hands reaching out for this imaginary girl weren’t the same ones that had grabbed Emily, either.
“He’s back.”
At least Tony was too busy studying his screen to notice her shifting in her seat.
“He’ll pretend to be disinterested for a minute, and then he’ll suggest the private chat again.”
He typed a hello message back into the public discussion. Responses from three different screen names appeared below it. One even immediately asked her age.
“What are you going to do?”
“Wait for it.” He continued to watch the screen. “Wait…for…it.”
Then, as if by magic, a comment from BIG DADDY appeared.
BIG DADDY: So, you decided to come back?
INVISIBLE ME: Told you I’d be right back.
Kelly could only stare as Tony continued to type. He could’ve been writing an email to his mother, as easily as the words poured from his fingertips. Would she ever be that comfortable with all of this? Did she even want to be?
By the next exchange, the suspect had suggested a private chat again. It didn’t take long for him to mention how nice it would be if they could have a voice chat. He promised it was all he would ask for, just the chance to hear her voice.
Tony stalled through a few more comments, talking about how INVISIBLE ME didn’t like her voice because it sounded like a little girl, but finally he turned to Kelly.
“Ready?” he whispered as he moved the microphone closer.
“Ready as I’ll ever be.”
He tapped the microphone and mouthed, “You’ve got this.”
She squeezed the button. “BIG DADDY, are you there?”
Nothing. She slid a glance to Tony. He made a circular gesture with his index finger, indicating for her to try again.
She cleared her throat and pushed the button a second time. “Are you there, BIG DADDY? I was hoping to get to talk to you.”
A crackling sound from another microphone filled her ears. “Lovely. Your voice is sweet. I knew it would be sweet.”
Kelly’s breath caught, a scream expanding like a helium-filled balloon yet trapped inside her chest. That voice. Those words. It was him. Sweet. So sweet. The words replayed in a torturous loop, reminding her of the other time she should’ve screamed. She’d failed then, too.
“Say something,” Tony whispered.
The sounds around her were too loud. The printer in the next cubicle. The buzz of the fluorescent lights. Tony’s voice. Her gaze shot to the microphone button, but her clammy hands had already released it.
“INVISIBLE, sweetie, are you still there?”
She could only stare at Tony and the microphone by turns, panic building, twisting, maiming. It was him again, and she was frozen, rooted in place by her own cowardice. Just like before.
Tony grabbed the microphone and crinkled the printout over the top of it. Then he yanked the cord from the USB port. Immediately, his fingers shifted to the laptop’s keys.
INVISIBLE ME: Sorry. My bad. I must have messed up the microphone. I’ll have to have my dad look at it.
BIG DADDY: Oh. Okay. You might want to clear your searches and your cookies first.
INVISIBLE ME: Right. :) Wouldn’t want him to know anything. None of his damn business.
Tony wound down the conversation, promising to talk again later when her computer was working better. The suspect threw in a parting comment that he hoped they’d get to meet, which Tony volleyed with the promise of “soon.”
With that, he exited all the chat rooms open on the desktop. He turned to face her, crossing his arms just as she had earlier in the same chair.
“What the hell was that?”
Kelly stared at her clammy hands as she gripped them together. Her racing pulse refused to slow.
“I’m sorry,” she managed to whisper.
“I don’t want sorry. I want an explanation.”
“I can’t. Not now. I need a minute.”
Without giving him a chance to ask more questions, she hurried out the office door and down the hall to the public restrooms when she could easily have visited the facilities inside the office. She didn’t care if someone else saw her ruddy cheeks in the mirror or caught her splashing water on her face. As long as he didn’t see it.
She had to get away from the chat rooms, from Tony and from the truth. It sounded crazy, sure, but she was convinced she’d just spoken to the man who’d ripped away her childhood and caused her best friend a lifetime of pain.
“You’re going to have to talk to me eventually.”
Tony followed a few steps back as Kelly hurried down the walk to the nearly empty parking lot. She’d barely given Dawson enough time to reach his car and drive off before she made her own escape, leaving Tony behind with the rest of the stragglers. He already would have asked his questions earlier if she hadn’t avoided him all afternoon.
“That’s how we’re going to play it?” He picked up his pace.
This time, she whirled to face him. “Oh, sorry. What were you saying?”
“That you’ll have to talk to me,” he repeated, though he was positive she’d heard him.
“Isn’t that what I’m doing?”
“I meant about what happened this afternoon.”
“You mean about the novice freezing up, just like you predicted I would? Or about the FBI agent swooping in on his white horse?”
“Who’s giving away white horses? I didn’t get one.”
His attempt at humor fell flat, but it gave him the chance to watch her. After the call, she’d been terrified. At least her flushed skin and wide eyes had led him to believe that. Now she lifted her chin and pursed her mouth, as if she dared him to question her. But he wasn’t going to let her off that easily, even if technically he already had.
“What happened? Really?”
“Does it matter? You probably told Special Agent Dawson your story the moment I stepped out of the office.”
“Stepped out? You practically ran—”
“I didn’t run. I walked. Anyway, when you did your duty to report that I froze and proved I shouldn’t be here, did you also tell Dawson that you’ve been trying to scare
