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Matt and I gave her a rundown on what we found, Matt taking point and handling the conversation when we got to the photographs.
“Christ, okay.” The sheriff looked out to her team, who was just now entering the home through the front door. “I’ll let my people know. What are your next moves?”
Matt answered. “I’m going to go pay a visit to the mayor’s son and figure out why his coffee cup was in that hideout.” We hadn’t talked about next steps, but I agreed with Matt’s plan.
“I’ll call you guys if we find anything else here,” she said.
Back in the car, the silence was almost deafening. A silence so loud that it created a ringing in my ears.
Matt tapped the button, starting the car, the engine kicking on and the AC beginning to blow. All noises that cracked through the heavy silence. Matt cleared his throat. I coughed. The seat squeaked underneath me. Gravel kicked under the tires, and the brakes whined as Matt pulled out of the parking spot.
And finally, I was able to speak. “I’m scared, Matt. For once in my life. This isn’t even hitting ‘close’ to home. It’s a fucking bullseye directly to the chest.”
“Don’t think of it like that, Jace. The bullseye isn’t on us. It’s on the Pegasus. We’re close, now. I think it’s only a matter of days.”
“What if he’s closer, Matt?”
“Then we just look out for each other, same as we’ve been doing. I’m not going to let anyone near you.”
I reached across the miles-long feeling gap between us and let my hand rest on his thigh. I looked out the window at the dark streets as we drove away from the Blades, heading to Seven Oaks, the homes and businesses slowly shifting, showing cleaner facades and larger front yards. I believed Matt; I just believed the Pegasus was also just around the corner, creeping in every shadow that blurred past. There was no doubt in my mind that he knew his place was found and being searched, which could have pushed him further into hiding, making himself even harder to find.
I couldn’t allow myself to get caught in a spiral of negative thoughts and assumptions. It was a bad habit of mine, overthinking things. I worked to refocus myself, pushing past the shock of our discovery and reaching a realm of logic and facts.
And one of those facts was that Byron’s coffee cup somehow ended up in the hands of a serial killer.
There was the theory that he was next on the target list, but after finding the photos, that appeared to be wrong. We knew who the next targets were, and keeping a future victim’s coffee didn’t strike me as something our killer would do. He didn’t keep anyone else’s items, so why keep Byron’s?
Matt must have read my mind, as usual. “What do you think about Byron’s name being on that cup?” he asked. He drove with one hand on the wheel, silver watch glittering on his wrist, his other hand gently encompassing mine.
I was tempted to think back to the old days, reminisce on the way we used to be, but I realized this was nothing like the old times.
This was something more, something much deeper. There was a tenderness in Matt’s touch that had never been there before. It was like rubbing aloe on a sunburn, his touch instantly soothing.
“I don’t know,” I answered honestly. “I’m at a complete loss. I don’t think it just magically popped up there—I’m sure of that at least. But any other theories I have seem either flimsy or crazy.”
“Give me one of each, your flimsiest and your craziest.”
I tossed around a couple of ideas in my head, trying to see them from all different angles, playing out the scenarios in my head on fast-forward. We were getting closer to the mayor’s house, the streets growing wider and the houses becoming more spaced out. “My flimsiest theory is that the Pegasus accidentally grabbed Byron’s order and kept it, then forgot about it inside his minifridge.”
“I can see that happening. Maybe it’s not all that flimsy. I can reach out to whatever store that coffee was bought from and ask to see any surveillance footage they might have.” Matt made a turn, slowing down as the mayor’s home crested over a hill like a white brick and stone crown. “And the craziest?”
“The craziest theory I’ve got… That Byron is the Pegasus and that the hideout was his.”
Matt arched a brow and looked at me, eyes glinting with something I couldn’t quite place. Then he chuckled. “Yeah, that is a little unlikely. Byron is about the same size as my left forearm. I can’t see him subduing and killing anyone, much less a huge guy like Lionel.”
“Yeah, I told you it was crazy.”
Matt pulled to a stop, parking in front of the looming mansion. I took off my seat belt and reached for the door. “Whoa, whoa, I never said it was crazy.” Matt’s hand closed gently around the back of my neck. I turned to face him, the warm glow of a streetlamp making his skin resemble a sheet of pure gold. “I just said unlikely. Anything in this world is possible. You know that as well as I do. His cup was in the hideout, and that is undeniable, so let’s see why it was in there.”
