Page 51

CHAPTER 51

BABY WALKED NUMBLY TO the car beside me, her face blank and her eyes on her feet. I felt the way she looked. We sat in shell-shocked silence in the sun-warmed Chevy for a good five minutes before either of us spoke.

“Daisy found a serial killer,” Baby said.

I held the steering wheel.

“She did it to impress Alex,” Baby went on. She gestured to the house we’d just come from. “She was obsessed with her lover, obsessed to the point that she would leave her husband. That she would leave her job. That she would leave her life . She wanted to bring Alex something that was right up her alley. Maybe a project they could work on together. So she hit the internet and scratched around until she found an unsolved crime. Then she got to work on it, and — ”

“And what?” I asked.

“And she found what she was looking for.” Baby shrugged. “You stick your finger down enough spider holes, eventually you’re gonna get bit.”

I couldn’t untangle my thoughts. My phone bleeped.

“Question is, how far did she have to look?” Baby asked. “Maybe all she had to do to find a serial killer was roll over in bed.”

The message on my phone was from Dave Summerly. I opened it.

We need to talk, it said. Your place. Urgent.