Coming Back to You ✔

42. May - This Year

Wordlessly, Sophia stepped back to let the F.B.I. Agent inside, shutting the door behind him, still making sure to flip the locks. Mike Travers watched her actions carefully, not giving anything away by his expression.

They stood across from each other, each sizing the other up. Sophia waited. He came to her, he would speak first.

"I imagine you have questions," Travers said.

"I imagine you also have questions," Sophia said. "Why are you here, Agent Travers?"

"You don't know?"

"I have my suspicions." Sophia sighed and broke her steady gaze, going to the island in the kitchen and sinking onto one of the bar stools. "But if those are correct, then why are you here, now? Why not earlier?"

Travers pointed to the stool across from Sophia, and she nodded. "Your 9-1-1 call," he said. "That's why I'm here."

Sophia pinched her eyebrows together. "You're monitoring my phone calls?" she asked doubtfully.

"No," Travers said. "We're monitoring 9-1-1 calls. We set up an automatic flag for if you call, anyone mentions Dempsey, that sort of thing."

Sophia nodded. "So that was him?" she confirmed. She jerked her head toward the window. "Graham?"

Travers nodded.

"And he's the one who's been going around murdering these women? Putting that necklace around their neck?"

Again, Travers shook his head in confirmation.

"And you knew about me? My connection to him?"

"Yes."

Sophia wiped her palms on her pants and stood up, feeling her anger spring up in tears at the corners of her eyes, her breath growing shakier with each inhale. "Then what the hell took you so long?" she asked, standing up and pacing in front of the agent. "Why the hell didn't you come and tell me earlier?"

Agent Travers sat perfectly still, following her movements with her eyes, unfazed by her sudden onslaught of emotion. "Why didn't you say anything?" he countered. "You had your suspicions."

Sophia gaped at him. "You're not seriously blaming me?" she spat at him. "What was I supposed to say? 'Hi 9-1-1 operator, I have no proof but I think my ex-boyfriend is a serial killer and he's out to get me?'"

"You could have."

Sophia decided she wanted to strangle Mike Travers. "Maybe I would have felt more empowered to speak up if I knew my suspicions weren't completely nuts."

"Ms. Shelby, are you aware that the restraining order you have against him wasn't properly filed?"

Sophia's pacing stopped short and she stared at Travers with an open mouth. "What?"

"The restraining order you filed. It never actually went through; there was a mistake on the form."

Sophia's mind whirled. "No," she finally said. "I didn't know that. I was under the assumption that I had one against him this entire time."

"Not that, when it comes to Dempsey, that particularly matters," Travers acknowledged. "I'm willing to bet he would have come after you, either way. But to some at the bureau, that particular detail was essential."

"Why?"

Now, Travers paused. "The team working on this case was split," he finally said, his words delicate. "Some believed that it was simply a coincidence, a clerical error, as happens all the time in bureaucracy. Others, however, speculated as to whether or not you had anything to do with it, and whether you ever wanted a restraining order at all."