Color Blind (35 page)

Great. Isaac Keaton was a golden retriever. “I’m guessing you aren’t calling to tell me the finer points of their online battle strategies?”

“Eh, not exactly, though I think you’ll find my news equally interesting. I’m pretty sure Emily Grogan’s murder is mentioned.”

Jenna almost dropped the phone. “By Sebastian?”

Bragging could’ve opened the door for Isaac to approach Sebastian to join him on the hunt, but it didn’t sit right. Sebastian was lower-key than that. Grandiosity didn’t match his style. Maybe Jenna had pegged him wrong all along.

“Bonk. By Isaac.”

“What?”
How could Isaac have known Sebastian killed Emily unless he knew Sebastian in real life?

“‘Enable Flaming Wrath. Dude, I heard some girl was killed in your neck of the woods.’ End Isaac quote. ‘Yeah. Popping a health pot.’ End Sebastian quote. ‘You didn’t kill her, did you? Wouldn’t put it past you. Watch those adds on the left hill.’ End Isaac quote. ‘Got ’em. What do you mean?’ End Sebastian quote. Isaac says, ‘She was hot, man!’ Sebastian says, ‘Was she?’ ‘You know she was!’ End Isaac quote. ‘Do you know how big this school is, man?’ End Sebastian quote. ‘I heard it was like, the bloodiest murder the cops there had ever seen.’ End Isaac quote. Sebastian says, ‘Gross.’”

“Is that it?” Jenna asked, the peridot color she’d come to associate with fishing for information dancing in front of her eyes. She tried to pull it closer, to let another color surround it, as often this particular color came in first, then another color would follow. A color that felt most like the intent behind the fishing.

“Not quite,” Irv said, breaking her concentration. “Isaac quote, ‘Gross. This coming from a guy who packs heat for fun and laughs and walks away. Admit it: you wouldn’t mind seeing her sizzle.’ At that point, Sebastian kind of ignores him. Continue the warlock rambling in between battle junk about the girl, trying to get Sebastian to bite, but he doesn’t. Ever. Also doesn’t react to the conversation like it’s uncomfortable or anything different from any other ol’ talk.”

“Didn’t Sebastian ever try to
end
the conversation? You’re kidding me.”

The clash between Sebastian Waters’s blue and the red Jenna associated with the violence of Emily Grogan’s murder popped to mind. It had never made sense why the colors didn’t match. Someone with such a cool blue hue in all other aspects of his profile committing something as violent as strangling someone with her own intestines was about as likely as Jenna joining a mother-daughter beauty pageant with Claudia.

“Nope. He’s too casual, Jenna. Either Sebastian is one extremely cool cucumber—and I mean under the on-high icemaker—or . . .”

“He didn’t do it,” Jenna finished.

“Precisimo, ultima,” Irv said. “Sound like I took a foreign language class, huh?”

“Huh. Thanks, Irv.”

She hung up and relayed the information to Hank. “Isaac waved the murder in front of him, but Sebastian gave up nothing. Which, it’s not like Sebastian’s profile for him to come into Land of Valor openly bragging about killing someone, but it’s also unlikely that he’d say
nothing
to Isaac when it was brought up. Here’s a guy he doesn’t know in real life, and someone like Sebastian is on edge as it is, not chill under pressure the way Isaac would be. He’d be dying to get it out or shut it up. One of the two.”

“
And
if Sebastian knew her, the talk would at least elicit some embarrassment, nervousness.”

“Exactly! He also says the way she was killed was gross. I ignored it before for so many obvious reasons, but Emily Grogan’s murder was
so
personal. The killer had to be up close, not to mention have a stomach of steel in order to strangle her with her own
intestines
.
Sebastian couldn’t even aim his gun at specific people at the theme park. Couldn’t stand the kills.”

“Yeah. It’s a lot easier to fire from a bridge than gut a girl a foot in front of you,” Hank replied.

Jenna shook her head in disbelief. From Sebastian’s standpoint, the Gemini shootings had always been about
him
, not the people he killed. Emily Grogan’s murder was far too individualized. That violent red she’d always seen had to do with hyper-violence, but also crimes of passion. Sebastian wasn’t capable of something so close to home. The cool blue of his planning to bring weapons to school but not going through with harming anyone showed that.

Thadius Grogan was after the wrong man, and Isaac had sent him there.

“Wait a minute,” Jenna said, her heart speeding up. “Isaac mentioned something about Sebastian packing heat for fun and walking away. Land of Valor has a lot of weapons, sure, but I don’t think Celestials ‘pack heat’ exactly.”

Hank stared at her, blinking. “Are you speaking English?”

She was already dialing Irv again.

“Yes, my queen?” he answered.

“Land of Valor. Celestials. Would they carry guns?”

“Do Care Bears wear bandoliers to strap ammo to their chests?”

Jenna coughed. “Um . . . no.”

Irv chuckled. “You’re right. They don’t. Neither do Celestials, though I wouldn’t say no to a nice cloud car if the game invented one. Why do you ask?”

“Isaac talking to Sebastian about packing heat for fun. I was just thinking . . . he probably wasn’t talking about the game, was he?”

“Heh,” Irv laughed. “We’re gonna make a nerd out of you yet, good Doctor. Good catch. No, most of the time a Celestial would carry a sword. Maybe one with some godly component. A fire sword, maybe. A hammer could happen, but yeah, no guns.”

“Right. Thanks,” Jenna said, and she hung up.

She relayed the info to Hank. Before he could fully expound on his confusion, she tried to quickly explain where her head was. “So if Isaac talked to Sebastian about packing heat for fun in some context that
wasn’t
to do with the game, and he mentioned Sebastian walking away, it sounds like Isaac might’ve known about Sebastian’s past at his high school.”

“So what? He found Sebastian within the game, targeted him, and started researching him? Found all his deep dark secrets, then used them to somehow assume Sebastian killed this random girl Isaac heard had been murdered? Now
your
head’s the one in the clouds,” Hank said.

Jenna shook her head hard. “No. I think I was wrong,” Jenna said as the peridot from her first hearing of Isaac and Sebastian’s conversation gave way to indigo flashing in, rather than the goldfish color of natural curiosity. Indigo usually showed up when the person fishing for information had a deliberate intent, an answer they wanted to hear. Other colors burned bright, but Jenna tried to ignore them long enough to get her thought out. “Isaac wasn’t just idly pumping Sebastian for information to see if he knew anything about Emily Grogan. He—”

She couldn’t think. The colors came rapidly now, one after the other. First indigo, then the sable color of knowledge, then fuchsia, disingenuous . . .

Slow down, let me process.

Jenna closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them again, Hank was still staring at her, but he showed no signs of impatience. Though he’d never understood her process, he knew when to shut up and let her work through whatever was flitting through her mind.

“I don’t think he ever thought Sebastian had anything to do with Emily’s death or that he was even trying to find out what Sebastian knew about Emily’s murder. I think . . . well, I think the way he was talking to Sebastian was more deliberate than that. Call it instinct, but to me, the words he used, how much he knew about Sebastian already . . . he wasn’t being sincere. It was almost like bragging. He was almost mocking Sebastian for not knowing the things he knew, only Sebastian never would get the joke. He
was
the joke.”

Hank shook his head. “What are you talking about, Jenna?”

“We might never know how he managed to do it so perfectly, but I think I was wrong when I said Isaac happened upon Sebastian in the gaming world. Maybe the gaming world is Isaac’s comfort zone, and maybe he even uses it as a hunting ground for targets. But in this case, I think he set out to target Sebastian specifically
because
he knew all about him and his past for whatever reason. It made Sebastian the perfect fall guy for Emily’s murder, but Sebastian didn’t ever actually
take
that fall.”

“And you’re thinking that for years, Isaac has watched his fall guy not get burned. How would he have not gotten caught?”

“Could’ve been any number of reasons. We see crimes every day that go unsolved, cold cases where an obvious answer comes out decades later when a certain piece of the puzzle jams into place. Maybe something just slipped through the cracks. Who knows?” Jenna answered.

“I guess I can see it. So Isaac watched Sebastian not take the fall he set up for him. And yet he knows enough about Sebastian to know how volatile he is, how ripe for direction in all things horrific . . .” Hank said, playing along.

“Yep. Not only watched his scapegoat walk away free and clear, never needing to use him, but also cultivating a target. A perfectly willing follower with all the makings of a partner in crime. He knew Sebastian had all the wiring. He just had to figure out which buttons to push,” Jenna finished.

Hank nodded, but he frowned. “Okay, so he somehow manages to take Sebastian to the next level, and the Gemini killers are born. Why bring Thadius Grogan back into it? Just a fun game to see if his loose ends will tie each other up?”

Jenna was quiet. That, she didn’t know. Not yet. Obviously, Isaac had staged Sebastian’s shooting and everything else with a mind of getting Sebastian out of the theme park unnoticed and getting him to this very day and place. As for what was in store next or why all the events were lining up quite the way they were, Jenna could only badly speculate. There was still a missing piece.

Next to Jenna, Hank gripped his binoculars. “Zane just answered her phone.”

Jenna’s attention jolted back to the rally, pulse racing.

“We need more water at the stage,” Yancy’s voice crackled through the radio.

The code they’d decided on.

Hank picked up the other radio, this one connected to Saleda. “She’s on. Stay with her.”

Saleda lingered outside in a sundress on the arm of another agent holding a sign that said,
DEATH IS NOT THE ANSWER
.

Jenna lifted her binoculars and tried to home in on Zane, but she kept losing the girl behind taller people. As far as Jenna could tell, Zane remained at the table.

Three guys in face paint walked in front of her. When they moved, Zane was gone.

“She’s moving!” Yancy crackled in, all pretext lost. He sounded panicked.

“Do
not
follow,” Hank replied. He flipped a switch to disconnect Yancy’s radio.

“What are you doing?” Jenna gasped.

“He’s freaking. Not following protocol won’t help us
or
Zane. We need to be able to listen for the real info.” Hank radioed Saleda. “Have her?”

The radio came back. “Yes. Walking toward the west side. Coming your way. Zane’s still on the phone.”

The hair on Jenna’s neck stood up. She drifted to the side of the storefront window, waiting for Zane to pass. It’d be at least a few more seconds, even if Zane was walking fast. She’d been a good football field away at the table.

“Still coming at you. I’m pressing, but trying to hang back a safe distance,” Saleda replied.

Then Jenna saw Zane several yards down, talking furiously. Zane didn’t glance at the storefront where they were, because they hadn’t told her where they’d be.

The girl passed beside them so close Jenna could’ve reached out and touched her if not for the window. Zane turned sharply into the alleyway next to the storefront.

“Down the west alley,” Saleda called.

Hank darted toward the back of the abandoned building. Connected to another structure in back, the attached building was adjacent to the parking garage behind the alley. The alley wasn’t barricaded—the barricade was on the other side of the parking garage, putting it on the next block. Surveillance Van B was parked in the garage, but the garage wasn’t one of the interception areas they’d anticipated. Zane had instructions not to leave the main crowd. Where was she going?

“Dropping her at the alley. Crossing through the coffee shop,” Saleda said.

No way Saleda could follow Zane into the alley without someone knowing she had a tail. Saleda would go in through another access point and come out the other side. Still, Jenna’s breath caught as she followed Hank. Letting Zane out of sight couldn’t be a good thing.

Hank peeked out the exit of the store, moved into the space between the garage rails and the building. “Nothing.”

They’d lost her.

Y
ancy had agreed to hang out with Zane. So far, he’d done everything he’d been told, but now he was left to juggle Gatorade and fruit, no idea what to do. Jenna was with the other agents, and yet he had no clue where they were.

He should stay. He should stay. He
should
stay!