“Yeah, I heard he got capped. But he's gonna be alright, though, right?”
“He will be. He was lucky. The bullet didn't hit anything major.”
“That's good,” he mumbled.
“And I think you also know we've spoken to William Stevens and Leon Brownell who were present at the shooting. They've agreed to testify in court against Mr. Mask. We've got enough evidence to put him away for a long time.”
“Alright, so what do you need me for?” Panetti asked.
“We need you to help us catch him. That's the last step – we just need to find out who he is and where he is. Then we can set up a sting, with your help hopefully, and swoop in. Once we've got him, it's game over. Like I said, the evidence stacked against him is watertight. Even if he hires the best lawyer in the country, he won't be able to stay out of prison. He's going away; he's going away for a long, long time.”
Panetti looked at me with a confused expression on his face. “You, uh, you don't know who he is?”
“Why does that surprise you?” I asked, a little staggered at his reaction.
“Because you've got his picture on your board over there. And the picture of the girl who runs the operation with him.”
I almost fell out of my chair trying to turn around.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Vivienne
“Simon... you... you bastard!” I shouted, my fear overtaken by a suddenly boiling and savage rage.
Simon simply laughed.
“It's nice to see you again too, lover,” he said, sneering. “I have missed you. But now, finally... we're together again, and everything is as it should be.”
“We're not together, and we never, ever will be!” I snapped in response.
“You know, considering that you're the one who's tied up here and unable to escape, and I'm the one in control … the one with the weapon,” he said, lifting his shirt and revealing a pistol tucked into a holster on his belt, “Don't you think that you should perhaps be a little more respectful? Maybe try being a bit nicer to me, huh? After all, I wouldn't want to have to reprimand you into compliance. But rest assured, if you push me too far, I will do some damage. I don't want to hurt you... but I will if you make me.”
I turned to Angie, desperately hoping that I could find some sympathy in her, that somehow, I could reach out to her and get some help from her.
“Angie,” I said. “We're friends! Why are you doing this? Please, stop this now; it's not funny anymore... Just let me go, please.”
She chuckled humorlessly and took out a gun that had been hidden behind her back, and she pointed it at me.
“Oh, Alicia,” she said. “How blind and ignorant you are. Just like all the pretty girls. You pretended that we were friends in high school. As if! You don't remember how it actually was, do you? You had your little clique of pretty friends, and you were all cheerleaders and dancers, and you were all so popular, and everyone loved you. Whereas girls like me, we were just invisible. I guess you don't remember how I looked back then. No, of course you don't, you self-absorbed bitch. I wasn't pretty like you back then. No. I was a nerd. Yeah, one of those girls your pretty friends used to make fun of, used to call names, used to write things about on the walls of the bathroom stalls!”
“Angie, I … I never did anything like that! I was never, ever mean to you in high school!”
“Well, all your bitchy friends were! Yeah, it was so easy for people like you. You didn't have severe acne; you didn't have to wear braces for the last three years of high school; you didn't have to wear freakin' glasses just to see the teacher's writing on the board!”
“Look, Angie, I'm so sorry that you had a rough time in high school, but those days are long gone now, and—”
“Oh, oh, so they're gone and done, and I should just forget about it, huh? That's really easy for someone like you to say.”
“I haven't had everything as easy as you think I have.”
“Yeah, well, you still don't know what it was like being a girl like me.”
“Ladies, ladies,” Simon interrupted. “Let's not argue now. Come now, Angie, at least one good thing happened in high school.”
“And what exactly was that, huh?” she snapped, still fired up from her outpouring of anger and resentment.
“Well, your nerdiness meant that you were very focused on your studies. And the skills in chemistry that you developed in those days led to our little partnership. Once our product spreads across the country, which it soon will, we'll be billionaires.”