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“Did you know Emily through the true crime community?” Raisa asked, hoping to catch her slightly off guard.
Gabriela scoffed and then turned it into a cough.
Raisa lifted her brows. “What?”
“Nothing.”
“You knew her, didn’t you?” Raisa pressed.
Gabriela shrugged. “She cared about true crime, not Isabel Parker in particular. So, yeah, we crossed paths in some online forums, but we didn’t run in the same circles.”
“It sounds like there’s more to it.”
“She was getting a reputation,” Gabriela said slowly. “For being a nuisance, really breaking the fourth wall a lot. A lot, a lot.”
“What does that mean?” Raisa asked, thinking she knew but wanting to hear it.
Gabriela looked at her like she was an idiot. “It’s the boundary between any piece of work or performer and their audience.”
Raisa shook her head. “I know what the fourth wall is as a term. What does it mean for your community?”
“Oh,” Gabriela said, some of the teenager falling out of her posture. “Contacting police. Harassing family members of both victims and killers.”
“She didn’t contact me,” Raisa said, though that wasn’t where her mind had landed.
Gabriela shot her a look. “You’re ... off limits.”
“What?”
“Don’t you ever wonder why you haven’t been bothered by ...” Gabriela waved her hand in the air. “All this? There’s, like, an unspoken agreement between everybody not to contact you. Even Emily followed it, apparently.”
Raisa blinked at her. “Why?”
“You’re FBI,” Gabriela said, with a shrug. “You’re bad for business, if you know what I mean.”
“Is Delaney exempt from that mentality?” Raisa asked. When Gabriela stared at her blankly, she added, “My sister. Delaney Moore.”
“Oh, right, duh.” Gabriela shook her head. “No, but she’s impossible to find.”
“Really?” It didn’t seem like anyone could hide in this day and age.
“Yeah, she’s, like, a computer whiz,” Gabriela said, the words coming out in a rush.
Delaney had spent plenty of time and energy making sure there were no pictures of her on the internet, too. She was a ghost.
Hopefully not an actual one.
Raisa pressed Gabriela for a few more minutes, but seemed to have tapped that particular well.
When she walked outside, it was to find Detective St. Ivany leaning against the SUV.
Raisa hesitated, but continued forward without too much of a hitch in her step.
“You good?” St. Ivany asked. “I was heading into work and I saw your SUV.”
“Yeah,” Raisa said, not sure if she believed this was a coincidence. In the light of day, her actions from the night before seemed weird. St. Ivany was checking up on her.
St. Ivany’s eyes slid over Raisa’s shoulder. “You were talking to Gabriela Cruz?”