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“But have you hurt anyone?” Marc demanded. “That’s what we’re really interested in hearing about.” He pressed on, capitalizing on her current emotional weakness. “We originally thought that Julie Forman might have joined forces with your friend Miles here to do away with Lisa. Now it turns out that it’s Julie Forman who’s dead. That opens up a whole new realm of whys.”
“It also makes a lot more sense,” Ryan added. “Given how close Lisa and Miles were through eighteen years of shared foster care, why would he ever kill h
er? But Julie Forman, a relative stranger who might have had something on them? Or maybe someone with an inheritance that was ripe for the taking? That’s another story entirely.”
Spotting Miles’ start of surprise, Ryan said, “Oh, did you think I hadn’t done my homework on Julie Forman? You should know better. I know all the details of the real Julie’s life, including that tidy little inheritance her parents left her.” A quick scan of the gym. “I can see you’ve put it to good use.”
“Stop it!” Julie—Lisa—was bordering on hysteria. “Please, I don’t know what you plan to do to us, but can we at least go into my office and talk first?”
“No talking,” Milo responded, a warning gleam in his eye. “We have nothing to say.”
“Please, Milo.” The woman standing there, shaking, had obviously taken all she could. “I have to know who’s after us. I’m scared.”
“There’s nothing to be scared about. We’ve done nothing wrong. And no one is going to hurt us. So just go clean up and teach your next class. I’ll show these guys out.”
After a long moment of hesitation, Julie turned away, numbly heading for the ladies’ room.
Miles swallowed, looking at the floor as he spoke, much of his bravado gone. “I’m not stupid. You busted your ass to find me—to find us. That means whoever you’re working for wants us pretty badly. We don’t know anything. We’re not a threat. Please make sure they know that.” He raised his head. “And please, tell them to leave Julie and me alone.”
Marc shot Ryan a sidelong look. Murderers? These were no offenders. These were victims—two frightened children with nowhere to turn.
Somewhere out there was a killer. And Miles and Lisa were right in the line of fire.
Ryan returned Marc’s look with a quick nod of agreement and then reached into his pocket and pulled out a business card.
“Like I said, my name is Ryan McKay,” he told Miles, handing over the card. “This is Marc Devereaux. We work for an investigative firm called Forensic Instincts. Look it up. We’re the good guys. With an awesome track record. Clearly, there are bad guys out there who you think are looking for you. Talk to Lisa. Then give us a call. We can help.”
“We don’t need help,” Miles replied, even as he took Ryan’s card, scanning the information on it.
“Yeah,” Ryan said, making direct eye contact. “You do.”
Lisa would always be Lisa. In every way that mattered, Julie was dead.
Those words kept drumming and drumming inside Lisa’s head. They were followed by: Would she and Milo be the next to die?
Sitting up on the bed, back against the headboard and knees drawn up to her chest, she waved away Milo’s attempts to calm her down.
“This whole charade is over,” she said. “All the endless work you put into recreating us, relocating us, cutting off ties—it was all for nothing. They found us. They know who we are.”
“Who are they?” Milo countered. “Yeah, Forensic Instincts knows who and where we are. But they’re not in the killing business. So who’s after us? And which person are they after—Lisa or Julie?” Milo shook his head in frustration as he paced the room. “It could be someone from Lisa’s past who’s coming out of the woodwork after all these years. Or it could be someone who saw Julie as a threat, based on those Facebook messages you’re getting from that kid, Shannon. Added to that, do they even know who they killed and who’s still alive?”
“Does it matter? Whether I’m Lisa or Julie, someone is after me.”
“Of course it matters. I get it that we’re in trouble. But we have to figure out the whos and whys, Lis.” It was the first time Milo had abandoned the use of Julie as her name. “I looked up Forensic Instincts. They’re a pretty big deal. And Ryan McKay borders on genius. He definitely knows everything there is to know about us, including our entire life history.”
“Great. And he’s working for a client who’s after us.”
“Is he?” Milo frowned, his brain trying to untangle the pieces. “Then why did he give us his card instead of a bullet to the head? That doesn’t fit.”
“I guess not.” Julie couldn’t deny that one.
“I’m leaning toward calling them,” Miles said. “The longer we do nothing, the greater the chances are of us getting hurt.” He purposely omitted the “kill” word.
“We could just take off, start over somewhere else.” Julie’s eyes were desperate. She hated that she was even saying this. The home she’d thought she’d found was disintegrating before her eyes. But staying alive trumped nesting.
Milo scowled. “That wouldn’t be my first choice, not given the situation. But if we have to, we will.”
“You do have that backdoor plan, right?”
