He picks up the phone and is greeted by someone mimicking the sounds of static. “Krrrt. Tucker to Wally, Tucker to Wally. Come in, over.”

Wally stifles a laugh. “What’s up, Tuck? Need something?”

“Krrrt. Affirmative. Requesting investigation status for Operation Imposter, over.”

Wally pauses, deliberating over what to say. Tucker was sharp for someone so young, and he had been spot-on in his suspicions. After all, Anna really had been an imposter. But he obviously couldn’t tell Anna’s little brother that she had died and been replaced by an alien, or that he was working with said alien to avenge her.

“Ah, right, Operation Imposter,” Wally eventually replies. “It… it was a huge success, and Anna is safe and sound.” He struggling to keep his voice steady and his tone upbeat.

“Wow, really?!” Tuck squeaks, abandoning the walkie-talkie impression. “Did you catch all the bad guys?”

“Actually, there were no bad guys to catch. Your big sister just had a lot on her plate this past week, so she was really stressed out. But things are back to normal now, so you don’t have to worry.” Wally falters on the last word, overwhelmed by the grief he had barely managed to push down in the past two days.

“Oh… glad to hear she’s okay,” Tucker responds, not seeming to notice the hitch in Wally’s voice. He pauses, and Wally can just make out someone’s warbled yelling in the background. “Well my mom says I gotta go do the dishes now,” Tucker continues, “but tell Anna ‘hi’ for me! And thanks for looking into it for me. I knew Detective Steiner would get to the bottom of things!” Without waiting for a reply, Tucker ends the call.

Wally throws his phone on his bed and leans against the wall. He shuts his eyes and clutches chest, knowing that what he told Anna’s little brother couldn’t be further from the truth.

***

While waiting for Wally, I decided to get some homework out of the way. After nearly an hour, I had just finished my calculus problem set when I received a text.

Wally, now

Picked up a pizza for us to share, heading to your room now.

Once again, Wally was providing me food, knowing I still couldn’t get any on my own. I was grateful, but I didn’t want to keep imposing on him—I would need to remedy my money problems soon. Just as I began that train of thought, I heard a knock at the door and a muffled voice. “Pizza delivery.”

I rushed to open the door. In his arms was a large cardboard box from which emanated the pungent odor of cheese and grease. Resting atop the box were napkins and paper plates. “I figured you wouldn’t mind a meat lover’s pizza,” he said as he entered the room, setting the box on the floor as I shut the door behind him.

My eyes lit up. “I definitely don’t mind that!”

My enthusiasm was rewarded with a small but fleeting smile. Wally opened the box and handed me a plate. After we each grabbed a slice, I got settled on the bed while Wally took a seat at Anna’s desk.

“So,” Wally said in between bites. “Where should we look next? Did you happen to see any other suspicious emails?”

I shook my head, my mouth still full from my third slice of pizza.

“Yeah, that’d be too easy, wouldn’t it…” Wally frowned, lapsing into silent thought.

After swallowing my food, I asked, “Austin may have an alibi, but do you think he could’ve hired a hitman?”

Wally considered the idea for a moment. “From what I’ve heard, his family is pretty loaded… but I don’t know how freely he can spend that money. And even if he did have the funds to hire someone, why would he bother threatening her, only to have her killed two days later? All that would do is leave evidence connecting him to the crime.”

“Maybe he killed her because she still planned to testify, even after the threat,” I posited.

“But then how would he have found out? It’s not like Anna would’ve announced that to him.”

“That’s true,” I replied. “Then I guess we can rule Austin out for now. You know… we still haven’t looked into Lizzie…”

Wally groaned. “Not this again! I’m telling you, whatever bad vibes you got from her don’t automatically make her the killer. Yeah, she made Anna’s life hell in high school, but that probably explains why you felt what you did. Besides, if Lizzie really is the killer, wouldn’t you have felt Anna’s terror, too?”

That gave me pause. Every time I thought of Lizzie, I always felt a rising anger, echoing the strong emotions I experienced when I first encountered her. In my mind, she was already guilty. But it seemed rage had clouded my judgement because Wally was right. I didn’t feel a trace of fear towards Lizzie—only hatred. Which left my suspicion of her completely baseless.

“Yeah… you’re right,” I finally conceded. “Well, other than Lizzie and Austin, we don’t know of anyone else who would want Anna dead. And we still haven’t ruled out that she was targeted randomly. Maybe we should see if there’s been any disappearances in the area?”

Wally nodded. “It’s more likely that the killer is someone who knew her… but at this point we don’t have much to go on. And it wouldn’t hurt to check.”

I got off of the bed, setting my empty plate aside. Wally stood up, yielding the desk to me. I quickly took a seat, opened Anna’s laptop, and began searching for local news articles about deaths and disappearances while Wally watched over my shoulder. Most of the articles were either too old to be relevant or were about young children. Though just as tragic, we needed recent cases, and ones where the victim shared something in common with Anna.

After almost an hour of fruitless searching, scouring articles and missing person reports from a wider and wider range of dates and locations, we were about to give up. And then we saw the headline that changed everything.

Radio Silence: Popular Beauty Vlogger Still Missing After 8 Months

The vlogger in question, a woman in her late twenties, had an online following much larger than Anna’s. The neighborhood where she had last been seen was less than an hour’s drive from campus. What’s more, the article was written less than a year ago.

This was the lead we’d desperately been searching for.