“How did you know it was Tim?” Liam asked.
“My dad tracked him down. I gave him his username, and he did his thing that I don’t know how he does. But apparently, he found the credit card information of the person who had bought the game for the profile that your son was playing. I was so glad when I found out I actually had the possibility to warn one of the Swatter’s victims.”
Liam rubbed his face and sighed. “But I ruined that. Because I wouldn’t listen. And now he’s…”
Liam stopped to gather himself. I remained silent for quite a while to allow the information to sink in properly. That was when Matt walked in from the garage. He took one glance at Liam, then gave me a puzzled look.
“Who’s this?”
Chapter 21
I rose to my feet and approached Matt, then pulled him into the kitchen. His confused eyes lingered on me.
“This is…”
“I know who it is,” he interrupted me. “But what is he doing in your…our living room?”
I exhaled, feeling tired. It had been a long day. I realized it had gotten late and suddenly wondered where Matt had been all night while I was speaking to Liam.
“It’s a long story,” I said. “It’s this thing I’ve been working on…you know when I went to Philadelphia. Well, Liam lost his son recently, and I believe that…he was killed.”
Matt wrinkled his forehead. “He was shot by the police, as far as I’ve heard.”
“Yes, but…I think he was killed.”
“Wait, so that’s what you did in Philadelphia? You met with this guy? That awful guy from TV?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“If you must know, I knew what was going to happen to his son.”
Matt shook his head. “I don’t understand. You knew?”
“Yes. I didn’t want to tell you because well…frankly, I didn’t want you to know I was researching this thing since…I wanted to make sure I was right before I told you, okay? I can see it in your eyes already. You don’t believe me and, frankly, it’s killing me. I knew you wouldn’t.”
“What are you talking about? You haven’t even told me what this is all about. How can I say if I believe you or not when I don’t know anything?”
I sighed and rubbed my forehead. “I can’t explain it right now. Just trust me on this. I am trying to stop a murderer.”
“And him?” he said as he nodded toward the living room with an annoyed face. “What’s his part in it?”
I gave him a look while wondering what was going on. What was this? Was Matt jealous?
“He came here because he had questions and believed I could answer them. My guess is that he wants justice for his son. Wouldn’t you want that if it was Elijah?”
Matt exhaled. “I don’t know the details, but yes. Probably.”
“Of course, you would.”
“But I would probably also trust that the police did their best to investigate it since I’m a detective myself.”
“But that’s exactly the problem. They don’t realize this is happening. I tried Isabella Horne, you know my old supervisor at the FBI, and even she couldn’t help me. I called all the local police stations in Philadelphia to warn them about what would happen, yet it happened anyway. This guy is winning.”
“And you won’t let him do that,” Matt said with a deep exhale. He grabbed my neck, leaned over, and kissed me. “I will trust you. Just promise me you’ll be careful, all right? We’ve had some scares this past year, and I don’t want to have to worry about you again. I can’t bear to lose you the way we lost Chad.”
I stared into his eyes, feeling the knot in my stomach was about to burst. Chad, my ex-husband, the father of my three children. He had been killed when saving Matt’s life of all people. I didn’t want to think about him; it hurt too much, so instead, I pulled away and shook my head.
“I should get back to Liam.”
“What? Because I mentioned Chad? Is it so terrible that you can’t even hear his name? You haven’t even cried over him, Eva Rae. Not even at his funeral did you shed one single tear. Why is that?”
I bit my lip while my hand lingered on the door handle, keeping my back turned toward him. I wanted to say something to explain myself, to justify my actions, but I couldn’t. Simply because I didn’t know. I just knew that if I allowed myself to think about Chad for even one second, the emotions were so overwhelming, I wouldn’t be able to stand it.
“You blame me, don’t you?” Matt asked. “I can see it in your eyes. You blame me because Chad took that bullet for me.”
I closed my eyes for a brief second. I paused, then opened the door, and left. I would have answered him; I wanted to, but I couldn’t. I simply didn’t know what to say, and I didn’t want to lie to him.
Chapter 22
The fighter jets disappeared as the plane started to descend and soon landed in Houston, Texas. Amal had never in her life been more relieved than when she heard those tires hit the ground and felt the great push back in her seat as the plane came to a complete stop.
As everything inside the cabin quieted down, the passengers started to look at one another. The seatbelt sign was still on, and no one was making any announcements. The built-up tension was about to be released.
“Why aren’t we at the gate?” someone yelled. “How long are you going to keep us in here?”
“What’s going on?” someone else yelled.
“We want to get off this plane!”
Amal couldn’t agree more. She found it hard to breathe properly and needed desperately to get out of this tin can. What if there really was a bomb on the plane? Couldn’t it explode while they were sitting there? They weren’t even out of danger yet, were they?
The sound of sirens blaring interrupted her train of thought. Out of her neighbor’s window, she spotted firetrucks approaching, followed closely by so many police cars that they looked like stars in the sky.
Soon after, the door in the front was opened, and the police came in first. In full body armor and helmets, they stormed inside, holding their weapons in front of them. Passengers started to scream when they saw them. The men yelled at the flight attendants. One of them broke down crying.
Soon, they came running down the aisle, stomping their boots, and the passengers screamed anxiously. Amal filmed it all while it happened, wondering what they were doing; where they were going? Was someone on board the plane going to be arrested? Was it the same person who had the bomb? If so, then who was it?
As they all zoned in on her and soon stood in front of her, Amal at first thought it had to be the guy sitting next to her. But when a gun was pointed at her, and one of the officers yelled her name, Amal knew they hadn’t come for him, but her.
“Arms in the air!” one yelled. “Keep ‘em where I can see them!”
Amal stared at the man dressed in the Kevlar vest and black helmet in front of her. He was wearing complete combat gear. Was this some sort of joke? How could they think she—of all people—was dangerous?