Page 56 of Line of Sight (Second Sight #4)

I KNEW it wouldn’t be long before the others crawled out of the woodwork. And it was certainly no surprise that Greg was the first to call.

“Have you seen the news?”

I feigned ignorance. “I try to avoid it. So much of what’s going on is totally depressing, not to mention the fact that you have no idea if what you’re reading, hearing, or watching is actually true.” I paused. “Were you referring to a particular news item?”

“Amy, for Christ’s sake. The police say she committed suicide.”

I gasped. “I must’ve missed that. How awful. When was this?”

“Sometime over the weekend.” Greg paused. “You… you didn’t have anything to do with this, did you?”

Another gasp, this one filled with righteous indignation. “What? You just said she killed herself. How could I be involved? That’s not how I work. You know that.”

I took his silence to indicate shame at having even contemplated making such a heinous suggestion.

God, I’m good.

Greg was still there. I could hear him breathing.

Now what?

“She called me last week, you know,” he murmured. “She called Jennifer too, and Jason. She was a mess.”

“Funny that she didn’t call me. But I think you’ve just answered your own question,” I said in a triumphant tone.

“It sounds—to me, at least—as though she cracked under the strain. I don’t see why, however.

There was nothing to connect her to any of the murders, especially Jeff’s. She had an alibi, remember?”

“But what if they find out it wasn’t her at the restaurant?” Another pause before his breathing caught. “Oh. My. God. What if she really did kill Jeff?”

“Well then, we know why she killed herself, don’t we? Guilt. What did she do, swallow a handful of pills?”

“No, nothing like that.” The line went quiet again.

I smirked. Aw, poor Greg. Too sensitive a soul to mention that she hanged herself?

“Are you sure the police can’t connect us to the murders? They’re investigating all of them now. All of them, not just Brad’s.”

That note of rising panic in his voice disgusted me.

You wanted this, remember? It was your idea. In fact, you were the first. What do they say? If you can’t stand the heat….

“Maybe they are,” I said calmly. “But I repeat, there is nothing to connect any of you to them. No motives, remember?”

“But what about the evidence you said you had? You know, the stuff that could implicate us?”

Oh, you remembered that part, did you?

“If they haven’t found it by now, they might never find it.”

The panic in his voice was worse than the last time we spoke. I thought quickly. When it came to Scott, Greg had been playing a long game.

Well, so had I. My long game was the elimination of the only people who could identify me. It hadn’t been my initial plan—Brad had changed all that.

One more down, three to go.

Then I smiled. Oops. It’s a wise man who remembers how many people he plans to kill.

I cleared my throat. “Actually, Greg? I have an idea that might divert the police’s attention from you to someone else.”

“Seriously? How could you do that?”

I smiled. “I’ll give them another suspect, steer them right into his path. But to do this, I’ll need your help. Are you up for that?” I tried to speak as earnestly as I could.

For this to work, I needed him to believe me.

There was silence for a moment. “Sure. I can do that. What do you want me to do?”

“Let me set things up at my end first, then I’ll call you.” I hung up, not wanting to hear his whining voice for another second.

I’d sent Porter a little Christmas gift, and I’d been dying to use it ever since I’d first read the book. One murder in particular had stood out, something I’d never considered doing before, which was odd because Bateman had done it, hadn’t he?

Except he hadn’t been as ambitious as I planned to be.