Particles of Obsession (A Shadow of Death Romantic Suspense Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

want to do?”
    “I want to catch Kiona before we act. I need to ensure that she’s guilty before I walk straight into a police station and, possibly, prison,” I say. “I have a feeling that the police are closing in, but I’m not going to seem like the crazy person who is trying to pin murders on someone without any real evidence. We should wait. She doesn’t just disappear with a gun without any intent to use it. If she’s the killer, she’ll try to reach out to you again.”
    “I…Mira, I don’t know if you have that long before the police figure out that you’re here,” he says.
    “It’s a risk,” I admit. “But it’s our only option.”

    * * *
    R .A . Justin Brewer’s door is wide open as he vacuums his room. His hips swing as he listens to his MP3 player and the vacuum creates lines in the thick blue carpet in front of his bed.
    “I don’t know many undergraduates that enjoy vacuuming,” I call out to him.
    He jerks, dropping the handle of the vacuum. It falls to the floor with a loud bang. He fumbles to pick it back up again, pulling out his ear buds at the same time.
    “Sorry,” I say. “I didn’t mean to surprise you.”
    “It’s fine,” he says, smoothing his beard. He pulls his MP3 player out of his pocket and sets it on his bed. “I just…uh…well, I’m stuck here with the lockdown, and everyone else is studying or partying. Vacuuming relaxes me.”
    “You were a strange child, weren’t you?”
    “You have no idea.”
    “Is it all right if I ask you some questions about Kiona?”
    He nods. “Of course. I guess I should have expected someone to come around at some point. Come, sit down.”
    He gestures to his computer chair. When I sit down in it, he drags a beanie bag chair in front of it and sits down. It forces him to look up at me in order to make eye contact.
    “So…what do you think about the whole situation with her?” I ask.
    “It’s scary,” he says. “Pretty much anyone that lives within a couple hours of here has gone home. I live in Maine, so it’s not worth going up there if they could find her at any minute.”
    “You think they will?” I ask. “Find her?”
    He shrugs. “She doesn’t seem violent to me. I don’t know what she was thinking when she disappeared with her gun, but…I can’t see her ever committing a mass shooting or anything. She’s a good person. Maybe she’s just confused right now.”
    “Do you know anything about her relationship with Victoria?”
    His forehead scrunches up. “Like their roommate relationship?”
    “Sure,” I say. “Anything. When you saw them interact, what did you see?”
    “They were friends,” he says. “Good friends. I mean, as good as friends can be as roommates. I think they both hung out with their own circles, but they enjoyed each other’s company a lot.”
    “So…you never saw them fighting?”
    “It’s normal for roommates to fight,” he huffs. “It was nothing serious. Just the normal argument: Victoria was messy and Kiona wanted everything neat.”
    If Kiona were a neat freak, it would make her good at killing people without leaving a trace.
    I hear a loud rumble outside that's as familiar to me as the industrial soap in the lab's bathroom or the sound of my apartment neighbor's squeaking bed as he fucks his girlfriend.
    It's Detective Stolz's Ford Mustang.
    I move past Justin to look out his window. It's only her. That's a good sign. If there had been one or two more officers or even if she had been with Macmillan, it could mean she knows that I'm here.
    As if she can feel my gaze, she turns around and looks straight up at me.
    The muscles in my body tense, preparing to run, but Stolz doesn't move to pursue me. This could be my one chance to convince her that I'm innocent without her being close enough to arrest me. I can always run the moment she heads into the building. I yank open the window, the cold winter air bursting in.
    “Mira,” she calls up, saying my name so slowly