I nodded. “For cash.”
Jordy said, “He got the VIN number from your Massachusetts records, and when the sale record showed up in Georgia, he had you.”
It took me a second to put that together. I’d definitely had more wine than I should have. “Shit. I didn’t think of that.”
Zane patted my back. “Don’t beat yourself up.”
“I used all my money getting a new identity and moved here because it’s as far away as I could get from Boston.”
“How do we think he found her here?” Lucas asked the group.
I’d been thinking a lot about that.
Once again, Jordy put his hand up. “Best guess, social media. Peyton’s face is on several of the pictures from when Terry and Duke had the shootout in front of SpaceMasters.”
Dammit, I’d forgotten that Rhonda had mentioned seeing a shootout picture.
“Okay,” Lucas said, taking command. “For now, we assume this Strangler is our Mr. X, and that he has been after Peyton for a few days now.”
I spoke up. “In Atlanta, he told me he’d watched me for a few days before finally coming after me.”
“Jordy, get me a cell number for this Detective Flynn. No, make it his boss, Sergeant O’Connor. Peyton, we’re going to call him after this.”
Jordy nodded.
I gulped down the rest of my wine. Maybe calling the Boston police shouldn’t scare me this way, but it did. Neither of my calls with them had gone well.
“Zane, you should join us on the call. We need everything they have on this Strangler.”
“Copy that,” Zane agreed.
I had to get out the hard part before going any further. “He also killed my friend in Atlanta before I left. I know it was him.” There, I’d said it. A woman died just because she’d befriended me.
“Name?” Lucas asked.
“Olivia, Olivia Pope. Killing her was a message to me. I’m sure of it.”
“Got it,” Jordy said a few seconds later. “She was found raped and murdered in the woods several miles from her home. Strangled. Last seen walking out of a convenience store and meeting a man on the street. Security footage was no help because the man never faced the camera.”
“Smart bastard,” Winston said. “He scoped out the location.”
Jordy continued. “She walked out of frame with the man. After that, nothing. Her boyfriend was questioned.”
“It wasn’t him,” I inserted.
“The police agreed,” Jordy noted. “No charges filed, and the case is still open. No red necktie, so if it’s him, he changed up his MO.”
Lucas turned on me. “Why do you think it was him?”
I cringed, now at the point where I had to admit the hardest part. “Because he said he would. The first note I got said to meet him for dinner or...”
“Or what?”
“It didn’t say, but the bottom corners of the note had the letters O and P in them. I should have put it together at the time, but I didn’t.”
It was clear from Zane’s face that he didn’t get it.
“Don’t you see? O and P, Olivia Pope. He killed her because I didn’t do what he wanted.” I curled in on myself, overwhelmed by shame.
