The Podcast

Chapter 41

Wednesday Night

"What are you saying, Sumner?"

"Ina called me—" Sumner coughs, her throat searing with pain as the initial shock begins to fade and she can feel the slices in her skin from Ezra's blade. They're not as deep as they could have been but the sensation is still burning and unnatural. "I know that you consider me a person of interest. So go ahead, it's all right there. If your goal is to turn me in, there's your evidence."

Lucas' expression remains sharp and unreadable. He stares back at Sumner and she can feel his eyes rake over her like a touch. She has no idea what he's thinking. What he thinks of her. She feels it in the moment—how much his opinion matters to her. More than the millions of others who would hear this recording, their judgement an impending wildfire of criticism.

He stands up slowly, keeping his gaze on Sumner to make sure she remains upright and breathing as he strides the few paces over to the control both. He turns the recording switch to off, ending the ruthless red glow. Sumner feels herself exhale, something calm about the darkness of the room, the only light coming from LED strips along the upper and lower baseboards. She watches his tall figure move into the space where she'd watched Ezra so many times before. He leans over the computer monitor, a new file flashing on the screen.

Sumner watches his hand as it engulfs the computer mouse, her body floating with the finality of it all. She hadn't died but a part of her was about to. The part of her that had housed too many secrets for too long. She raised her hand up in front of her face, patches of milky pale skin covered in drying blood.

She braces herself for her own voice, cooing out over the built-in speakers, washing her in guilt.

But there's only a beat of silence before Lucas speaks.

"I've never wanted to turn you in, Sumner."

He hits delete.

Sumner's eyes go wide as she tries to make out the expression on his face in the dimly lit room, rising up onto her calves in shock, trying to stand.

"Don't move, Sumner." Lucas bears down gently on her shoulders, pushing her back to the ground just as the sound of several pairs of boots reverberates through the AudioHaven hallway, growing louder and louder like the pulse of surprise racing between her ears.

"Victim, twenty-something female, covered in blood. Source of blood unknown." A first responder crouches down next to Sumner, nodding once at Lucas. "Lacerations to the base of the throat." He barks out a few commands at the other responders in the doorway as they prepare a stretcher and gauze.

Lucas slowly steps away, his fingers having been laced through hers, loosening slowly as he stands.

"Suspect is dead." He nods toward the other side of the room, his eyes still on Sumner. "Tried to kill her with a Ka-Bar. Same weapon used in a string of other recent murders."

"Is he ID'd?" Two other responders careen around the table, pulling Ezra's folded body until he's laying flat on his back, his unseeing open eyes staring up at the ceiling.

"Yes. Twenty-eight-year-old male. Ezra Littleton."

Sumner slips away from consciousness, feeling herself float as she's lifted into the air and placed on the stretcher, the warm feel of Lucas' hand still lingering on her cold fingers.