She licked her lips, and I knew she was holding something back.
“What else is there?” I asked.
She hesitated.
“Roman,” she whispered. “Phantom has been bringing me dead butterflies.”
My brow furrowed. “What?”
“Twice now,” she said. “Inside the house. I don’t know where he was getting them. I tried to excuse it, but maybe…”
The words settled between us, ominous somehow.
I took a step back without meaning to, dropping her hands.
“Cats bring in dead things all the time,” I said, trying not to get too carried away with this idea.
It was just an idea.
But my mind began to rearrange the pieces whether I wanted it to or not. A butterfly had been the Shadow Stalker’s signature—carved into the flesh of his victims. Now, dead butterflies were showing up in the house.
My pulse escalated with every second that passed. This all could have some other explanation. It could mean absolutely nothing.
But the more I tried to convince myself that it was meaningless, the more I doubted it.
I didn’t believe in coincidence.
23
Roman
“Areyousure?”
My brother’s voice was tight and strained. I’d called August as soon as I could. Part of me couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of the Shadow Stalker before this. Maybe I’d been in denial that the killer would come back to town after everything. After everyone but me left. He was a fugitive on the run, for God’s sake. He should be far away from this town.
“No,” I barked. I’d been pacing my bedroom for the last ten minutes, unable to sit still. “I’m not sure of anything right now.”
Hearthstone being a target changed things.
There was a pause on the other end of the phone.
August sighed. “He’s never attacked our home directly like this before.”
My jaw flexed. I’d gone to get Hailey from school immediately after my conversation with Palmer. The thought of her sitting in a classroom while Amos Anderson was potentially in town made my skin crawl. She was down the hall in Palmer’s room, probably talking her ear off while Palmer tried to rest.
“Well,” I said, “there’s always a first for everything. Maybe he’s frustrated that he can’t find you.”
“If it’s one-tenth the frustration we feel not being able to findhim,” August muttered, “I wouldn’t put anything past him.”
Even with all of August’s training and connections within the private security community, not to mention his twin’s hacking abilities, we hadn’t been able to track down Anderson. The Shadow Stalker had one thing we didn’t—an almost unlimited amount of money, which provided resources that came with it. He’d vanished like smoke. Every lead we’d chased had collapsed into nothing.
August thought we’d come close a few times, but each time had been a dead end.
Even after examining the camera feeds from the early morning fire at Hearthstone, we hadn’t gotten a clear shot of him. The man who’d broken into Hearthstone had been covered from head to foot in black. He’d worn a ski mask and tactical goggles to hide his identity.
Fox had been trying to use other camera feeds from the surrounding area to try to pinpoint where he’d come from, but hadn’t had any luck. It was beyond frustrating.
“Maybe he’s done playing with you,” I said flatly.
