The Podcast

Chapter 33

Wednesday late morning

Lucas' thigh bobs rhythmically next to Sumner on the couch as her outro music plays. She's never found it cringey before, but hearing it now, mingled with the sense of real and impending dread in the air, she wishes it was cut from the episode. It feels inappropriate somehow.

"I remember hearing about their murders. I was only a kid when they happened. Pretty gruesome shit." Lucas drags his hand down his jaw before speaking again. "What made you choose that episode?"

"It's an iconic case." Sumner's voice is quiet, tense. Just like the outro music, her rationale feels reckless. Dangerous. Picking murders from a rolodex like they were nothing. Not real people with real pain but clickbait for the numbers. A calculated move.

"Iconic?" Lucas lets out a choppy laugh, casting a glance sideways at Sumner. "Interesting way to put it."

"What about the other copycat crime scenes?" Sumner reaches for her phone, quickly ending the episode before the awful music can continue any further. She glances back at the war wall before catching the subtle tick in Lucas' jaw.

"What about them?"

"Any patterns? DNA? Evidence left behind to help identify the killer?" Sumner's expression is eager, somewhere between excited and desperation.

She swallows hard as Lucas' silence lingers on longer than expected.

"The lab has identified a few samples, no definitive matches yet." Lucas' stare is intense on Sumner, searing through her. "But even if we had, Sumner, I wouldn't be able to disclose that information to you."

"I know." Sumner tucks a thick strand of dark hair behind her ear, her walls coming up. "But you still haven't disclosed what I shared with you? The other letters."

"No," Lucas smirks, a quick flash of a smile before his mouth settles into a straight line again, "I haven't."

"Why?"

"Because, I keep my word." Lucas rests his forearms on his knees, looking down at the ground before back up at her. "Even when I shouldn't."

"I've known law enforcement to do worse."

"Have you now?"

"Blame it on my chosen profession."

"Your podcast does seem to feature a pattern of highlighting cases with corrupt police."

"Well, it's a fairly prevalent problem."

"Not all police are bad, Sumner."

Sumner makes a noncommittal noise, leaning her head on the back of Lucas' couch.

"Sumner," Lucas turns toward her, his expression growing more serious. She feels her heart rate spike, the dread in her stomach tightening. "I went to see your father."

"You what?" Sumner feels the blood pounding through her veins turn to ice. "Why?"

"To better understand Chloe's case—"

"You told him about the letters!" Sumner makes a move to stand, suddenly feeling that same dreadful trapped sensation she felt eight years ago, a group of grown men crowding her in an interrogation room, making it clear they were hellbent on framing her if it brought closure to the case.

"No, Sumner." Lucas' hand flies out, grabbing onto her waist, pushing back down to his couch and pinning her in place. For several long moments there's no other noise in the space other than their breathing, a mutual awareness of their proximity, his hand digging into her hip beneath the thin fabric of her clothes.

Slowly, like he's handling a trapped wild animal that may spring loose at any moment, he removes his fingers from her hips, his eyes staying locked onto hers.

"Jesus, you really don't trust anyone, do you?"

"No one's given me a good reason to." Sumner's eyes are wide, her chest rising and falling quickly as she stares back at Lucas.

"He mentioned something to me." Lucas speaks slowly, delivering every word as gently as he can, tracking Sumner's long thick lashes, the wariness in her eyes. "He told me that a few weeks leading up to Chloe's murder, a young man around your same age had been lurking around his house a few times. He said he told the police when they brought him in for questioning but I didn't find any documentation of it in Chloe's case file." Lucas pauses, noting the hint of surprise on Sumner's face. Barely noticeable, so faint it could just be a figment of his imagination. "Did you know about that?"

"No." Sumner shakes her head, her full lips pressed into a hard line. "My father is a liar, Lucas. If it's not in the case file then it's probably not true."

"Ah, c'mon on now," Lucas moves in closer, lowering his head a few inches toward her, "we both know that critical evidence can sometimes be kept from police or that police can be corrupt and obstruct information for their own gain. Don't we?"

Sumner's jaw tightens. He's trapped her with her own words. Her own actions. Again. Just like the first time he questioned her at AudioHaven. Elegant and with precision. So meticulous you didn't even know it was happening until it was too late. Lucas Saba may be brusque, a bit unkempt, and brash but he's damn good at maneuvering a conversation. Sumner feels a feminine fluttering in her stomach, warring with the dread from this morning's discovery on her back porch.

"Either way, I don't know anything about it."

"Well, in light of the letters you've received, the ones that started with Chloe's murder and the fact that they were not written by your father, I think it could be significant. If that's the same person who killed Chloe, who's to say it's not the very person we're looking for now?"

Sumner shrugs, picking at an invisible piece of flint on her leg just to catch a break from his dark, intense eyes.

"Sounds like you've got yourself a needle in a haystack if you ask me."

"Look, I know I'm overstepping here," Lucas drags a hand through his unruly hair as Sumner tracks the movement, the slight jump in his bicep, "but he did seem sorry, Sumner. Deeply sorry for what he did to you. With Chloe. I'm not saying it's not fucked up, it is. But he's your only family, right? I'd kill for more time with my parents if they were still alive. Maybe you should go see him. Try to forgive him and move on."

Sumner crosses her arms over her chest, a mix of emotions rising with her. Rage and anger that someone she barely knows is trying to give her advice about the incident that marked the course of her life forever. Surprise and a hint of glee at having a man like Lucas—a man who doesn't seem to show his softer emotions to anyone—care about her enough to say anything.

Instead, she dodges the topic of her father entirely.

"I'm sorry to hear about your parents. What happened to them?"