Page 44 of Into The Rabbit Hole

“Okay, let’s do this.” Wes smiled and gave Chloe and Taylor a hopeful look. He brought his laptop with him. Moving over to the little work table where they kept things like oil and tools, he slipped the chip into the side of hislaptop.

Taylor held onto Chloe and Kelly linked her arm with hers, too. She was grateful for the support because her legs felt so weak she was certain she was going to fallover.

Wes clicked a few buttons on the keyboard and a fuzzy then clear image came up on the screen. He tapped a few more buttons and put the date and time in for when he wanted to view. When he pressed enter, the image adjusted and started showing the footage from thatnight.

The area was lit by the porch light. It was one of those amber-colored ones that was soft in its glow and just bright enough for the video to capture the surroundings. When she got a good look at the view the video captured, she thanked her lucky stars for Wade’s expensive tastes. If he’d been the kind of guy to grab some old, beat-up bike they wouldn’t have this recording now. And it was showing the exact areas they needed it to show of Merissa’s house. The front door, the hideaway in the front garden that concealed the view of the road, and just the right amount of the corner where the hedgesran.

Wade came into view on the recording. They watched him walk up the steps to the porch and Merissa opened the door. They were talking but they were too far away from the bike for it to pick up exactly what they were saying. Wade went inside the house and that wasit.

There was nothing for a few minutes and Chloe’s hopes began to sink. But then Taylor gripped onto her arm and cried out, “Oh my God!” when a person dressed in full black came intoview.

The image made her skin crawl and even Wes brought his hands up to his cheeks. The person had a bag, it looked like a gym bag. They went straight for the little hideaway and set the bag down. Seconds later they took out a small can that looked like hairspray and crept around to the side of thehouse.

Again there was nothing, and then they watched the window smash and something come out of it. To her it looked like a ball or a paperweight of sorts. She had something similar atRunway.

The person came into view again from the corner and they sat cross-legged on the lawn, watching and waiting. She was trying to see their face. It was definitely aman.

He took out his phone and spoke to someone for a few minutes. When he was finished, he got up and retrieved a long-reach knife from the bag. Kelly gasped when she saw that. Chloe felt weak even though she was watching the images that she’d hoped they wouldsee.

“One more to kill,” the guy sang. The recording captured that. “One more tokill.”

Her stomach tightened and she felt bile rise into her mouth. The man went around the side of the house again and then nothingness filled thescreen.

Moments later he emerged again without the knife. He looked over at the bike and bile rose into her throat when she saw hisface.

Right there in full view wasZeek.

Zeek, the man she’d been introduced to at Adrenaline. He worked with Wade andJared.

“Oh God, I know him,” she cried, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I knowhim.”

They went straight to the police station and called Regina and Ben on their way there. Once they got there, they asked for Detective Fray. Again, Chloe was proud of the way Wes handled himself, acting confident and with authority as he told the receptionist, who tried to get them to wait, that he had key evidence in a murderinvestigation.

They didn’t have to wait long after that and by then Regina, Brian, and Ben had arrived. Chloe watched the tape again when Detective Fray took them to an interview room with access to a computer that could play thechip.

Again that that creepy, stomach-wrenching feeling washed over her when she saw Zeek’sface.

She’d spent the whole journey trying to process it. Zeek was their psycho. He seemed sonice.

“This man works with Wade?” Detective Fray asked her. He’d taken notes through the whole viewing of thetape.

“Yes. He does the marketing for Wade’s company,” she explained. It was Jared, Wade’s friend that had talked Zeek up on the day that she met them both. She’d been so impressed with Zeek and even thought of how talented he must have been to do such a good job for Wade and Jared. Little did she know that he was thepsycho.

“This guy may have killed Merissa, but that isn’t Aaron,” Ben suddenly said. “This is our secondguy.”

Chloe glanced over at him; everyone else looked,too.

“How do you know?” Regina chimedin.

Chloe didn’t know what they were talking about. She wasn’t aware of a second person, and they seemed to have moreinformation.

“It’s not him,” Benrepeated.

“Regardless to who it is, it looks like we have our killer,” Detective Fraystated.

Regina nodded and smiled. She turned to look at Chloe and Wes and the smile fell from her face. Chloe knew the expression on her face all too well. She’d seen it many times when she was a child and had disobeyed her parents or Regina. Regina was always scarier than her parents, though. Way morescary.

“What happens now?” Chloe asked, ignoring the look. She directed her gaze and question to Detective Fray. She wasn’t a child anymore and didn’t have to answer to anyone, no matter how much Regina meant to her. Chloe agreed that what she did with Wes wasn’t by any means safe, but it had worked. And she would happily point out that their little side mission worked above everything else everyone else was doing. They found the killer and cleared Wade’s name. It was as simple as that. “Can Wade come homenow?”