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“What’s going on?” she asked.
“Please come as fast as you can. I got another text from the killer.”
FORTY-FIVE
Back in the studio, a knot of people gathered around the couch where Beau now sat, cradling his cell phone in his hands. Everyone who worked on the show was there. Margot stood behind the couch, just over Beau’s shoulder. The crowd parted as Josie and Noah approached with Liam Flint in tow. Josie held out a hand for Beau’s phone. His hands trembled as he gave it to her. The screen showed a new text message from Beautiful Claudia with three heart emojis. It had come in six minutes earlier.
Noah was already on the phone with dispatch requesting that they ping Claudia’s phone again. Excitement surged through Josie. They might have a chance to catch the guy before he slipped away again. She looked at the message on Beau’s phone.
Let’s try this again. Go on air today and answer this question: what is my wife’s deepest regret? If you’re not on today or don’t get it right this time, you know what happens.
This time, Beau had not answered. Noah hung up. “Dispatch is pinging it now. Could take up to a half hour though.”
Josie turned the phone toward him so he could read the message. “Shit,” he said.
Beau’s skin was bone white. “What do I do?”
“We need to stall,” said Josie. “If dispatch can find the phone, we can send units and get this guy.”
Margot stepped forward. “The show starts in fifteen minutes. He is supposed to go live.”
“We have no time,” said Beau. “I have to do this.”
Noah said, “Can you cancel the show for today? Have WYEP claim technical difficulties?”
“Not in fifteen minutes,” said someone behind them. The producer, Kathy, stepped forward. “He has to go on. I don’t care what he does, but there has to be a show. We’ve got sponsors to worry about.”
“Fine,” said Josie. “Do the show.”
“But do I answer his question?”
She made a number of split-second calculations in her head. To their knowledge, there was no harm in Beau going on air or even in him answering the question. The audience had no idea what was going on. They knew that Claudia was dead, but the only people who knew about the game were the killer and the people in this room. While Josie would never advocate for playing directly into the hands of a brutal killer, the potential benefits seemed to outweigh the cost. The killer had made it clear: if he didn’t go on air, there would be consequences. If he answered the question incorrectly, there would be consequences. The last time, Beau had answered incorrectly, and Trudy Dawson was murdered. It was safe to assume that if Beau failed to go live or answered the question wrong, someone else would die.
The only issue was that they didn’t know who the killer would target now if Beau answered incorrectly.
In Josie’s ear, Noah whispered, “He has to answer. We can’t tell him not to answer knowing that someone might die. Our best shot at avoiding another murder is having him do this.”
In spite of how cool the studio was kept, sweat gathered along the nape of Josie’s neck. “Mr. Collins, what’s the answer to the question?”
Beau looked momentarily stunned. “What?”
“You’re going to do the show and you’re going to talk to the audience about Claudia’s deepest regret. What is it?”
Kathy added, “Yeah, we need to know so we can write some copy before you get on there.”
Josie resisted the urge to elbow the woman.
Beau seemed confused. “Her deepest regret? It’s the same as yesterday. Not getting that job. She wanted to work with domestic violence survivors. She never had the chance. I told her with our new status and financial security, she could probably start doing it. She could open her own damn shelter if she wanted.”
Josie did not point out to him that Denton already had an excellent women’s shelter. Instead, she said, “Are you absolutely sure?”
“Yes,” he insisted.
Noah said, “If Claudia were standing here right in front of us and we asked her the question, that’s what she would say?”
“Yes!”
“No,” said Liam Flint.
