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“Sir?”

A light hits my eyes. One officer. Then another. They pull me back from the car and I let them because holding him is not going to bring him back.

They ask if I am hurt. I say no. They ask if I know him and I tell them that he is—was my driver.

“Did you see who did it?” one officer asks.

“Yes.”

“Who was it?”

“I don’t know. A mask. Grey clothes. A hood. I grabbed it and then I lost them in the bay.”

They look down the row of cars, and there is no one there now. Only Shane. Only me and the blood I took off his throat and onto my hands.

They walk me inside, the building is still full of police from Ivy. Tape. Lights. All the people who have been here since just after midnight. Pell is one of them.

She sees the blood on my shirt before she sees my face.

“What happened?”

“Shane Cole is dead. He was in his car waiting for me. I told him to stay home, but he came anyway. I found him.”

Ortiz is with her. He has something to write on and he has not caught up yet.

She does not take me back to the glass room. We stay in the lobby.

“I told you not to go far.”

“I went home. I called him, and when he didn’t pick up, I came back.”

“And you found him like that?” Pell asks.

“Yes.”

“Was the person who has been calling you on the phone?”

“Not when I got to the car, but someone was in the seat. A white mask and the same grey outfit I told you about. I reached for them but they got past me. Shane was dying so I didn’t follow. I didn’t want to leave him, not like that.”

Ortiz writes. Pell watches my mouth.

“Did they say anything to you?”

“Not to me. Not then.”

I could tell her the rest, the whole “Don’t scream. Kiss me. Pretty when you bleed,” but I don’t. I already gave her that after Ivy. It didn’t save Ivy, and it sure as fuck didn’t save Shane.

“You need to stay here,” Pell says. “You don’t leave this building. Not after this.”

“My sister is coming to my house. I have to leave.”

Pell looks at me for a long second. “You never mentioned a sister.”

“Her name is Lena. I have been calling her since Tuesday. After Noah. After Kit. After Ivy. She has seen the building on the news and she keeps asking if I am all right. I keep telling her to stay put and she called me again tonight. I told her not to get in her car but she is coming anyway. If I sit here and she walks into that house on her own, I will find her the same way I found him and all the others.”

“Then we send someone.”

“Send whoever the fuck you want. I am still going.”