She seemed genuinely sympathetic. Deven could appreciate that. But still, the other nagging details plagued her thoughts. The stalker, Kennedy’s previous assault, Amber Wright, the pregnancy. More importantly, Deven didn’t care what fingerprints or clinical data, or DNA registered in their precious system. That woman, their Kennedy, was not the sister she knew. But hell, who was the sister she knew? Even her truth had been corrupted.

“Are you able to do some research for me?” Deven asked suddenly. She hadn’t even been sure she wanted to introduce this new element to the police, but now it seemed like she had no choice.

“What’s that?”

“I don’t want to get anyone in trouble. But can you look into an Amber Wright for me?”

McKinney frowned as she picked up a pen and began scrawling on a nearby sticky note. “Who is Amber Wright?”

“I’m not sure, but I think she’s got something to do with my sister.”

McKinney’s pen paused over the paper as she looked up. “You mean, she was possibly there at the apartment?”

Deven shook her head, her mind grating over scenarios that sounded imperative and believable, but not incriminating. She chose her words cautiously. “This woman, Amber Wright, I think she pretended to be my sister,” she said. “I’m not sure, but I’m friends with someone who says he dated Amber Wright, but she was using my sister’s information. It may not mean anything, but if it’s something there I was hoping we could find out. Especially with the discrepancy.”

McKinney’s brow lifted, making it clear there was no discrepancy. Maybe the lie worked. Maybe she didn’t want to see through Deven’s bullshit. Or maybe she just felt sorry for the poor woman who was so far steeped in the denial stage of grief she couldn’t even recognize her own sister, despite all of the hard facts. Either way, the cop sighed and brushed those billowing strands of hair from her face.

“I can’t make any promises,” she said, finally. “But let me see what I can do.”

Deven pulled out her cell phone and pulled up the information Paul had texted her about Amber. She rattled off the name again, as well as a phone number and some other identifying information he had managed to collect. She made sure to skip over the address he had provided. No use sending the police when she planned to do a little investigation of her own.

Chapter Seventeen - Before

Chapter Seventeen

Before

She dreamed of dead babies. Rows and rows of little lifeless bodies like cornfields, all with faces that looked the same; pallid, sunken, and eyes frozen in time. Deven stumbled through the maze of corpses, tiptoeing so as not to step on any of the scattered limbs. She could hardly see where she was going through the film of tears.