Page 31
THIRTY-ONE
Liam
I walk into the department curious if I’m about to get a lot more pens, but we only make it about ten feet in before Penny rushes over to me. “Come here.”
“Do you have something worthwhile to show me?” I ask.
“Quite,” she says. “There was blood on the clothes but no splatter. It appears like someone wiped the blood from the knife onto the clothing before burying it. Someone was trying to stage it to look like you did it.”
“You have to be kidding me,” I respond, trying my hand at looking flabbergasted. It’s clearly working, judging by the way she looks quite excited to be telling me this. “Anything else?”
“Oh! And the knife? It had very small traces of blood on it. It was cleaned quite well, but you could tell it was still an amateur job because the blood in the slot between the hilt and blade wasn’t cleaned thoroughly. And you’ll never believe whose blood it was.”
“Oh, I can take a guess that it’s her father’s,” I say.
“Bingo.”
“But is there proof it was Abby? She knew the location, but do we have anything tying it to her?” I ask, really wanting to see what all she found.
“A fraction of a fingerprint was found on the inner edge of the lid that matches her print.”
Penny’s pens are safe… for now. I might even bake her a pie. “So you’re telling me she held this hidden for years in case I ever figured out what she was doing… or was she planning on placing the blame on me from the beginning? Was I never her target to kill but her target to take the fall?” I ask. “If so, why did she wait so long to reveal it?”
“Doesn’t matter to you, does it?” Michaels asks. “Because you are off this case and onto a very important case of a man found dead in his bathroom.”
“He overdosed on his wife’s medication.”
“You didn’t even look at it.”
“I sure did.”
“Go look at it better.”
“Come, Gabriel. Let us stare at this mesmerizing document with enraptured attention. We mustn’t look away. We must only have eyes for an already solved case,” I declare as I head toward my office.
The noise Michaels makes tells me he is less than pleased, but I’m also less than pleased. We have everything right there, and suddenly, I can’t do anything with it? I turn abruptly and head over to Matthew’s desk. He nervously looks back at me.
“What are you looking at? Stay focused,” I order.
“I’m looking at you. I’m afraid. You make me afraid,” Matthew says as I squat down a bit so I can breathe in his ear and look at what he’s doing.
“Did you solve the case yet?” I ask.
“This is uncomfortably titillating,” he says.
I reach around and grab his hand that’s on the mouse so my hand can force his to do my bidding as I click the document he was looking at.
“Paige, don’t act like I can’t see you!” Michaels barks.
I sink down a little more, but it makes it harder to see the screen.
“I feel like we’re in the movie Ghost, but instead of pottery, we’re solving crimes,” Matthew observes as I try to wrap my other arm around him to reach for the keyboard. He tries to help by guessing what I want to be typed, so I’m left smacking his hand off and trying to backspace.
“I see Matthew grew two more arms,” Penny says as she slaps a folder down on his desk.
I snatch it up and try to get a good look, but Michaels is coming. I just start rolling Matthew backward, away from Michaels.
“Paige, you cannot be involved in this case no matter how much you want to.”
“I haven’t seen Paige all morning,” Matthew claims as I roll him away. “You sure he’s even here today? It’s a rare day when I don’t get to see his charming face. He always knows just what to say to make my day just that much brighter.”
“Cute,” Michaels says.
I grudgingly let go of Matthew but slide the file down and into my shirt. “Well, it was a pleasure knowing all of you. Not really. There was no pleasure involved. The only pleasure was given to me by Gabriel.”
“That… no,” Matthew says, face scrunching up.
“What are you thinking about? I was talking about Gabriel’s sweet smile and charming personality.”
Michaels walks up to me as Gabriel stands like a good person, hovering near our office so he can observe. Michaels thumps his hand against my stomach where I’ve hidden the folder then simply holds his hand out. I sigh and pass him the folder before retreating to my office with Gabriel, who shuts the door. I pull a different paper out of the back of my shirt and sit down to start reading it.
“Did you seriously just trick Michaels into grabbing the folder?” Gabriel asks.
“Was it sexy?”
“I’m well aware I should say no.”
“But you’re not going to,” I say as I begin reading Penny’s report. Obviously, I put the box in the ground, but I want to make sure sixteen-year-old me didn’t fuck up somehow. But damn… I was good even back then. Honestly, everything played out exactly how I hoped. There were no traces of blood or DNA from Jonah found in the hole, and everything I placed in there made it look perfectly staged in case that shithead ever tried blaming me for something.
“You can give this back to Matthew since Michaels would probably murder me if I did,” I say.
Gabriel takes the paper and examines it before leaving the office to return it.
Once he comes back, I stare at my computer for a short bit, absolutely bored out of my mind. Why even have me if I’m never allowed to do anything?
I sigh.
“How many times are you going to sigh?” Gabriel asks.
“I’m so bored .”
“It’s been like fifteen minutes.”
“So Abby seemed to have created this group of hers when we were young, but that doesn’t mean the final member joined then. They could have joined at any point. Because they were able to transport a dead man themselves with seemingly no help, I have to assume they’re larger bodied and muscular. And Jesse said the tattoo looked like it belonged to a man.”
“I heard that they got ahold of Anthony’s brother Jack, but he’s down in Florida and hadn’t spoken to him in years. Guess they had a falling out when Anthony got into some shit Jack didn’t approve of,” Gabriel says.
“Were Anthony’s parents alerted?”
“From what I heard, his parents aren’t in the picture. It seems like Jack and Anthony were a bit like Sadie and Christa, practically raising themselves.”
“Interesting, interesting.”
I decide this desk is rather boring and step outside of the room to see where I can hover and annoy people. Maybe Jesse could be of interest. I’m sure he’s bored and alone and eager for some attention.
“Abby is missing,” Michaels says, and my attention snaps over.
“Oh?” I mutter before I realize I should keep my mouth shut so he doesn’t notice me.
“What do you mean Abby is missing?” Donna asks. “Wasn’t there going to be a police transport this morning?”
“There was. The officer on duty watching her is missing, as well as Abby.”
“Who was on duty?”
“Officer Dally.”
“You think she took her hostage?” Matthew asks.
“It should never have been able to happen. There should never have been an incident where she could have even gotten out of the bed since she was handcuffed.”
“Give me a list of nurses and doctors who were involved with Abby,” I say.
“Paige—” Michaels begins, but I shake my head to stop him before he starts in on something new.
“If there’s a name I recognize, we will know it’s them. It almost had to have been someone who could have been interacting with her. Custodians as well. Anyone who has access to her room, I want the name of.”
“Alright. Paige, head to the hospital and get that information. If you recognize any of the names, let me know, and then you promptly come back here.”
“Understood,” I say as I hurry out the door with Gabriel on my heels.
When we reach the unit Abby was in, it’s a bit chaotic. After I finally track down someone in charge, she hurries off to retrieve what she can for me.
“We have to work quickly. They’re going to leave the area, but I guarantee you, she won’t leave without her tapes,” I mutter to Gabriel because I’m well aware I would risk far too much to keep my album of fingerprints in my possession.
“You don’t think she has them online somewhere?” Gabriel asks.
“I don’t think they’d hold the same meaning to her,” I admit. “She might have access to them digitally, but she’s going to want the original tapes in hand.”
The woman returns with a file. “Here are the names of the staff who had permission to be in her room. I’m also collecting the names of nurses and other personnel who commonly visited our unit from different areas of the hospital. All of us were aware of who would be allowed in her room. We never saw anyone who wasn’t permitted in this area.”
“Thank you,” I say as I start looking through the names. “Let’s look up men first. The rest of them have been men, and in addition to what Jesse said about the tattoo, the fact that they had to transport John Doe makes me believe they were male. Although nurses have to be able to pick up a good amount of weight and are used to helping move people.”
“Going through the men will be quicker. There are fewer men and the pattern seems to fit better,” Gabriel says.
As I go through the names, he types them into his laptop to check the images of the ones he can find. None of them look familiar, and just as we start to return to the top to check the names of the women, a nurse comes over and slides a paper in front of me.
“Here are some others who aren’t in this unit but frequently come over here for one thing or another,” she explains.
“Thank you,” I tell her as my eyes settle immediately on a name at the very bottom.
“Ryan,” I say.
“What?”
“That’s the name of Christa’s boyfriend… the second one. His name was Ryan.”
“You think he’d kill the girl he was dating?”
“Maybe he never even really cared for her. Maybe from the beginning it was all about manipulating others. It’s hard to tell,” I say. “I think Abby did a lot to see who would protect her. Like I said earlier, I can’t help but believe the guy at the club never did spike her drink, but she wanted to see what I’d do. Maybe she did it herself or maybe she had no idea who did it but wanted someone to take the fall.”
Gabriel shakes his head. “I mean, it’s a possibility. She was likely lying to us every step of the way. Manipulating us.”
“I told you she was a chronic liar.” I hurry out to the car as I call Matthew.
He answers but immediately says, “Michaels told me I have to direct all calls from you to him.”
“I believe I know who Abby’s involved with—a nurse named Ryan Irvin. Get an address on him; I believe Abby could be heading there to collect the tapes before she leaves. My guess is that they were originally at Mitch’s in the vent, and she hid them somewhere after fleeing from his home. Then she, or Ryan, moved them to Ryan’s house since they were aware we could get a warrant to search her apartment.”
“Got it. I’ll call you back as soon as we’ve verified whether or not Ryan is at his residence.”
I try to wait patiently for Matthew’s call, but it takes a dreadfully long time as we sit in the parking lot of the hospital.
“I really could do this so much better,” I declare.
“I’m aware, but you’re not allowed to,” Gabriel says.
“Which is absolutely foolish. They’d still be twiddling their thumbs if the two of us weren’t involved.”
After far too long, Matthew finally calls. “They’ve reported that there is no one at his house. We’re looking into other possible locations.”
“Let me know if you hear anything,” I say before hanging up. Not sure what else to do, I call Lisa, who answers almost immediately. Even if she knows nothing, it’s worth a try.
“Liam? Twice in the same week,” she says.
“You kept a book with addresses, didn’t you? I remember you being super diligent about writing down wherever Abby was going once you realized she was lying to you.”
“Yeah. I did.”
“Do you have an address for one of Abby’s classmates, a Ryan Irvin?”
“Do you realize how long ago that was?”
“Yes, but I know you well enough to know you likely never threw it away and know exactly where that address book is,” I say.
“Let me see. I know I had her friends’ places, but I don’t remember a Ryan. I have Christa’s address. I still can’t believe that poor girl drowned. Ryan… Ryan Irvin… I think that’s the house the police called me to. There was a party Abby snuck off to that had alcohol present and since she was underage, they called me to collect her. Thankfully she hadn’t been drinking. That’s why that name sounds so familiar.”
“I don’t remember this at all,” I realize. But it’s really not surprising; I paid little attention to others.
“They let me pick her up from the house… I don’t think I have it written down, but I know it’s that real big house near the park. You know what I’m talking about? Real pretty brick house, three stories. It stands out, so you shouldn’t have any trouble finding it.”
“I do. I’ll head there. At the very least, his parents might possibly know where he is. Thank you.”
When I hang up with her, I turn to Gabriel. “Can you look up his parents?”
“Already on it. The house is owned by his mother, who is currently in a care facility for early onset dementia. She’s been divorced from his father for fifteen years, so I doubt he’s at the house.”
“You don’t say.” I put the car in drive and head out of the parking lot.
“Weirdly, we’re not heading toward the department at all ,” Gabriel observes.
“What kind of car does he drive?”
“A red four-door Honda.”
“Interesting.”
After driving to Lisa’s neighborhood, I turn onto the road by the park and immediately see the house Lisa was talking about, and right out front is a red four-door car.
“Liam, they have a hostage, so please be careful,” Gabriel says.
“I am extremely careful,” I assure him. “Have you called it in?”
“Doing it right now.”
I park along the road, far enough back they won’t notice me, and watch the house for a moment without seeing any outside activity, but what I do notice is the way the car bounces. The house is set back from the road and isolated. No one’s going to see this car, so why would they drag the hostage into the house?
“Tell Michaels that the hostage is in the car. I’m getting her out, and then we’ll wait for backup if he insists ,” I say.
“He said to only proceed if you are positive that the hostage is alone and that you can safely move her back to your vehicle,” Gabriel tells me.
“I will do all of that with finesse.”
Gabriel ends the call and turns to me. “Please be careful. It looks like we have some coverage from the tree line and the car is tucked against the house. I’m going to have you pop the trunk, and I will be at the rear to get her out. Please, please be careful,” he repeats as he grabs me and gives me a quick kiss. “You’ll get much more if you’re super careful.”
“Yeah? I mean… do we really need to save this hostage?” I joke because I kind of want another kiss instead of letting my sweet Gabriel out into danger.
“Yes, yes we do.”
“I have bulletproof vests in the trunk. Michaels started hammering it into my head that I must have them with me at all times because I ‘run into situations without thinking.’ I’m always thinking. I’m just thinking about how slow they are and if I get in there fast enough, I might get to punch someone before they see.” I crawl halfway into the back seat and lay down the seat to get into the trunk. I pull the vests out and pop one on Gabriel. I grab the straps to pull it snug before smiling at him.
“I love you,” I say as I give him one more kiss.
“I’m a little worried you’re saying that because you’re going to be reckless,” he replies as I cinch everything up before grabbing his sides just because I like the feel of him.
“Nope.”
“Alright, as long as you promise. I love you too.”
I beam at him as I pull my vest on without bothering to tighten any of that shit since it takes too much time. Gabriel grabs me by the collar, nearly choking me before adjusting everything so it’s nice and snug.
“Don’t be reckless.”
“I would never be reckless,” I tease. “But I need one more kiss.” I quickly kiss him and smile at my sweets. “Ready?”
“Ready as I’m going to get,” he says.
We both exit the vehicle with our guns drawn. The two of us slip over onto the property using the decorative trees that line the driveway to get closer to the car. But as we near it, the front door opens and I realize that maybe if I hadn’t wasted a significant amount of time kissing Gabriel and we’d both tightened our own vests, we might have been able to extract the hostage before they came out. Really… I get so distracted when my cute Gabriel is looking me in the eyes.
My bad.
I aim my gun at Ryan and Abby as I move for cover. “Police! Put your hands up and get on the ground!”
Abby throws herself back as Ryan fires his gun. The bullet dings off the roof of the car as Gabriel pulls his trigger. Ryan cries out as he falls halfway into the house. I can see Abby trying to drag him, but she quickly gives up and disappears into the house as he starts shooting randomly in an attempt to drive us back.
Gabriel moves forward so the car is blocking him from Ryan’s view. “Liam, please, please be careful.”
“I am so careful. I just want to kiss you again. That was a very sexy shot,” I say.
Clearly, I have learned nothing.
“I’m so glad you don’t have a bodycam on at this moment,” Gabriel says. “Can you imagine them reviewing that footage?”
“It wouldn’t have stopped me,” I assure him.
We move forward the second Ryan runs out of bullets. When we near the door, he’s trying to crawl back, but Gabriel is on him in an instant. Ryan takes a swing at Gabriel, trying his hardest to grab him, but Gabriel is quick as he shoves him down and starts patting him for any other weapons. Once I feel confident that he has the situation under control, I step into the house.
“Abby, there’s nowhere to go,” I call, positive she’s still inside the house. With her recent head injury and just getting out of the hospital, I have my doubts she’s capable of a sprint, and I don’t think she’d go up. There’d be no easy way out if she did. She’s in no shape to leap out of the second floor, so I move farther into the large home.
I reach the only closed door and knock on it. “Abby, open up.”
“I will tell them everything you did. Every detail,” she snarls. “I know you killed that man. I saw you bury the fucking body. I was in that garage; I can give them details of every inch of it. How you killed him, things they wouldn’t have released to the public.”
“Why’d you do it, Abby?”
“Why did you?” she asks as I try the doorknob. It turns, but there’s something in front of the door. I give the door a kick a second before I hear a bullet hit the door. Apparently, Ryan wasn’t the only one with a gun.
I shove the door again, pushing it open just enough to see into the darkened room. “Abby, we are nothing alike.”
“I knew we were alike the moment I met you. I knew you desired the same things I did. You know that these people are just scum. They don’t care what happens to you. They want to break you down, tear you apart. And when they finally succeed, they question why you’re not perfect.”
“I don’t kill innocent people.”
“No one is fucking innocent. You have absolutely no idea what they’re doing when no one is looking, especially the ones who look perfect. They’re all monsters, Liam. Every single one of them. No one ever believed me, no one ever trusted me because my father was perfect. How could he not be? It’s because they were all monsters too.”
I pull my phone out and send a quick text to Gabriel.
Me: Back of the house, second room from the left. Draw her attention to the window.
Gabriel: Got it.
“Abby, we are nothing alike. Your group has manipulated and destroyed the lives of numerous people all for your sick pleasure.”
“They deserved it,” she snarls. “They fucking deserved it!”
I hear something ping off the window, telling me that it’s Gabriel’s distraction, so I shove hard against the door. It gives enough to allow me to slip in and aim a gun at Abby’s head before stilling as I see that she’s not alone in the room like I had assumed. A young woman is kneeling on the floor, the makeup running down her face telling me that she’s been crying for a while. Have they had her for long? Is she the next victim, likely intended to be used to distract us in some way? To possibly pull our sights off Abby?
Abby has her gun pointed at the woman’s head. “Do you know who this is?”
I have absolutely no interest in playing her game. “Abby, drop the weapon now.”
“This is Jonah’s daughter. You know… the man you killed. He killed your father, sweetie. He stabbed him to death with a screwdriver in your father’s garage. I know this because I caught him.”
Sirens begin to sound and Abby gives me a smirk. “They’re here just in time to hear my story. I’m well aware I’m not making it out of this as a free person. But I sure as fuck am going to take you down with me. I’m going to tell everyone about what you did. And this lovely lady here can confirm that I know exactly what the garage her father was killed in looked like.”
“You killed countless people, and you think pinning one of them on me is going to just… solve everything?” She’s clearly backed into a corner and knows there’s no way out of it.
“Why the fuck would I kill the man who murdered your mother?” she snarls.
“How would I even know who killed my mother? Did you figure it out and because you were obsessed with me, you killed him? You were a monster who wanted to find other monsters just like you. You wanted to collect people who were broken inside and willing to go to the darkest depths for you.”
“You told me how he smashed her head repeatedly against the wall,” she says. “You told me how you followed my father to that bar.”
The young woman is giving me a pleading look. She needs to be freed from this situation, but she knows I’m the only hope of getting her out.
“Have you ever even killed anyone?” I ask. “You’ve always made others kill for you, haven’t you? Manipulated them into it. So put the damn gun down. You’re not going to shoot her.”
Abby gives me a cold laugh. “You really think I wouldn’t shoot her?”
“What would you have to gain from shooting her? You had Ryan drag her here so you could use her to confirm whatever bullshit you’re going to say about me? Like… what does describing the garage do besides prove that you were there?”
I want to destroy this awful woman. I want to make her regret everything she’s said and done. I want to?—
“I can tell them how you watched my father. How you figured out what he was doing to those women. I can tell them how you killed him right?—”
The gunshot surprises even me. In a brief moment of fixation on me, her hand had shifted just enough that it wasn’t aimed at the woman kneeling before her, allowing Gabriel to take the shot. Abby falls back, shock on her face as the gun clatters from her hand. The kneeling woman ducks down, sinking to the floor in an attempt to protect herself as I look over at the window where Gabriel stands.
The shot was perfect. It was likely the only angle Gabriel could get from his position outside the window that would keep him well clear of the hostage. There’s no denying Abby will die from this lethal of a shot, but I don’t love the idea of my sweet Gabriel feeling like he killed her. So I lift my gun and shoot her again, right in the chest. Then I kick her gun far away from her and keep mine trained on her, even though it’s obvious she’s not getting up again. I hurry over to the hostage so that when the police flood the place, it’s apparent that I was protecting her.
She wasn’t looking. She has no idea that I shot Abby again when there was clearly no need to.
“Are you okay?” I ask, throwing out all the fake niceties I can. I want to cement the fact that I’m the good guy. Gabriel and I saved her life . All that bullshit Abby was saying wasn’t true.
She nods as I quickly untie her.
“It’s okay. You’re safe now. I’m so sorry this happened to you. Are you positive you’re not hurt?”
“I-I’m okay. I’m okay,” she whispers.
“Let’s get you out of here.”
As soon as someone is in the room, eyes on Abby, I pull the lady out and she grabs on to me desperately. It’s annoying and I’d rather she didn’t, but if I play my cards right, I’ll always be her savior and never the man who killed her father.
“Here, I’m going to hand you off to the medical team, okay? They’re going to take fantastic care of you. You’re going to be okay and back home safely soon.”
She seems reluctant to let go, but I urge her over to them so they can get her checked out and make sure she’s okay. Glad to be free of her, I step out and see Michaels staring at me. It’s clearly an “I told you to not engage” look.
“We were shot at the moment we neared the hostage,” I say. “Abby was holding a second hostage at gunpoint, so it’s not like I could be like, ‘Well, you look busy, I have to run.’ I managed to distract her enough that Gabriel shot her, but when she lifted her gun to retaliate, I shot her again. Both hostages should be safe.”
Michaels opens his mouth. Closes it. Then sighs. “Thank you for helping them both in a quick manner.”
“You’re very welcome! I expect a cake tomorrow.”
“No.”
“My parents were murdered and my foster sister tried pinning more murders on me. I’m like… practically scarred for life. I definitely deserve a cake,” I say.
“When do I get a cake?” Donna asks.
“When you do something at least half as amazing as what I’ve done.”
“Sir, if there’s ever a position opening for a transfer, please transfer him,” she says.
“I’m like Michaels’ prized show dog. Even if I tear up his favorite things, he can’t get rid of me because I’m too useful to him. I’m going nowhere,” I inform her before seeing Gabriel. I hurry toward him but Matthew steps right in my way, so I simply put a hand against his face and push him aside.
“I second the transfer,” Matthew says as he smacks me off him.
“You okay?” I ask as I rush up to Gabriel.
His eyes catch mine as he tries to pretend I didn’t just gently guide Matthew onto a different route. “I’m… aware my shot was lethal… you didn’t have to… you know,” Gabriel says quietly.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say.
He raises an eyebrow. “Really?”
“Really, really.”
Gabriel takes a deep breath and sets his forehead against my shoulder. “I’m sorry. I know… I know you process things differently than the humans around you, but it’s still a lot.”
I look back at the house. “I think it’s what kept me from realizing it was her earlier. Some weird… idea that she really was just… Abby.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Nothing to be sorry about.”
He squeezes me one more time before he’s dragged off to give his statement. It’s going to be a long day, but at least we finally have all of the answers we need.