“How so?”
“I used that secret website. Told them I’d been busted but also told them I thought we were wrong about zombies being monsters. And I also asked about the heads.” He gave a dry laugh that turned into a sob. “I snuck into Marianne’s house while she was gone. Used her computer.”
“Oh, no,” I breathed.
He nodded, a stiff jerky motion. “She came home just a few minutes later. I stayed, had to talk to her. God, I missed her so much.” He paused. “I was going to marry her. We’d already talked about it, knew it was what we both wanted. But I knew I had to leave, for her sake.” He let out a shuddering breath. “I told her what I’d done, told her I loved her. Told her I was sorry. I was on my way out the back, when I heard her answer the door.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “Then I heard the shot. I ran back…but it was too late. He didn’t see me, but I saw him.” His expression turned grim. “Same guy who shot you tonight.”
I stood. “His name is Walter McKinney. He’s the head of security at NuQuesCor. But…why did he kill Marianne?” I asked, baffled.
Ed’s throat bobbed as he swallowed. “Maybe they thought I’d talked to her and told her what was going on. Or maybe they wanted to be sure the heat stayed on me to keep me out of their way.” He shook his head. “Or maybe they simply wanted to fuck with me as much as possible.”
“Those fuckers.” I fell silent, thinking. Pieces of the puzzle were finally starting to settle into place. “Dude. You were used. You gave them the heads, right?”
He stared at me for several seconds, then a grim look settled over his face. “They didn’t destroy them, did they?”
“They’re doing zombie research at that lab, and they needed zombie brains!” I paced in the small living room. Did that mean Sofia was behind all of this? But surely Pietro wouldn’t have approved of the murder of zombies, even ones that weren’t part of his group. “You chopped off Zeke’s head, gave it to them, and they somehow regrew him a body.” And how would that work? Just give the parasite enough brains to fix things up? I guess if it could repair a bullet hole in Marcus’s head…Wow, those were some industrious little fuckers. “But something went wrong,” I continued. “The body we picked up at NuQuesCor was Zeke Lyons, and he was old—at least twenty years older than he should’ve been. And when he fell off those stairs, he died.” I sat, jiggling my legs in excitement. “Oh my god, fake brains! Sofia’s fake brains! She used them to grow a new body for this dude.” Then I grimaced. “But she said the research wasn’t finished. Why would she use fake brains that she knew wouldn’t work right? That part doesn’t make any sense.”
“Sofia Baldwin?” Ed asked.
I nodded. “You know her?”
“Yeah, we all went to high school together,” he said. “She’s fucking brilliant. How the hell does she know about zombies?”
“I guess Marcus told her,” I said, shrugging. “She’s known since right after he was turned, apparently.”
“Oh.” He nodded slowly. “So…he told her, and not me.”
I grimaced in sympathy. And how different would everything be now if he had confided in Ed? I thought. Would McKinney and Sofia or whoever have found someone else to collect zombie heads for them?
Ed took a deep breath and straightened. “You just said the guy was old and died,” Ed pointed out. “Maybe that’s how she knew the research wasn’t finished. Maybe Zeke was the test subject.”
“I guess that fits,” I said slowly. I had the feeling I was missing something, and it was driving me nuts. I didn’t like Pietro, but this didn’t seem like something he would tolerate one little bit. Maybe some other zombie faction was involved? And had Zeke been trying to escape, or was he trying to break in to get more of Sofia’s fake brains?
“But why did they have me kill the zombies and deliver only the heads?” he asked. “Why not just have me locate them, and then capture them—the way they were trying to do to you?”
“Probably because kidnapping a live zombie is a lot more complicated than simply killing one.”
“Or maybe the whole point was to see if they could regrow zombies?” he suggested.
I made a face. “Seems like it would be just as effective to cut off some other body part to test these alternate brains. But whatever the reason, it does seem like they want a real live zombie now.” I paused, narrowed my eyes. “Which also means that call from Sofia was bullshit.” I quickly explained to him about the panicked phone call from her and was pleased to see his expression darken. “That bitch set me up,” I continued. “How else would McKinney have known to set up his ambush for me on that highway?” I growled under my breath.
“GPS tracker,” Ed stated.
“Hunh?”
His shoulders lifted in a shrug. “I mean, yeah, he clearly knew you were going out to her house and it does sound like she’s behind this, but he wouldn’t have known when and where exactly to set the spikes out unless he knew exactly where you were.” He paused while I attempted to digest this. “It’s how I found you,” he added, doubling my shock. “I put one on your car when I was by your house.”
I stared at him. “Are you serious?”
“Yup. I’ve been following you for the last couple of days,” he said with no trace of apology in his voice. “Kind of funny to think that you probably had two tracking devices on your car.”
“Yeah,” I scowled. “Real funny. Okay, so Sofia lured me out there and…” I straightened as fear spasmed through me. “Marcus. I need to warn Marcus.” I’d told Sofia he was out of town, but if she got hold of him and told him she was in trouble, I had no doubt he’d come running into whatever trap she and McKinney had ready for him.
I automatically looked around for my purse, then realized that everything was still in my car out on the highway. “Shit! I don’t have my phone. Do you have one?”
“I stopped carrying one. Too easy to trace back.” He swallowed harshly. “I’ve grown a little paranoid, y’know.”
“Well we need to go find a phone,” I said, throwing the brain-food I hadn’t eaten back into the plastic bag.