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McLean looked like he might argue to stay, but then thought better of it. One of the two uniformed guards sitting in front of the wall of security cameras stood and took Trevor's spot helping to subdue the flailing young man and letting Ryder know, "I called my boss. He's on hisway."
"That's good.Thanks."
Ryder pushed Peter into the hard-backed wooden chair next to the small table in the back of the room. When the kid tried to stand to leave, Ryder pressed his palm against his chest, forcibly detaininghim.
"You aren't going anywhere until we have a littlechat."
"I don't want to talk. I need to give my gift to Khloe!" The kid's voice was high-pitched and panicked. He was reaching for his pocket, but Ryder swatted his hand away, not letting him reach a possible hiddenweapon.
"Put your hands on the table where I can seethem."
The suspect's eyes widened, suddenly taking note of his surroundings and looking frightened. Ryder would turn the fear to hisadvantage.
He made a show of sitting next to him at the table as if they were going to sit down for a friendly cup of coffee together. He then offered, "I can get your gift to her, but you need to help mefirst."
"Help you how?" Peter's voice quavered, matching the nervous twitch of his lefteye.
Ryder slipped into interrogation mode, although he was normally interviewing hardened criminals, not mentally challenged coffee-runners. He forced himself to take a softer approach with hissuspect.
"Chat with me for a bit. Tell me how you got to know Khloe so well." He watched Peter's face carefully as he added, "She talks about you all the time. It's clear she cares aboutyou."
The lopsided grin on Peter's face betrayed how innocent and naive the kid was. "I love Khloe. I want to marryher."
In your dreams,kid.
"You do realize most men around the globe would love to marry her,right?"
That doused the smile. "Yes, but they don't love her like I do. They only know the actress, but she is my friend. She is nice tome."
"I can see that. Is that why you traveled to New York and now D.C. to attend her release parties? How is it you got invited to the studiogalas?"
"I'm not supposed to talk about it, but Khloe invited meherself."
Knowing that was false, Ryder pressed him. "She did? When did she dothat?"
He looked conflicted, but eventually leaned in to talk softly as if he didn't want anyone else to hear. "I'm not supposed to tell anyone, but she sent me plane tickets and money. All she wanted was for me to bring her sweets inexchange."
Either the kid was truly delusional or someone had paid for him to fly across the country multiple times which made no sense. Trusting his gut, Ryder asked, "You wouldn't have one of the tickets by chance, would you?" When Peter seemed uncertain, Ryder added, "I sure would love to touch something that Khloe hadtouched."
His comment placated Peter who reached into his coat pocket and pulled out an envelope full of papers. The block handwriting on the front caught Ryder's attention. It looked suspiciously like the same writing in one of the threatening letters left behind in Khloe's trailer at thestudio.
"I like your handwriting." He fished. Peter was confused so Ryder pointed at the front of theenvelope.
"That's not my handwriting. That'sKhloe's."
Any idiot would know that the unsightly block letters were not the script of the elegant and feminine Khloe Monroe. Still, he used it to his advantage, holding the edges of the envelope in a way to preserve any fingerprints that might be found. So far, the police forensics hadn't discovered any new clues using fingerprints found on the messages, but that only meant that the stalker had never been arrested or didn't have a job where their fingerprints were on file withauthorities.
Ryder had been collecting and sending fingerprint samples of all of the people close to Khloe to Axel and the private forensics team he'd hired to work outside of the police limitations. One of Cathy's makeup brushes. A bottle of Randy's hair product. He'd even nabbed an empty soda can from the director on the set, and various other odds and ends for as many of the people who regularly interacted with Khloe as hecould.
So far, the tests had turned up nothing of interest, but he was waiting on a call back from Axel with results from the latest evaluation on the samples of Ricky, the Kaplans, and Dean Reynolds that he'd collected at the Marriott and transmitted over images of earlier thatday.
Being careful not to touch anything but the edge, Ryder pulled out the packet of papers in the envelope, laying it out carefully on thetable.
"Be careful. I don't want you to hurt anything that Khloe gave me," Peter pressednervously.
Ryder didn't bother looking up, but responded. "Kid, I wouldn't dream ofit."
At first, the pile didn't make a lot of sense to Ryder. It was an odd collection of old plane tickets from the past mixed with cards with simple words like 'ECLAIR,' 'FUDGE' and 'CHOCOLATE BROWNIE,' scrolled in the same block writing. Mingled in were candid photos of Khloe in private moments, unaware she'd beenphotographed.
