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Most of all, she thought of June. That woman had come from her room. That woman had—impossibly—walked just like her.
June’s music was loud. A crimson pool leaked from under her door.
Cindy did not remember running, nor wetting herself. She felt no shame. She felt only a deep wind rising in her chest as she threw the front door open and the cool night embraced her, a wind now leaving her lips as a guttural scream.
4Runner.
dream car (or shall I say suv) mentioned
She fell into a coma for seventy-two hours. By the time her name hit the medical database, the police were tracking her down.
“Oksana? Who knows and who fucking cares? I dumped her ass in Hartford, and that was that. We were done with her, all of us. We tried to be friendly all semester and she’d just turn on us, hold things over each of us, like leverage. You most of all.”
“Me? I barely remember her.” “Well, she idolized you. Started dressing like you, talking like you.
Because of the man, Megan realized. The man standing on the roof. The man covered in blood.
“No. No, please. No.” Then the crowd shuddered. “Yo, is he… Is he pointing at me?” frisbee guy asked.
Even frisbee guy was looking back now, his gaze falling on Adam and Megan.
Because the haggard man was pointing at them. He curled his wounded hand to his mouth and shouted, “I see you! I see both of you now. I’ve seen such perfection.”
The man wasn’t talking to him, Adam realized. He was talking to Megan.
Did she know him? Adam studied her reaction, reading her for any glimpse of recognition. Instead, her eyes widened and she shouted, “No, please! Don’t!”
The man smiled as he leaned forward and let his feet slip from the roof.
With a damp thump, the man’s body hit the hedges. His head bounced across the grass, a few feet away.
No wonder she settled far from the haunted vales of New England.
Well, not a perfect fit, but a good place to start.
Yes, Anwar is using every strategy he knows against Megan, because she is using hers against him. She’s stalled and told a few meandering anecdotes. She’s still playing loose with the truth.
No, of course not. He’s not a fool.
Smiling to himself, he opens the bathroom door and heads down the hall. Damn, he’s going the wrong way. Then something stops him from turning back.
And there, to the left of the frame, two women stand holding hands in an homage to Kahlo’s famous painting, The Two Fridas.
The woman made of smoke and cindering wood is a teenage Megan. The other woman is formed from wet seaweed and dark coral.
“I’m just admiring your mom’s art, buddy. She’s talented.”
bro leave this lady ALONE
She arranges the walnuts and almonds in a flower around the fruit. “Ah, you were snooping.”
That one by the bathroom, it’s part of that new series, isn’t it? I saw them on your website. I didn’t make the connection until now.”
Like a painting of a missing girl made decades later. She whispers, “How much stays off the record?” He pushes the tape recorder away, leaving the slot open and empty and easily seen. He flashes his best salesman’s smile. “As much as you need.”
Some had been watching the operation since sunrise, when the sheriff’s department, county search and rescue, and the remains recovery specialist all pulled up to Louis’s house in tandem.
“It was. And I’ll give you one guess whose Ford Taurus was parked on campus, not a thousand feet away from the corpse.” “Louis. No shit?” “No shit.”
Two gruesome killings. A task force. This had gone rogue, grown beyond what he could have ever imagined. Metastasized.
It was so much worse than he thought. Graham had a long drive ahead.
Still, Megan couldn’t believe it: June, her friend Chunhee, gone just like that. And her body… What was the phrase they used? ‘Unaccounted for.’ Another way to say it was missing.
When they had agreed to be interviewed, he insisted Megan go first. She knew Chunhee best, after all. But if her statement ran long, they could be stuck here another night, which meant another motel and more food, things she could barely afford. Still, questions scratched about in her mind.
Megan was nearing the bottom of her coffee when she sensed a change in the air. The officers and clerical staff perked up.
Megan didn’t know Chunhee’s parents very well. On the restaurant menus and billboards, Mr. Chang always smiled that wide, toothy smile, eyes uplifted and closed.
His sobs echoed off the station’s brick walls, guttural for such a small man. Megan’s stomach twisted at the procession.
Then the doors opened, the noon light engulfed them, and the Chang family was gone.
He might have been good-looking if it weren’t for the scruffy hair and the gray blazer that hung from him a little too large. He smelled like the road.
“I’m so sorry about your friend,” he said, closing the door. “She sounded like a neat woman.”
“Did Ms. Chang seem worried? Did she say anything that led you to believe she was in danger?” “No, I’m not sure.”
“Louis? No.” “And you’ve never spoken to him on the phone?” “Never.” “No mutual friends or secondhand contact?” “None that I know of.” “How’d you know his name?” “One of the cops said it this morning. Louis… Hardy?”
“Just that he should postpone it until after five.” She laughed. He didn’t. “Wait, you’re serious?”
So, this guy Louis, he has zero reason to know you, correct? And yet, there’s a video tape of him calling out you and your boyfriend. ‘Your secret is safe.’” “Okay, first, Adam is not my boyfriend.”
This photo is ancient history,” Megan said. “We broke up two years ago.” More like he stopped returning my calls,
Why did it feel recent and raw?
“I don’t live in Connecticut, not anymore.” “You said you left New Bedford at two.” “I was visiting our old school. I live in Philly. I’m an art student.”
“I’m sorry, you’re saying Louis was at Tenbury yesterday.” He nodded. “So, he was, like, stalking me, or…?” “I don’t know. So far the timelines don’t match up.”
“I’m sorry, Detective. I’m confused. Am I in some sort of trouble?”
“Oh no, no no no, of course not. I’m sorry, I’m not trying to be ominous or anything.”
“Breathe, young grasshopper,” he said. “Breathe.”
Not vibing with that
Chunhee was on track for summa cum laude. She occasionally dated.
