YOU BETTER RUN (Eva Rae Thomas Mystery Book 11) Read online

  THREE DAYS LATER

  Chapter 11

  “This isn’t right.”

  I rose to my feet and walked to the whiteboard. We were having a meeting in the war room we had put up at the newly built Cocoa Beach Police Station that had just been finished a few months earlier. The rooms were much bigger than the old station and the workplaces quite nice. I was glad to see my old colleagues move out of that old building across the street, where they had been since the sixties. The building had been damaged during Hurricane Irma, and it rained inside sometimes, causing mold to grow. It was about time they got some nicer work conditions.

  “I can’t believe we can’t figure out who this girl is?” I said and looked at her picture on the board in front of me. “Isn’t anyone missing her?”

  We had spent the morning going through all the facts, what we knew and what we didn’t. We knew that the cause of death was stabbing. The girl had five stab wounds in her stomach, chest, and abdomen. The autopsy concluded it killed her before she hit the water. And then she probably fell into the water, where the killer left her. They had found traces of her blood on the area around the pool, but it was sprayed in a fashion that was consistent with multiple stabbings being done rapidly after one another, pulling out the knife and reentering it. The knife hadn’t been found yet. The time of death was determined to be around seven a.m. that same morning. The body had sunk to the bottom due to water filling the lungs.

  All this we knew. All this was straightforward information.

  What we still didn’t know was who the heck this girl was.

  “We’re still waiting for the DNA-test results,” Matt said. “Hopefully, they’ll tell us who she is.”

  Our eyes met, and I felt sadness overwhelm me. We had a huge argument the day before when he dropped off Angel after having her for two days. He had told me he wasn’t comfortable with Alexander being around his daughter so much, so if I would please make sure to only see him when our child wasn’t there.

  I completely lost it. Not because of Alex, but because Matt had introduced Angel to one girl he dated after the other. I had wanted to tell him to stop so many times but kept quiet because I didn’t want to argue with him. And now he started this? Just because Alex had been there when he picked her up. We had just been talking about the case and the day at the house, how seeing the girl had made me feel, and so on for the book. It wasn’t even romantic, even if Alex had held my hand just as Matt walked in, of course, without knocking first, like he always did. Because it had never been an issue before, but now it was. And apparently, that made Matt angry, seeing us sitting there, sharing a moment of intimacy. I argued that Angel was napping and hadn’t been around Alex at all, but Matt wouldn’t let it go.

  It drained me. I hated this. I hated how hard it was for us both to move on, how painful it still was to be around one another. I hated how hurt he got, and I loathed how hurt I always felt when seeing him with someone else. How long was it going to take us to move on? Because we couldn’t be together. It was simply not doable. Believe me, we had tried.

  Why did he still hold so much power over me?

  “And none of the kids we have spoken to knows her or has seen her before. When seeing the picture of her, they all say, but that’s Meg,” Matt added with a shrug.

  “They do look identical,” I said, looking at Alex, who had gotten permission to observe the meetings and my work, but only if Chief Annie got to approve the chapters where this case was mentioned.

  “But that means the mother must be lying,” Chief Annie said. “I have gotten the birth records from Cape Canaveral hospital where Meg was born nineteen years ago, and according to them, Susan Kellam only gave birth to one child on December 8th of that year. It makes no sense.”

  “Someone is lying,” I said. “And someone killed this poor girl, someone very angry with her. Let’s meet again when we have more news. I want to make a profile of this killer and a possible motive, but it’s really hard to figure out why someone wanted to kill her when no one knows who she is.”

  Chapter 12

  “I’m being discharged later today.”

  Susan was so happy to say the words to her best friend, Tina. She had called her up as soon as the doctor had finished his morning rounds and told her she was finally going home. She had been so excited she had gotten herself dressed even though there were hours until she would get to leave.

  “I can’t believe they kept me for three days.”

  “Well, you did have a fractured skull,” Tina said. “It can be quite serious.”

  “It was a minor fracture,” Susan said.

  “Better to be safe than sorry,” Tina said. “I, for one, am glad they ran those last tests to make sure there was no bleeding in the brain.”

  Susan nodded. Her friend was right. And staying at the hospital for three days had given Susan time to think. It was a necessary break and rest that she much needed, even though her brain kept circling the same subject.

  The girl in the pool.

  Susan kept seeing her face in front of her eyes, and she couldn’t stop sobbing every time.

  “Are you going to be okay?” Tina asked. “I can pick you up and make sure you’re settled into the house. I can fill the fridge and check on you in the morning. I can also stay the night if you want me to?”

  “No, that won’t be necessary. But thanks for offering. Meg is here. She will pick me up later.”

  “When is she going back to college?” Tina asked.

  “She called them and said I was in the hospital, so they gave her an extra week before she needs to return.”

  “Okay, that’s good. So she can keep an eye on you until you get better. I worry about you, sweetie. I don’t like this one bit. The girl they pulled out of your pool. How awful. You must feel terrible. Are you sure you want to stay at that house again after what happened?”

  “I’m sure,” Susan said. “You know how much I love my house.”

  “But still….” Tina trailed off. “The entire backyard is blocked off, and all that police tape, constantly reminding you of….”

  “I know. It’s unpleasant. I will have to see what it’s like. Or I might take you up on your offer.”

  “Please do. Nothing would bring me more joy than having you here. I can’t stand thinking of you in that house where that poor girl was murdered.”

  Susan went quiet. Her head was starting to hurt again. Maybe it was just talking to Tina that made her exhausted. She was always so dramatic. Susan closed the conversation, hung up, and then placed the phone on the table. She closed her eyes briefly, feeling very tired. She had been feeling this a lot these past days—like she could barely keep awake.

  Soon, she dozed off and had the oddest dream about Meg when she was a little girl. She woke up, gasping for air, just in time to see someone standing at the foot of her bed. Susan clasped her chest, catching her breath when his face came into sight.

  Then, she screamed.

  Chapter 13

  I wasn’t going home. Of course, I wasn’t. I wasn’t going to just sit on my hands either. Instead, I decided to go to the hospital. I knew Susan Kellam was still admitted there, and I wanted to have a quick chat with her. I just wanted to do it alone, without Alex or Matt there with me to cloud my judgment.

  There was something this woman wasn’t telling me. There had to be. And I was getting tired of it.

  Someone is lying here, and I need to figure out who.

  I thought that maybe if I got her to myself, then perhaps she could tell me the truth. It was only a matter of time before we got the DNA results, and then we would know.

  I just didn’t have the patience to wait for it.

  As I parked the car in the parking lot, my phone rang. I picked it up, and to my luck, it was the medical examiner, Elena Mendez.

  “I thought you would want to know this right away,” she said. “You told me to contact you directly.”

  “Yes?” I turned the car off and sat back. The hospital front entrance was constantly flocked by people coming in and out of the sliding doors. I felt oddly excited. “What do you have for me?”

  “Your Jane Doe shares her DNA almost one hundred percent with the first sample you gave me,” she said.

  “With Meg Kellam?”

  “Yes.”

  “So what does that mean? What can we make of that?”

  “That they are, in fact, siblings and twins.”

  I smiled. “Identical twins?”

  “Yes.”

  “So, she is nineteen like Meg. But we can’t determine her exact age from DNA, right?”

  “No, we can know a lot from DNA but not the age. You will have to get an analysis of the biomarkers, maybe from her teeth or bone growth. That’s not my department.”

  “All right, and the other sample?”

  “That’s a match.”

  “It’s a match? So, she is the mother? Susan Kellam is the birth mother of both of them?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’ll be… well, thank you so much. Send over all the paperwork, okay?”

  “Will do.”

  I hung up and stared at my phone. I had a feeling Susan Kellam was lying, and I was right. But I just couldn’t understand why. And why did the hospital records state that she only gave birth to one child? It made no sense to me. Something was off here, and the questions were piling up.

  I grabbed my purse and put my phone inside it, then exited the car and walked up toward the entrance, thinking it was about time Susan Kellam started answering those questions.

  Chapter 14

  “You! W-what are you doing here?”

  Susan jumped up in the bed, staring at the man in front of her. He smiled, almost smirked. The very sight of him made her heart drop. Tear
s sprang to her eyes as the realization sank in.

  Oh, dear God!

  “Y-you.”

  “Yes, me.”

  “It was you.”

  “It sure is,” he said, nodding.

  Susan sank. “But… but… why?”

  “You know why.”

  “I don’t understand….”

  “Don’t act so surprised. You knew this day would come.”

  Susan jumped to her feet, pushed him aside, then stormed out into the hallway. She could hear him laughing still as she stormed down the hallway and hurried into an elevator. She pressed the buttons frantically, and as the doors started to close, a hand was placed between them, stopping them from closing. Susan pushed the buttons again, trying to get them to close, but the doors slid open, and in stepped the man who had been by her bedside.

  “Do you think you can run away from me?”

  He pushed the buttons, and the doors closed. That was when she spotted the knife hiding halfway up his sleeve. Susan pulled away, her back against the wall. Sweat was springing to her forehead as fear and panic rushed through her.

  “What do you want from me?” she asked, her heart thumping in her chest. The elevator moved downwards, and Susan looked at the numbers as they passed the floors, hoping it would stop at one of them, readying herself to scream for help if it did.

  The man smiled and placed the knife on her throat. Susan couldn’t breathe. She stared at the numbers as they went down: third floor, second, then first.

  The elevator stopped and dinged. The doors slid to the sides. People appeared who were waiting for the elevator. Susan opened her mouth, intending to scream, to alert the crowd, when the man whispered in her ear.

  “This was your lucky break. But don’t stop looking over your shoulder from now on because I will hunt you down.”

  Then the knife was swiftly removed, leaving a superficial cut on her skin, and the man exited the elevator just as a flock of nurses and doctors entered, all wrapped up in their own worlds and chatting away happily. Susan stood with her back against the wall as the elevator doors closed. She was still gasping for air as it began to move again. She stayed inside the elevator for several minutes, going back up, then back down before she dared to exit into the lobby. She stormed toward the sliding doors and out into the parking lot.

  As she went through the doors, she spotted the red-haired FBI agent who walked inside just at that exact second. Susan turned her face to the side so she wouldn’t be recognized, then slid away, covered by a crowd of busy, rushing people.

  Chapter 15

  I hated the smell of hospitals. I absolutely loathed it. I don’t know why. Maybe because it always reminded me of bad things happening. Today was no different. The smell hit my face as I entered the lobby and asked for Susan Kellam’s room. It lingered in my nostrils still as I was in the elevator and got out on the third floor.

  I walked to the room and peeked inside behind the curtain.

  The bed was empty.

  “Susan?”

  “Can I help you?” A nurse came up behind me. I showed her my badge. She looked flustered at the sight. “I’m looking for Susan Kellam?”

  “She’s not there?” the nurse asked and looked behind me. “That’s odd. She was there half an hour ago when I was in there with her pills. She is being discharged later today, but not until three o’clock.”

  “Could she have gone to the bathroom?” I asked.

  We both looked at the door to the restroom next to us. It was left ajar. The nurse peeked inside, then shook her head.

  “She’s not there either.”

  I glared at her bed and then at the table. “It looks like her phone is still here. And her purse.”

  “She must be here somewhere then, right?” the nurse said. “I mean, she can’t just have left without her stuff?”

  I stared at the empty bed and Susan’s things while the nurse alerted a security guard and her colleagues. I didn’t like this. Something was very much off. Unease was spreading throughout my body. I grabbed my phone and called Chief Annie.

  “Susan Kellam has run.”

  “The mom? Really?”

  “Yes, I went to see her in the hospital, but she left, and her phone and purse are still here. I think she knew I was coming; maybe she spotted me from the window and made a run for it.”

  “But why? Why would she run?”

  I bit the inside of my cheek. “I’m not sure. But she is definitely lying to us. I just got the results from the lab, and she is the mother of our Jane Doe in the pool. Maybe she realized that I had figured her out, and that’s why she ran when seeing me arrive?”

  Annie went quiet for a few seconds. “Okay, I will ask all patrols to be on the lookout for her. She’s a person of interest.”

  I hung up, a nagging worry in the pit of my stomach.

  Why is Susan Kellam running from us? What is she hiding?

  The nurse came back, shaking her head in distress. “They can’t find her anywhere.”

  I handed her my card. “Call me if Susan Kellam shows up, please. Or if you have any news about her.”

  “O-of course.”

  “Thank you.”

  I smiled at her, then rushed to the elevators and pressed the button while wondering, if I was Susan Kellam, where would I go to hide from the police?

  Chapter 16

  THEN:

  She had a cesarian, and the twins arrived one Tuesday afternoon while it was still snowing outside the windows. IAnd just like that, Raina was a mother of two. Most people at the hospital and those who visited couldn’t tell the two of them apart, but to Raina, they were like night and day. Where one, Charlotte, was so gentle and easy and slept most of the time with a blissful smile, the other, Noah, wouldn’t stop crying and constantly demanded to be fed and would scream endlessly if the milk didn’t run fast enough, stressing Raina out.

  She stayed four days at the hospital while trying to figure out breastfeeding. It was harder than she had expected, and there was constantly one that needed to be fed, leaving no breaks for Raina.

  She was feeling so drained—like they literally sucked all the life out of her. Well, it was mostly Noah who was making things hard. Charlotte was so sweet and gentle; it was sometimes like they almost forgot about her because Noah demanded so much attention.

  Yet Raina loved them both with all her heart, and as soon as they came into her life, she couldn’t imagine being without them. And when they were taken from her to sleep with the other babies, she would sneak down and peek at them through the glass window.

  On the third day, when the babies were napping in the afternoon, she went down and stared at her babies, her eyes filling with tears of gratitude. To think that she could be so lucky to have those two creatures in her life. It was almost too hard to believe.

  She was about to turn back and leave when someone entered the room from the other side and stood by the window. Raina paused for a few seconds. She stared at the woman in the beige coat who had come in before she remembered where she had seen her before.

  It’s the woman from the supermarket. The one who kept staring at you. Why is she here? Why is she looking at your children?

  “Do I know you?”

  The woman didn’t turn to look at her, and Raina couldn’t see her face properly, but she recognized her anyway. Raina stepped forward.

  “Excuse me?”

  She didn’t answer, nor did she look at Raina.

  Raina cleared her throat to get the woman’s attention, then tried again.

  “Excuse me? Who are you here to see?”

  The woman didn’t turn to look at her; she just stood there, staring at Raina’s babies. It freaked her out.

  “Excuse me, do you know any of the babies here?”

  When she still didn’t answer, Raina stepped closer and reached out her hand to try and touch her shoulder, to get her to turn around. But instead, the woman pulled away and rushed toward the door.

  “Hello? Excuse me?” Raina yelled after her. “What are you doing here?”

  The woman was gone. Raina stood for a few minutes, her hands shaking heavily.