Chapter 5
I pulled the hoodie over my head and zipped it up. Just as my fingers brushed the rusted door latch, Lily's voice drifted back to me on the wind.
"He's here."
I froze, my hand stopping in mid-air. Did she spot me? Impossible. I was at least fifty yards away, completely swallowed by the shadows.
"Yeah, the guy who's been stalking me," Lily said into the phone, the corners of her mouth slowly curling into a creepy, unsettling smile I'd never seen before. "I'm positive. He's the one who broke my leg."
My head rang like I’d just taken a sledgehammer straight to the skull.
She wasn't talking to an accomplice. That tone... she was making a positive ID.
Instinctively, I ducked my head to pull the hood up and bury myself in the dark.
But the second I dropped my chin, my gaze snagged on the chest zipper, then drifted to the left pocket—right to the frayed red inner lining that had unraveled from months of wear and tear.
My breath stopped dead.
That frayed red lining... that specific distressed metal zipper pull...
In that "death prophecy" photo I’d blown up and scrutinized a thousand times, the faceless shadow standing over Lily’s body was wearing a jacket with the exact same frayed red edge on the left pocket!
Cold sweat instantly drenched my back.
The killer in the photo was wearing the exact same hoodie I had on right now.
And through the crack in the door, Lily’s ice-cold voice rode the night wind, driving every single word like a nail into my eardrums:
"Yeah, I'm positive he's the one who broke my leg. And now... it's a closed causal loop."
