We entered the parking garage, and I realized Jared was seriously going to escort me all the way to my car. I was almost out of time to convince him. I pulled my arm away. “I’ll go, I’m leaving. Just promise me if you see that woman, the one I showed you, you’ll call the police.”

In the dim light of the garage, he studied my face like he was trying to gauge my truthfulness. Probably just the same way he looked at his kids when they promised they’d done their homework or swore they were meeting their friends at the library. I knew he had teenagers; I knew his wife was a nurse and his brother ran a bakery known for its incredible Portuguese custard cups. Jared was kind, soft-spoken, physically imposing yet slow to anger. But I had no idea who he thought I was.

Finally, he sighed and stepped back. “Okay.”

“Okay, you’ll be careful?” Maybe he just meant it would be okay if I left. I needed to be sure I’d warned someone, that I’d made some kind of difference.

But he just nodded and turned away, leaving me alone. Acutely aware of the echoing garage around me, I strode to my car, each footstep slapping frustration and fear on the concrete.

I hadn’t saved Aimee’s life. She hadn’t believed a word I’d said. If Lena killed her, it would be her own damn fault. I wanted Lena to stab Aimee right in her stomach. But I’d still feel terrible, the worst mix of guilt and fury.

“What would your world look like without Aimee?” Dr. Lindsey had asked me. Well, I knew what it looked like. I’d been living it. Without her, my world was calmer and more predictable, with friends I could trust who trusted me back. It wasn’t glitzy, with techno beats and an alcohol haze. I’d thought living in that world had changed me, but coming face-to-face with Aimee had sent all my certainty topsy-turvy. She could look me right in the eyes and lie, knowing I knew she was lying, and leave me helpless and incoherent with rage.

If anybody had ever deserved to be killed, Aimee did.

It would serve her right.

C2C TRANSCRIPT

13

Helen: So what would you do if the person you hated most in the world—

Julia: My ex-boyfriend—

Helen: Your ex-boyfriend was in danger. Would you care? Would you try to save him?

Julia: Maybe I would be the danger.

Helen: I just got chills. And that’s exactly what we’re talking about here. The other half of our serial killer couple is in the wind. There’s a concern that she’s in Texas, so they’ve put the only eyewitness to her husband’s murders into protective custody, and his wife—

Julia: Our killer’s BFF—