“Julie’s cell hasn’
t existed since the day we left Chicago. I downloaded all the contents and got rid of the thing. You’ve been using a new iPhone.” A grin. “A newly-released one, too. I upgraded.”
“Great.” Julie wasn’t in a humorous mood. “I’m a lousy actress, Milo. How do I pull this off?”
“By remembering that you’re a scared woman who witnessed a murder. Shannon is more than aware of that. So she won’t be surprised by the new cell number, or any jumpiness in your tone. Obviously, Julie is in some kind of a hot mess—one that Shannon’s also involved in. Remember, she got a new cell, too. She clearly doesn’t want to be called by the wrong person. She’s probably scared to death that she’s next on the hit list.”
“Who’s doing this?”
“That’s what we have to find out.”
Milo headed back to the computer in his room. He’d made it his business to sound calm and reassuring. But, given Julie’s level of agitation, he had work to do.
He logged out of all his programs and fired up his Tor browser to ensure anonymity from this point forward. He was hoping he’d find the answers he’d been looking for about how to create brand-new untraceable identities. He wasn’t ready to push the panic button yet, but he knew that having all the bases covered would settle Julie down. Even when they were in foster care together, she was okay as long as she had a way out. It was up to Milo to provide that escape route.
He entered his user name and password. Instantly, he perked up.
ScoobyDoo had a new subscriber to The House and a private message of his own.
CHAPTER FIVE
Shannon had been gripped by a constant state of panic ever since Julie’s disappearance. It was so severe that it eclipsed the mourning of her lost life as a gymnast, her recent arthroscopic surgery to repair her torn rotator cuff, and her now-impossible goals as an Olympic hopeful.
What if Jim and the killer who had shot that Lisa girl were after her, too? What if they planned to kill her? What could she do to hide? To stop them?
She couldn’t run away, not without her parents calling everyone up to the National Guard until they found her. And she couldn’t talk to anyone, including the police. Not without proof.
