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The entire Hierarchy sat around the conference table, myself at the head while their bleary, exhausted faces looked up at me, listening to my theory. Even with Nolan telling me at the crime scene that he thought the idea had merit, I still hoped someone would tell me I was crazy, that there was no way this was possible.
But they just stared at me, wide-eyed, mouths gaping. Beckett and Emric confirmed my suspicions, backing Nolan up; they saw the same perfect resemblance that we did, bringing this whole mind-bending idea to truth: somehow, Elliot was trying to connect me to these cases.
“Alright, let’s break this down.” Nolan sat to my right, his chair a little closer than the rest, but I didn’t mind. I liked the proximity, it helped keep my mind rooted in the now; and his questions were keeping me sane. “First victim wasn’t on your radar yet when he killed her, so how do you think the second victim was linked to you?”
My eyes drifted over to the case board, reminding myself about the first victim I had laid eyes on, her past, and the crime scene. What about it could have been linked to me?
“The hair.” I squinted at the question on the board, asking why Elliot had modified her that way. “Her hair was cut and dyed to look like mine.”
“By the Goddess, how did we not notice that before?” Liv seethed, her fist pounding gently against the table.
“Why would we? It’s not like my hair is uncommon or odd, plenty of people have hair like mine.”
Liv mumbled under her breath, the scowl on her face making my stomach do flips.
“Alright, alright.” Beckett slung his arm behind Liv’s chair, rubbing gentle circles along her back. “Third victim?”
I stared at the board, shaking my head. “I don’t know. I was so busy making sure Lea was alright, I didn’t pick up anything too odd about it.”
I turned back to my Faction, all of them looking as stumped as me—except one, who couldn’t seem to make eye contact.
“Eden?” I glared at her, her hands twisting together on top of the table. “What are you hiding?”
“Nothing.” She shook her head.
“Eden,” I snarled. We didn’t have time for her silence—we didn’t have time for games.
She sighed, shaking her head. “It really could be a coincidence…”
“Tell us anyway.”
“The third victim,” she couldn’t seem to look up, “the one you weren’t able to join us for, at the crime scene. I did the background check on him. He was the oldest of three, with a younger brother and a younger sister.”
And there it was—the link to me.
“Fourth was the Logan victim.” A shiver ran up my spine at the casual mention of his name, forcing myself to swallow down the bile crawling up my throat.
“Now we know what the R must have stood for,” Nolan mumbled. I squinted at him for a moment, his gaze catching mine as if to tell me the answer was obvious.
Then it hit me:Rapist.
“In the name of the Goddess, how did he know?” My body ached, my mind spinning. All of this was just too unbelievable. “Why me? Most of the details are common knowledge, like my scar and hair. But everything with Logan and Caleb? I keep that a secret. How could he have known?”
My chest was beginning to hollow, the darkness creeping into my mind telling me this was hopeless, to give up. I tried to ignore the notion, to fight it.
“Think, Kas,” Nolan urged, leaning forward. “You’re a puzzle master. Think about who could know these details. Who had the opportunity to learn them either from you, from others, or from overhearing it somewhere? Think about the past few months. Who could have heard?”
I let his words run through me, using them as a weapon against the sinister thoughts. I rubbed my temples with my fingers, staring down at the dark wooden table in front of me.
I just had tothink.
I thought about everyone who I’d told all of these details to, but unfortunately, most sat in this room. Ollie, Lea and Nana were the only others who knew about me hating my natural hair color; Caleb and Father couldn’t have been bothered by that, and we never had a decent enough conversation for something so trivial to come up. Possibly, someone could have overheard some things in public, like the hair or my problems with Caleb, but no one would have known anything about Logan’s attack.
Who was it? Who else had I been talking to?
Talking to…
Icy chills ran through my veins as something clicked, something that made me want to throw up and pass out all at once. There was only one person who I had been talking in detail with, who knew my innermost thoughts and had helped me open myself up. One person who just always seemed perfect…too perfect.
