But less than a minute later, her phone rang again, tearing her out of her calming thoughts. Gage must have woken up and not realized that she was still on the way, she figured, so she answered the call right away, without looking at the ID.
“Hello?” she said again, albeit a lot less patiently this time.
The voice on the other end of the phone was hoarse and low. She could barely make out the words as the man who spoke hissed, “You better back the fuck off, bitch.”
“What? Who’s this?”
“You know who this is,” the man said in his low, gravelly voice. “And you don’t want to meet me. Believe me. It wouldn’t be pretty. It never is for cunts like you.”
The line went dead before Fiona could think of what to say in response. Her heart thudded in her chest, sending her blood coursing through her veins like it was trying to escape from her body. “Jesus Christ,” she muttered to herself, her fingers shaking as she looked through her recent call list only to find the number was blocked. That meant trying to reverse the call wouldn’t work. She’d have to have it traced. Maybe Gage could help.
She didn’t know who just threatened her, but one thing was clear, it was the murderer, giving them their first solid lead since this entire investigation began.
Chapter Twenty-One
Gage awoke violently, gasping for air as a pair of delicate, familiar hands furiously shook him.
“He called me,” Fiona declared, continuing to shake Gage awake even after he began to pry open his eyes. “Honey, he fucking called me. Wake up, wake up!”
“Who?” Gage asked, sitting up in bed and blinking rapidly to adjust to the light that Fiona had just switched on next to his bed.
“The fucking killer,” Fiona responded, sitting down next to him and placing her hand on his shoulder. “His fucking voice was in my ear, Gage.”
Gage’s brain still took several seconds to fully process what she said, but when it did, his entire body shook itself awake, all at once. “Shit. Shit, are you serious?”
Fiona just nodded, a small smile spreading across her face, her eyes glinting like she’d just told him good news.
“Why are you…happy?” Gage asked. He knew it wasn’t the most pertinent question at the moment, but somehow, it felt like the only one that really mattered.
“Because!” Fiona practically shrieked, shaking Gage by the shoulder. “He’s scared! He knows we’re after him, and he’s scared. That means we’re close. We scared him somehow, even if we don’t know how. He knows about us. That means we stumbled onto something that he didn’t want us to find. We have to keep looking, searching over everything we’ve got until we find what it is that he’s so scared of.”
“How do you know it was even him? It could have been one of those kids we intimidated, trying to freak you out for revenge.”
Fiona shook her head. “No. It was him. I know it. I just know it. Trust me. The….way he talked to me. He hated me. It wasn’t just a little scuffle he was mad about. He was terrified and for good reason. I freaked him out somehow, and he needs me to back off. I fucking scared him!” She grinned and punched the air. Under different circumstances, Gage would have been smiling right along with her, happy that she felt powerful. But instead, his stomach turned over, feeling sick like he’d eaten something poisonous. If it really was the murderer, how did he know how to contact her? How’d he get Fiona’s number?
“Did you see a number on the caller ID?” Gage asked, slowly shifting his legs around so he could sit with his feet on the floor rather than curled up under him on the bed.
Fiona shook her head. “No, no, it’s blocked, of course. But I figured maybe your powerful connection could help you trace it, at least geographically. Maybe we could narrow down the specific area that he lives and eliminate various suspects that way.”
Gage nodded. “Good idea. I’ll get on it right away. There’s a guy across town that’ll take care of it.” Gage paused and cleared his throat, staring at Fiona, who was practically giggling on his bed, a sight he’d love to see in virtually any other context. But right now, it sent chills down into his bones, making him physically shiver beside her. She doesn’t know how scared she should be, Gage thought. She doesn’t know how bad this could be, even though she, more than anyone, should know how real the danger is.
“I’ll go with you,” Fiona said, reaching down to take Gage’s hand into her own, her pulse pounding against his wrist, so hard that he could feel it even through two layers of skin and sleeves. “I want to be there when you catch this fucker. For all of them.” For me, her eyes seemed to say, the darkness within hinting at the fear that she must have felt, despite her giddiness.