AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I understand; I’m just giving options,” Hans said.
It wasn’t an option Noah cared to exercise—except as a last resort.
TWENTY
Cody confronted Lucy outside the Medical Examiner’s Office on Monday morning. “You lied to me.”
Lucy blinked rapidly, at a complete loss. Her head ached from lack of sleep, the wind had picked up, making her colder than she already was, and that awful pinprick sensation of being watched had returned.
He shoved a piece of paper into her gloved hand. It was a printout of a message from Prenter’s social networking account—the deleted account—forwarded to Prenter’s personal email.
The original message was from Lucy’s “Tanya” account:
change of plans—i have an errand in dc can we meet at club 10? can’t wait!! ? xoxo Tanya.
Lucy read it five times before Cody yanked it out of her hands. “I didn’t send it,” she said.
“I don’t believe you.”
She stared at him, heartbroken that he thought she was lying. A curdle of fear twisted in her stomach as she realized someone had used her account to send Prenter to Club 10. Where he’d been murdered. “You’ve known me for over three years. You don’t trust me?”
“Are you denying this is your account?” He waved the paper in her face.
“No, but—”
“Your secure WCF account?”
“Cody! Stop interrogating me like I’m a suspect.”
He didn’t say anything, but glared at her.
“I didn’t send that message,” she repeated.
“Then who?” He shot out the question as if she were a hostile witness.
“I don’t know!”
Lucy’s mind ran through every possible scenario she could think of. “It’s not impossible for someone to have hacked my account.”
“Someone would have to have known who you were.”
“No—not necessarily. If someone got hold of Prenter’s emails—hell, Cody, he had them forwarded to his personal email, anyone could see my log-in name! Maybe one of his ex-girlfriends was pissed off and didn’t want him seeing someone else. Maybe—”
“Listen to yourself!”
“I’m trying to figure out how someone used my account—or masked their account to look like mine—to send him to the bar where he died. Maybe it’s just a coincidence.” As she said it, she realized this was no coincidence. The decision to send Prenter to Club 10 was deliberate and calculating. Less than two hours later, he was murdered in the alley. Quietly, she asked, “What do you think, Cody?”
He ran a hand over his face. “I don’t know what to think, Lucy.”
“The murder was purposeful. Did you read the autopsy report? Four bullets, remember? Three in the stomach, one in the back of the head. That sounds professional, right? Not a drug dispute gone bad.”
Lucy began to shake from more than the cold.
Cody grabbed her hand. “If you’re in trouble, tell me. I will do everything in my power to help you, but you have to tell me the truth.”
“Trouble? I’m not in any trouble!”
“Did someone ask you to send that message? Or maybe you gave someone access to your account? Who are you trying to protect? Tell me!”
