"Tracking someone?" Alex asked and his mind immediately went to that girl, "Was it your friend? That girl who was here before? You know, the one . . . " he trailed off. Alex didn't want to say died because it wasn't really all that clear from what she'd shown him. The obvious assumption was that she did die and Fred believed it but maybe she wasn't. Maybe Fred found something that put her on the trail of the other girl. Now that they were both free of that douchebag.
He scratched the back of his head, "Sorry, I didn't mean to bring back bad memories." Alex had said it and then he understood that maybe it wasn't that and he just brought up a lot of hurt.