CHAPTER SEVEN
A pale and sickly Kirby with blue lips is hospitalized longer this time, prone in a gurney with thick bloody bandaged wrists, surrounded by the Hayes clan. The square room is a soft yet deep blue. Overhead lights beam and dim golden like sunsets. The mother and father both dressed in heavy coats, Deaf and normally so, so sweet, holler in a flurry of hands at their eldest Viggo, bewildered that such reckless things could happen under his watch. He stands, cross-armed, nodding silent. Head held up, occasionally bowing contrite. His piercing orange eyes shiver.
There is no trace of blood on Iris Frisk anywhere, in a white sunhat, white sunglasses, and white sun dress who has scrubbed herself pure, looking on fascinated at her ex-fiance and her almost-in-laws with maybe a touch of sympathy. She always liked Viggo’s parents from their presence online, but they never knew about her, or the very brief engagement. Viggo looks like his father, she remembers just now, Kirby looks like his mother, and then there is the third Hayes brother, the youngest hard-of-hearing one, Wade who watches her warily. He looks like a mini Kirby with an overbite. So adorbs, she thinks, but he looks so shell-shocked to see his brother in such a state. Traumatized, even. 399Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ32gmZdqMrZ
She curls back her dark auburn hair, pitying him the most.
Chance Gott shows, walking down the hall and stopping at her side. His cold hard badge still swings around his neck, to Iris’s annoyance, but he says something that throws her off. “Thanks,” he mumbles and clears his throat.
“Pardon me?” Did she just hear that?399Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDY9gCMrrdh
“Thank you. For saving Kirby.”399Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdPjg8Giqqu
“Oh,” she says, looking back at Kirby, her mind going elsewhere. She realizes that this officer, this black-eyed dude, has a heart and might be cool after all. She softens, letting her arms fall and her shoulders relax.
He faces her, “I know you tampered the crime scene. You took all his notes.”
Her shoulders rise, and her arms cross. Her bovine brown eyes swivel over and up and down at this bold conclusion. “How did you know it was a crime scene?”399Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuSWC7fhUTw
He blushes, entrapped without a good excuse. Aha. She deducts just from his face, “You two were developing a romantic relationship. Should have known.”399Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo1dxEZsvsU
He looks at Kirby, growing pained to see him so helpless, but his jungle green eyes are fixated now, refusing to look away. Iris bumps into his shoulder.399Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsXcGaK3sUp
“I was there,” she tells him. “On the flight that first day. You were the enshrouded knee-touching gay au pair. I was wondering who they were. Now I know. So adorbs.”399Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZC7nBHvU3u
“No stalling,” Chance warns. “I want the notes. And the USBs.”
“I’m not done with them. But we can trade.”399Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkohC4gzOPy
“You realize you’re interfering--”399Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNlipcJWC3V
“I want to help,” she insists. “You are the law, but you don’t know these people like I do. I am Iris Frisk. They don’t call me the celebrity snoop behind my back for nothing. You need me to profile the one behind this, so work with me.”
Chance suddenly glances at one point on the wall when he realizes with horror that she is right and has him convinced. He knows nothing about these people, and it would take too long to hack and sift through each phone. 399Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0FuRP9Spxt
“Fine, but it is still in my jurisdiction. What I say goes, or you’re out.”399Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ5b2ozXxQV
She lowers her white sun hat, tipping with respect. “I understand, officer.”399Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhyiePkkA8I
“What I am about to tell you stays between us,” he says, adding a grave look. “We don’t want the Spook knowing we’re onto them. We don’t want anyone aboard to panic about a massacre killer either.” She nods impatiently for him to get on with it. “I have met this person. They call themself the Spook.”399Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC4V0fEAK5u
She mouths silently but could not bring herself to say the dreadful name aloud. Chance explains further the encounter in Viggo’s MyHAVEN, how he found the Spook trapping and tormenting Kirby with the reenactment of the plane bombing. He mentions due to his adept coding, he got Kirby out and almost caught the Spook single-handedly. But whoever they were, they were adept at coding too and had weaseled out in the nick of time.399Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNvWgbdIrLU
She realizes something, “Does this mean Dom Taylor is innocent?”399Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwPmNt7vSHH
“Perhaps so, perhaps not. There is more. After the Spook escaped, I did a sweep of Viggo’s MyHAVEN and found a subtle worm. An embedded video clip. Personal footage of Dom attacked by Viggo. They brawled to the floor, at odds, over the contest winners. Kirby, his brother, and you, his ex.”399Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT4q73S6ShU
“You looked in my past,” she says as if wounded.399Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaop7jb8dNg
Even still, Iris takes in how much her ex-fiance never wanted her here. Chance continues, filling her in with details of the traumatic chainsaw incident with Simone Chaput leading up to Dom’s capture. All caught up, Iris looks down on the floor, struggling to think it through, blown away. She points out the car crash as well. “All the incidents happen to be framed suicides, a theme, the Spook’s theme.”399Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzvfIpM0T6h
Sad written last words. The thought sends chills up her back.
“That would be correct deduction, and plus now the Hayes publicly look as a threat to Skyden just as Dom Taylor. They will most likely be deported.”
“Someone really wants them gone.” Iris presses a thumb to her lips.
Her phone buzzes. With a jaded glance, she scoffs at the overblown media circus of Kirby Hayes being found in his room, near suicided from pills and slashed wrists. Pizza, his chosen last dinner. The delivery guy being interviewed, and intimidated, confesses he had asked for an autograph he didn’t get. He feels so guilty about that. She puts the phone away as the Hayes exit the room, joining them in the hall.399Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX7sZIcwnov
The parents with open arms embrace Iris their angel, forever grateful that she was there. Wade still watches her warily, standing at Viggo’s side.399Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz31kI3Y7SB
Viggo does not look in her eyes. He suggests to his family an organic bistro downtown to grab a reasonably priced lunch and says a quick farewell. Once the others leave with Chance Gott, Viggo stays behind with Iris. He still does not look into her eyes. She waits. He inhales slowly.399Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ41vm42VmDY
“I did not write one fucking word on Kirby’s account. I was set up,” he says, finally meeting her shocked gaze. “I was forced to pay for their flights. Someone is targeting me. And Taylor. By going after those we love. Bringing them here.”399Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ21bszn9EQN
She takes in why her ex-fiance never wanted her or Kirby here, and now the rest of his family are here too. They are all in danger. Does this mean, she is too? She asks, “What about Simone Chaput? What does she have to do with it?”399Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYhu9MUA3vH
He shakes his head, having no idea. “Taylor's area?”399Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRMxmkarXS8
Kirby bolts sitting upright screaming at the top of his lungs, sobbing, from a horrific nightmare. Alarmed, Iris and Viggo look through the blue and gold room’s window. Kirby continues wailing at the gurney, lifting his limp and burning arms.
THE SPOOK IS SAD399Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVhgegzB4co
Jack Steele Adams399Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYbZZGTvKqe
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