A Deadly Influence (Abby Mullen Thrillers) by Mike Omer

Author:Mike Omer [Omer, Mike]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Published: 2021-03-31T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 42

The morning sun was almost painful to Abby’s sleep-deprived eyes. She adjusted the driver’s visor, then fumbled for the cup of coffee and sipped from it, the overly sweet liquid already lukewarm. She’d gone to bed way too late and woken up ridiculously early to get ahead of traffic, and now she felt like death. Her life choices, she had to admit, were questionable. Two and a half hours of sleep were not enough for . . . well, for anything, really. It was a miracle she had managed to drive all the way across Long Island without smashing her car into a tree.

Carver had called her during the drive, filling her in on his meeting with Liam Washington’s wife. He’d sounded just as exhausted as she was.

She’d agreed to meet Wong by the turn to the farm, but when she got there, Wong was nowhere to be seen. She checked her phone and saw that Wong had sent her a message. She had been delayed. Abby used the time to open the browser on her phone and search for Tom McCormick’s article in the New Yorker Chronicle. She skimmed it quickly, making sure it matched the article he’d sent her the day before to review. He’d added her quote, naming her and calling her the “hero of the 2018 bank siege.” He’d linked a different article in the online newspaper—the article that had been published on the day of the bank siege. The article had several photos of her—wearing a police vest, talking on the phone, and of course, the final photo that had been published everywhere of the hostages being released with Abby and a guy from ESU ushering them to safety.

She seemed like a hero in the article. But she remembered how she’d felt. The sudden terror that had gripped her when they’d heard a shot fired, and she’d thought the robbers had killed a hostage. That moment when she’d first gotten one of the robbers on the phone and couldn’t hear his words because her heart was beating in her ears.

“Hero, my ass,” she muttered.

Another link in the recent article caught her eye. A follow-up. She clicked the link. It was a Q and A with Eric Layton, the guy she’d met the day before. He’d told her he worked with Gabrielle. In the article he’d presented himself as Gabrielle’s closest friend.

Most of it was fluff, Eric’s story about an afternoon he’d spent with Gabrielle and her brother, how Gabrielle was the best sister anyone could hope for. That he would do anything to help her family get through this horrible ordeal.

The final lines drew her attention.

Q: After two years of phenomenal success, this catastrophe must have hit Gabrielle extra hard, right?

Eric: I think it would have hit anyone hard, regardless of what they went through. But Gabrielle’s life wasn’t easy even before. Their dad left them when she was a little girl, and they were kicked out of a community they lived in. She told me a few stories about those people you wouldn’t believe.

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