Page 39 of By the Time You Read This (Raisa Susanto #3)

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Raisa

Day Four

Delaney drove to a Best Buy in Tacoma and walked out with a laptop-shaped bag.

Then she headed to a hole-in-the-wall bar.

St. Ivany and Raisa parked in a strip mall across the street.

“I’m going to go in,” St. Ivany said.

“What are you going to say?” Raisa asked.

“I’ll figure it out when I get in there.”

St. Ivany shrugged out of her blazer and ruffled her hair. It had already looked soft to start with, but whatever she’d done added some more shape to the cut. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then tossed Raisa the keys.

“In case you need them.” And with that, she got out of the SUV.

She was in there for a total of ten minutes, and Raisa counted every second that went by, wondering if they should have called in backup. At least this time, she had her gun.

Raisa had already climbed into the driver seat, so when the door opened and St. Ivany walked out, she was able to pick her up and peel out of the lot as quickly as possible.

“She was looking at a list of Isabel’s victims’ names,” St. Ivany said. “But judging from the photo of it, it looked ... handwritten. Like the letter you got from Isabel.”

Raisa wasn’t surprised. She’d assumed that her sisters had been communicating, through the Biggest Fan letters, of course, but through other means as well.

“I gave her my number,” St. Ivany said, looking ruffled for perhaps the first time since Raisa had met her. “I don’t know what I was thinking. I probably should have planned that better.”

Raisa laughed, though it came out a little hysterical. They really should have planned all this better. Delaney had thrown them into chaos when she’d grabbed that go-bag.

That had been a miscalculation on Raisa’s part.

“Do you guys have any evidence in Emily Logan’s case?” Raisa asked. She knew she should have studied it more by now. Maybe she would have seen an actual connection to Delaney, instead of just her brain constructing webs that were made of nothing but gut instincts.

“Nothing. It was incredibly clean,” St. Ivany said. “Weirdly so for such a violent death. It was why we wondered about the boyfriend, who works for the hospital.”

“Working around blood doesn’t mean he knows how to kill someone without leaving DNA behind,” Raisa pointed out.

“Yeah, but it helps.” St. Ivany was silent for a beat before asking, “Did we just drive away from Emily Logan’s killer?”

“ He’s got the taste of blood now. It’s a tragedy, but you gotta do what you gotta do. ”

There was a scenario here where Delaney had snapped completely. Isabel had told her to kill Peter and Lindsey and Emily and she’d simply followed orders. That didn’t match with the Delaney Raisa knew. That was a strange thought to have, considering how hard Raisa had been on her sister since they’d reunited. But here, facing down a possible situation where Delaney really was a cold-blooded killer, Raisa couldn’t see it.

If she had to guess, Delaney had been spotted near Peter’s house because Isabel had said her protégé was going to try to kill him. Same with Lindsey.

If that protégé had been Emily, did that mean Delaney had put her down, like a dog with the taste of blood?

Raisa didn’t answer St. Ivany’s question. She couldn’t. Instead, she pulled into another parking lot, this one a grocery store. She jerked her head toward St. Ivany’s phone. “Where is she?”

“Still at the bar,” St. Ivany said, and then she shifted so that she could look at Raisa. “Can I take a guess at what you’re thinking?”

“Sure,” Raisa said, though she was slightly nervous about it.

“Let’s say Delaney killed Emily,” St. Ivany said. “It was because she was looking for someone who was on a murder spree, right? She thought Emily was killing other people, but now that Isabel is dead, she realizes she got the wrong person. There’s still someone out there, and she needs to stop them.”

“Yeah,” Raisa said. That about summed it up perfectly. St. Ivany was more perceptive than Raisa gave her credit for.

“So she must be looking for someone who has a passing interest in Isabel, right? Maybe someone who admires how Isabel went about her business ...”

“Yeah,” Raisa said again, wondering where this was going.

St. Ivany looked sheepish but she shouldered on. “This ... might not exactly be, uh, by the book, but I have an idea.”

“Gabriela Cruz?” Raisa asked, when St. Ivany—who’d retaken the driver’s seat—pulled to a stop outside the girl’s house. “She’s just a college student.”

“A criminal justice major,” St. Ivany added. “She works for us in the summers, and she’ll probably apply to the force once she graduates in the winter. She has some training.”

“Some training filing the archives,” Raisa muttered. “Did she get a fake badge and everything?”

St. Ivany sent her a look. “I’m serious. She monitors campus safety as well. And you say Delaney will either run or clam up if we try to confront her right now. We have to go in sideways.”

That was true. Delaney was too smart for them to break in any conventional way. They needed to apply more pressure, to bait her a little, to get her to act, but to do so recklessly so she’d make a mistake.

She would already be on the alert, just from Maeve approaching her in the bar. If they relented, they would lose the chance to capitalize on that anxiety.

But Raisa was still balking at putting a civilian in harm’s way. Especially one she was rooting for.

“If you have other ideas ...,” St. Ivany said.

“Can you even ask her to do this?”

“We have authority to hire people to go undercover for us,” St. Ivany said. “We would have her miked the whole time, and a whole fleet of police hiding nearby to make sure she’s safe. It would be like any other sting.”

Raisa groaned, but then got out of the SUV, leaving St. Ivany behind.

She crossed to Gabriela’s door and knocked.

“What do you want now?” Gabriela asked when she answered.

Raisa sighed. “I have a favor to ask.”

Gabriela was the one who suggested the party at the beach.

“It’s all over Facebook. Anyone who wants to come can just show up. And there will definitely be boys there who toe the lines with the girls,” Gabriela said. “If you’re looking for someone who is targeting predators—it’s the perfect place to go.”

“And you’re comfortable with this?” Raisa asked for perhaps the thousandth time.

“Yeah.” Gabriela’s big eyes were terribly wide, and it was obvious she was trying to keep the excitement out of her voice. “She’s not hunting me .”

Maybe. But they were going to make Delaney think that she should be.

Raisa studied Gabriela, looking for nerves. There were some, under the rush of adrenaline. But they didn’t seem to be crippling.

“Don’t do anything,” Raisa said. “If she talks to you, great. But don’t try to goad her into anything.”

Gabriela sent her a look. “So you’re sending me in there for no purpose at all, then?”

“I’m serious,” Raisa said. “Don’t poke her.”

“I don’t even know what she looks like,” Gabriela pointed out.

“You think there will be a lot of middle-aged ladies hanging out with a bunch of college students?” Raisa asked.

“Hey, we’re not ageists here.”

Raisa rolled her eyes. “She looks like Isabel.”

“Does she really?”

“Yeah.” Though even as she answered, Raisa almost walked that back. Before Raisa had known Delaney was her sister, she hadn’t seen the resemblance. Or maybe she hadn’t wanted to see it.

The rest of the day was devoted to prep work. Around dusk, they got Gabriela wired up and then drove as close to the beach party as they dared.

Gabriela sent them a grin. “You guys look like you think I’m about to go get murdered.”

Raisa tried to smile back. “Don’t do anything to antagonize her. She’s more dangerous than she looks.”

“As you’ve warned five billion times,” Gabriela said, with an eye roll before popping out of the SUV. “I’m not an idiot, I promise.”

And then she was gone into the night.

St. Ivany’s mouth pinched tight. They had three of her uniforms stationed around the party, and her partner in another SUV down the road on the other side so they’d be able to monitor everyone who came and went. But St. Ivany wasn’t going to relax until Gabriela returned to the back seat unharmed.

Raisa checked to make sure no one could overhear her before turning to St. Ivany. “Do you trust Gabriela?”

St. Ivany made a considering sound. “As much as I would trust any twenty-two-year-old civilian.”

“She’s obsessed with Isabel,” Raisa pointed out. “That could make her the copycat.”

“You said the copycat would be erratic, didn’t you?” St. Ivany asked. “Does she seem erratic?”

“No,” Raisa admitted, shifting to once again look out the windshield. The only reason Gabriela had let them in the apartment that first day was because she’d wanted to know what had happened to Isabel. She didn’t seem like some kind of protégé who’d had a rift with her beloved mentor.

Still, Raisa’d had to ask. Delaney was a blind spot for her. Raisa had to steer away from any theory involving her sister, because she was always already sliding toward thinking Delaney was guilty.

And right now, she was worried that she was missing something obvious because she’d been chasing Delaney all day.

St. Ivany was a steadying presence beside her, though. One who wouldn’t put up with Raisa’s bullshit.

“ That’s the first time you really asked about Emily Logan in a way an impartial detective would, ” St. Ivany had said. She wouldn’t hesitate to slap Raisa’s wrist again, either.

It took an hour before they heard Gabriela audibly inhale over the mic.

“She found her,” Raisa murmured.

“ No one has cigarettes anymore, ” Gabriela said to someone, her voice incredibly casual. She was a natural at this.

“ They’re the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States, ” Delaney replied, and Raisa almost laughed.

St. Ivany huffed out something approximating humor. “Does she always talk like that?”

“Yeah,” Raisa said, feeling fond. Kind of.

“She was like that in the bar, too,” St. Ivany murmured quickly so as not to speak over the conversation. “I thought she was trying to scare me off.”

“No,” Raisa said. “That’s just how she is.”

Gabriela was trying to get info from Delaney and failing. It wasn’t exactly poking the bear, but Raisa was tense as she listened to the efforts.

Then Delaney offered, “ It’s tough out there for girls these days. ”

A pause. Gabriela knew that they wanted Delaney to be intrigued by her. Raisa’s heart kicked up as she realized that of course Gabriela was going to try to goad Delaney instead of listening to any one of Raisa’s warnings.

“ These days? Try at any point in history. ”

“ Anyone I should keep my eye out for? ” Delaney asked.

St. Ivany’s brows raised when Gabriela actually pointed two guys out.

“Yeah, that’s what happens if you send a twenty-two-year-old civilian to deal with a potential homicidal woman,” Raisa said, angry—at herself more than anything.

“We’ll send uniforms to make sure they’re safe,” St. Ivany promised. But she looked unsure for the first time since she’d come up with the plan.

“ We have to do something, ” Delaney said. Raisa guessed from the snippets of conversation that the two guys Gabriela had pointed out were cornering a girl at the party.

“ You think I haven’t tried? ” Gabriela shot back.

St. Ivany inhaled sharply, and pressed the mic button. “Gabriela, get back here now, or I’m sending someone in for you.”

“ Hey, it was nice meeting you, but I gotta pee, ” Gabriela said, immediately. She must have known if St. Ivany was threatening to pull the trigger when she’d been on board the rest of the time, then it was serious.

Two minutes later, the SUV’s back door opened, and Gabriela hopped back in, her grin wide.

“I definitely made her think I’m sus,” Gabriela said. When they just looked at her, she shrugged. “I’ll sleep with the lights on tonight.”

“You’ll sleep with a police officer stationed outside your building tonight,” St. Ivany corrected, before she started the SUV. Then grudgingly, she added, “Good work.”

When they dropped Gabriela off, St. Ivany pulled up her phone. Delaney hadn’t discovered the AirTag yet, which had to be at the bottom of her purse.

She was currently leaving the beach, driving not toward them but south toward the highway.

“Did she get spooked?” St. Ivany asked, but as she did, the AirTag stopped.

A motel.

A motel on the outskirts of town, Raisa heard in one of the many voices she’d listened to over the past few days.

Who had said it, though?

“You game?” St. Ivany asked, and Raisa nodded.

They drove in silence until the motel came into view—a real dump, a pay-by-the-hour type place. St. Ivany parked beneath a broken streetlight.

They waited for an hour or so until a door on the ground level opened.

Delaney stepped out of her room, carrying something.

Raisa tensed, but all Delaney did was sit at the edge of the pool.

About five minutes later, another door opened, this time on the second floor.

It looked like a man, tall and lanky with hair that he’d tied into a topknot.

And just as he moved into the light, Raisa remembered who had said he was staying here.

She and St. Ivany watched as Roan Carmichael joined Delaney at the edge of the unfilled pool.

Then ten minutes later, they watched as Delaney led him back to her room.