Rachel watched as the local coroner, accompanied by a few somber-faced deputies, gently moved Jackson's body onto a stretcher.

The air was thick with the scent of pine and tragedy as the coroner began his grim examination.

Abner, his face shadowed by the brim of his baseball cap, spoke up from the sidelines. "Check Phoebe too, will ya? Maybe there's

something fishy about her death as well."

Rachel shot him a glance, her green eyes sharp, but this tshe didn't object.

The results cback faster than anyone expected: both deaths were eerily similar, a fatal puncture to the brain with a sharp

needle.

Tobias, pale as the moon and only eleven years old, suddenly choked on his tears, his voice breaking the heavy silence. "It was

Queena. I saw her touch Phoebe's head, and then she just fell over. Queena's the killer."

His words were met with immediate disbelief. After all, Queena wasn't just anyone; she was the town's sole doctor, a woman of

education who had studied abroad.

Voices rose up in protest.

"Cut the kid sslack, he doesn't know what he's saying. Queena just treated his dad's injury last week!"

"Yeah, and why would she harm your dad, kiddo? They had no beef."

"Tobias, you're heartless! Has Queena ever been anything but kind to you?"

Tobias shrank back, suddenly unsure. It was true, Queena had always been good to him. But ever since Phoebe's incident, he'd

grown afraid of her.

Rachel, sensing the shift in the crowd, raised her hand for silence. Her gaze swept over the townsfolk. "Where's Queena?"

then that they realized Queena was nowhere to be found. Hadn't she just been

way to Queena's house, only to find it empty, the doctor gone without

turned stone-cold; a suspect on the run

the county police, rallying

missing.

Queena had already boarded the bus heading to the county, taking the unconscious lan with

oblivious to the

drove. She had seized the opportunity to escape with the town's

taking the keys.

were singular: lan belonged to her, and no one would

search soon led to the discovery of the bus driver's body in a drainage ditch,

pursue by car, Abner suggested,

hesitated for just a moment before leading her team to the

ten thousand dollars

own crew.

took off, chasing down

where to hide lan, drove aimlessly towards the county. But the county police had already set

no choice. She forced open lan's mouth, pushing a pill down his throat, then slit her palm

blood.

at the county's toll station, Queena's bus was

landed close behind, and Rachel prepared to hand Queena over to

the bus.

to see the person Queena was so intent on hiding. When he saw lan's

could the man who had disappeared from

Beck's people still searching

Abner made the

"Abner?"

"We've found lan."

"Oh, what?"

to Greenfield, but his condition doesn't look good. I've got

Queena was. He was impatient

them

The Novel will be updated daily. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

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