Read Particles of Obsession (A Shadow of Death Romantic Suspense Book 2) for Free Online Page B

determined.”
    “You’re overreacting,” he says. “Just stay away from the windows if you’re worried, and only leave the house when you don’t see him.”
    He sets two envelopes and a box onto his coffee table. The box doesn’t have a return address and John’s address is typed out.
    “Who sends you packages without a return address?” I ask.
    He shrugs. “I have no idea.”
    My heart stops. “Shit. Shit. This could be from the killer. Don’t touch it again.”
    He takes a few steps back. “What makes you think it’s from the killer?”
    “It has no return address and they didn’t use their own handwriting for your address,” I say. “That’s a sign that someone doesn’t want you to know who sent this.”
    “Why would the killer send a package?” he asks. “Should I call the police?”
    “Yes. No. No,” I say. “Let’s figure out what it is first. ’It's too risky to have cops crawling around your house. We don’t need the police to figure out that I’m here.”
    John gets a pair of scissors from his desk. He kneels down beside his coffee table and slices through the long piece of tape that seals the box. He opens the two flaps and pulls out a small cardboard box covered with words.
    “It’s Edgar Allan Poe’s poem The Raven ,” he says.
    “Do you think that has some kind of significance?”
    “Well, the poem is about a young scholar who is mourning the loss of his lover, Lenore,” he says. “So…I don’t know. Maybe Kiona is upset about Alex’s death?”
    “You mean the guy she murdered?” I mutter. John sets the box on the coffee table. He lifts the top off and recoils.
    I step closer to see inside the box.
    At first, I can’t figure exactly what it is because the blood is all I see. But as I take in the bright gold hoop attached to something smooth, I realize what it is.
    A woman’s ear.

    * * *
    W hile the police are at John’s house, I stay near an old abandoned train station. I let hours pass by, time moving so slowly that I can’t help but create some conspiracy theories of my own.
    Kiona had been wearing similar earrings when I first saw her.
    Kiona cut off her own ear.
    Kiona has a second accomplice who has turned against her just like she turned against Alex.
    It’s Kiona who is the accomplice, which is why she needed her own gun because the mastermind behind these murders killed Alex. Then, this mastermind turned against her and cut off her ear.
    But why?
    What makes any of this worth it?
    Some people are just crazy and want everyone to suffer, but the first few murders were too specific to explain that.
    The sun is nearly setting by the time that I return to John’s house. There’s no out-of-place cars nearby, so I knock on the door. He opens it and ushers me in.
    “They left about an hour ago,” he says as I sit down on his couch. “They’re going to test the DNA of the ear, but they think it belongs to Kiona. They saw similar earrings in her house.”
    “Yeah, I already figured that out,” I say. “But that’s all I’ve figured out.”
    “There’s something I need to tell you,” he says.
    “If this is something about you cutting off a woman’s ear, so help me God, I will hurt you.”
    “No,” he says. “I think…I know why this person sent me Kiona’s ear.”
    “How could you know why?” I ask. “There wasn’t a note or anything.”
    “That’s because the killer knew I would make the connection,” he says. “I didn’t think about it until later, but it makes sense. I keep a blog. It’s not professional or really meant for public consumption, it’s just a way for me to get all my thoughts out and share poems or stories I like with anyone who wants to subscribe to my blog.”
    “Please skip to the point.”
    "Ravens," he says. "This is why the killer included Poe's poem."
    He grabs his laptop and hands it to me. I set it on my lap.

    I nsomniac Writes & Retreats: A blog by John Zimmer

    A s some of you know , a student at Tuskmirth