Jayden Roe Mystery 02-The Final Lie by Lily Campbell (read a book .TXT) 📗

glanced from Keira’s appraising look to Joe’s silent warning in his eyes. “I know.”

“Good. Then join us for lunch. You can make your requests later,” Joe said.

Jay inclined his head and was glad that he had told Dave not to expect him anytime soon.

***

Jay drove carefully back to the hotel. His afternoon with the innermost circle of The Serpent Brothers had been full of information. Jay parked and turned off the car but didn’t get out. They had given him no reason for their extreme willingness, but he had felt the chains of his owed debt grow heavier.

Keira was leaving tonight, heading for Ruby and Frank, to keep an eye on them. Jay had been assured that she was not just a good sleuth but a good fighter too.

He let out a long breath. He had only known her a few hours, but their back and forth had made him confident in her skills. Ruby would be kept safe.

As for Mr. Haraby, the tracker he had left on Ben had shown them leaving Washington for New York which Elliot had promised to keep an eye out.

Jay glanced at his laptop. He had taken it with him today in the hopes of being allowed to take notes in tandem with whatever they knew. He hadn’t expected it to be so fruitful. Joe’s analysis of the CCTV stills had neatly proved that they were not the same person. The person near the locations of the fires was wearing a one-piece bodysuit, the outfit lacking all the details Jay had taken note of on Ben’s uniform. The unidentified person also seemed to be slimmer than Ben.

Jay took a deep breath, accepting the terrible facts he’d learned today. Someone had deliberately and ruthlessly hunted down all the people he and Dave had spoken to. Every single one was now confirmed dead, except for Mr. Haraby and Ms. Carmichael. The latter was missing as her body was not among those taken from the ruined estate.

The fire department had reached a dead end with the type of small bombs and accelerant used. The police only had the CCTV stills and a couple of witness accounts to suggest the person in black was the perpetrator.

He shook his head. He had asked Keira to pass his safe email on to Ruby when she was sure they were safe. He knew she didn’t want to be in this mess, and he didn’t want that either, but he has to know if she had perhaps seen anything and why she had kept tabs on him until he left Salisbury.

Jayden scooped up his laptop bag and got out of the car. Perhaps some of the things Dave had spent the day doing would prove useful in light of all the new information he had garnered today.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Stella heard the door slide open and tried to push herself up, but her arms shook. How long had it been since she had last been sent any food?

She heard a muffled curse as her captor entered the space. Stella felt a small smile tug her lips. The voice was decidedly feminine.

Her arm was taken in an iron grasp, and she felt the bite of a needle at the crook of her elbow. Stella fought to clear her vision as the usual tests were run. She wondered how many holes there are in her arms.

Her captor murmured another profanity and then took out four syringes filled with the necessary decoctions.

Stella felt the needles pierce her skin and felt an instinctual wave of relief and gratitude. She was not going to starve to death alone in the dark. She felt her nails bite into her palms as she tensed her fists. Feeling grateful toward her kidnapper was not a sensation she wanted. Yet knowing that her life was entirely in the hands of another made her mind stretch and hope for that person to have at least some decency.

Just keep it together, Stella. You will be fine.

After her captor had packed the now empty syringes away, they sat beside the mattress. Her blood pressure was next taken, measuring her pulse and twice more sampled her blood for tests.

I must have been closer to death than I realized.

“You should be feeling better by now.”

Stella felt her honey eyes flash open. She had not been spoken to once since her capture. She shifted her head slowly to the side and grimaced over a lingering wave of nausea as she tried to bring the person into focus.

The woman, dressed, as always, head to toe in black, seemed to be watching her intently, though her eyes were also hidden by a screen of mesh. “Eat.”

Stella followed the gesture and saw a bowl of thick soup. She felt her stomach clench painfully and shifted slowly until she was kneeling. The woman handed her the bowl.

“Wh—” Stella began, her voice sounding scratchy from disuse.

“No questions, please. I’m only trying to be certain that you aren’t about to lapse into a coma like the other one.”

Stella took a few mouthfuls of the soup, fear beginning to pound through her veins as the woman’s words filtered through her tired mind.

The other one?

She could only be referring to Miranda Williams. Stella drank the rest of the soup, thinking hard. She remembered going to visit Miranda at her estate. Stella was planning to tell her about her father’s plans so that the woman would understand the contract better. When she had reached the house, a servant had told her Miranda was out in the gardens. She had followed the instructions and found Miranda collapsed on the ground.

Stella handed the bowl back to her captor. “You took Miranda too?”

The woman took the bowl, hefted her bag and turned to leave. “I took no one. I’m only here to keep you alive until