Page 22 of So Deadly
“Have you noticed anything suspicious recently?Anyone showing up who didn’t belong?Vehicles parked where they’re not supposed to?People walking by who maybe loitered a little too long?”
Bobby shook his head.“Tell the truth, I probably wouldn’t have noticed if it happened right outside.You just kind of tune things out when you live in the city.Nothing really bad ever happened here, though.I just mean if I saw someone I didn’t recognize, I’d assume they were visiting someone and not think about it.”
“Did you see someone you didn’t recognize?”
“No.”He laughed and scratched the back of his head.“So, I don’t know why I said all that.I just… God.That messed me up.That messed me the hell up.”
Faith gave up on getting anything useful from him.“It’s pretty messed up,” she said.“Go ahead and take that vacation.Make it a long one.”
“Yeah, I think I will.Hell, I might even move.Knowing that someone murdered him right below me, and I never realized it…” He shuddered.“Makes you think what might happen to you out of nowhere, you know what I mean?”
“Yes,” Faith replied.“I know exactly what you mean.”
She headed back to Webb’s apartment.Jessica met her outside.She looked a little green around the gills, but for the most part, she was keeping it together.“There are six orders for vests in his email,” Jessica told Faith.“That’s it.No long-term records, no one railing at him on social media, no obscure death threats or obvious death threats.”
“Did you email the list to yourself?”
“Sure did.”
“Good.Then we’ll start going through it.Odds are the killer is connected to Hayes and Webb through that business.”
Jessica nodded.“Yeah, we’ll do that.I hate to be a wimp, but can we leave?I’m on the verge of a panic attack, and I do not say that lightly.”
“Sure,” Faith said.“We’ll take off.Turk!”
Turk looked warily at her, and only when she and Jessica walked away from the apartment did he follow.He glanced back at the open door, shuddered, then quickened his pace, beating the two human agents to the gate.
Faith didn’t blame him.With her mask on, she was protected from the smell, but the visual of Webb’s torn-up body left to be food for fungus would stay with her for a long time.Whoever this person was, they wanted to hurt these victims, then leave them where they fell.They wanted them to be thought of as meaningless, useless, something to be disdained and ignored.
There was no mistaking it.This was personal.
And whoever it was, they weren’t going to stop.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Faith texted Michael as soon as she got to the hotel.He replied an hour later while Faith swallowed the last bite of the ham and Swiss croissant she’d purchased from the coffee shop they’d visited on the way back to the hotel.
In OK City.Have some leads to follow up on.Not many, but all promising.Will update later.
She texted back a thumbs up, then finished the last sip of her coffee and tossed the trash into the room’s wastebasket.Michael didn’t have any real progress to report, but knowing he was hard at work looking for David helped ease her mind a little.She would rather have been there herself, but she understood Smythe’s point.With the CIA this jumpy, it was better not to give them any reason to be jumpier.
“I think I might have something,” Jessica said.
Faith's ears perked up.She then walked to her partner, who was working through the list of names of those who had ordered fake service dog vests."Whatcha got?"
“Well, we figured this killer had probably suffered something serious from a dog, right?”
“We did.”
Jessica turned the screen toward Faith.“Feast your eyes on Amanda Prowse.”
Faith looked at an image of a rather pretty woman in her early thirties with round cheeks, a button nose, and soft green eyes hidden behind wire-rimmed glasses.Tight red curls sat on top of her head, and she appeared to have a build that leaned more to curvy than slender.
“Tell me about Miss Prowse,” Faith said.
"Well, she was one of six who ordered a fake service vest from Thomas Webb," Jessica replied."And she sued Margaret Hayes two years ago when she was bitten by her German Shepherd."
Faith’s eyes widened.“Ah.How interesting.”
