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I stare him down and make sure his knees quake before I turn and walk away.
I’m not sure Landry Williams is the freak in a mask, but I do know he’s got something to hide.
I am almost at the door when my phone buzzes with a text message. I glance down to find a message from Jack:Check-in time. Remember theScreamkiller will show up when you least expect him and have a knife ready to kill you. No one in aScreammask has killed you yet, right?
No one in aScreammask has killed me yet, I think, but Landry Williams is a doctor who knows how to use a knife. He’s also missing. I exit the building anddamn you, Jack, I scan for aScreammask.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
With an hour to kill and my bag on my hip with my laptop inside, I decide hanging out at the coffee shop next to the building where the good doctor lives might prove informative. Of course, ten minutes later, my coffee order is wrong once again. My coffee order is always wrong. I’ve barely finished fighting with the barista over the difference between two-percent milk and skim—one justifying a chocolate bar in my mind and the other not so much—when my cellphone rings with an unknown number.
Jay hangs out for our drinks while I claim a seat at a table and answer, “Agent Love-Mendez.”
“Agent,” a youngish-sounding woman greets. “This is Sue Myers. I was told to call you.”
Myers. As in Michael Myers. It’s a weird coincidence and Roger always said there was no such thing. “What do you know about Landry Williams?”
“I’ve lived next to him a few years.”
“Have you fucked him?”
I can almost hear her gasp. “I—should you talk like that?”
I roll my eyes. “Did you make passionate love? Is that better?”
“No,” she declares, but there is a hitch in her voice as she adds, “we’re not intimate.”
That hitch is why I say shocking things that probably make my mother cringe even in her grave. “Why did the security guard think you were?” I counter.
“I—ah—he’s confused.”
“There’s lots of security footage I can look at.”
“What is this even about?’
“My FBI badge and something Landry Williams may or may not have done. Back to that security footage.”
“Okay, we flirt a bit,” she blurts. “That’s all.”
“Okay. So where is he?”
“He told me he was going back to Europe. He made lots of money in crypto and got out before everyone went belly up. He has a place up there. In France.”
“Sounds like you know a lot about him.”
“I don’t.”
“Do you have a key to his apartment?” I ask.
“No. No, of course, not.”
“All right,” I say. “I’m going to check you out. I’ll let you know what I think of you later.”
I hang up, leaving her flustered to see where that leads.
Jay sets my remade drink on the table and I thrum my fingers on the wood next to it. I dial Tic Tac. “Lilah.”
“I need—”
