Page 25 of A Simple Mistake (Deadly Mistakes #1)

TWENTY-FIVE

Liam

Present

“How long are you going to stare at me? Both of you?” Gabriel mutters as he opens his eyes and flickers them between me and the cat.

“I was staring at you because the cat was. You know how they say that cats can see paranormal things, so I was questioning if she was seeing the ghosts of her past victims hovering around you,” I say as I lie on my side facing him. Honestly, I haven’t even been awake that long, and I feel like what woke me was the cat trying her paw at suffocating me by stuffing her tail hair into my nostrils.

Gabriel doesn’t look overly convinced, but when he reaches out, he sets his hand on the cat’s head and pets her as she gives me a smug look, pleased she got attention first.

“Are you seriously jealous of the cat? I saw that look on your face. Don’t think you can simply shift your face into a different expression like I wouldn’t notice.”

“You’ve noticed nothing.”

“Haven’t I?”

“Nothing at all,” I assure him.

He stops scratching the cat under the chin to reach out and scritch under my chin. “Is that better?”

I grin, quite pleased by it. “Sure is.”

“Don’t… forget that I’m… not sure what this is yet.”

“You can label it whatever you want as long as you give me attention.”

Gabriel raises an eyebrow. “You’re hilarious. There’s no fucking way you wouldn’t want to prance around and announce to everyone that we’re dating if I decided to date you.”

“I wouldn’t just prance, I would skip.”

“So sexy.”

“Thank you.”

Lucille extends a paw and puts it on his arm, like she’s going to convince him that her need for attention is more dire than mine.

“I’ll pet her, you pet me,” I say, deciding that sacrificing my arm to the cat is a fair trade-off for his attention.

Gabriel sighs and pulls the pillow over his head instead of committing to either of us. Lucy Fur and I exchange looks like we can’t fathom how we’ve been dissed like this when we’re both obviously in need of attention. Maybe we do have common ground after all.

“Why can’t anything be easy?” he whines.

“What’s so hard? Lucy Fur and I are pretending we like each other for you, my house is significantly superior to Chris’s, and I will burn down the world for you. Is there really anything more you can ask for?”

“Maybe? Probably?”

“Well, if you think of it, let me know. I’ll commit to it.”

“I’m still so tired.”

“Because we’ve only gotten like four hours of sleep,” I say as my phone beeps.

I would love to not answer it or pretend it doesn’t even exist, but when Gabriel’s beeps at the same time, it tells me that it’s someone from work, and I should answer it with Jeffers still missing.

Gabriel pulls the pillow free and snatches his phone up as I slowly stretch an arm over his waist. “It’s Penny. She said to go straight to her lab when we get in,” he says as I tuck my arm under his shirt, letting my fingers gently brush against bare skin.

“Okay. We can be there in thirty.”

“Do you think if you move slowly enough, I might not notice you invading my shirt?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I say as I tuck my head against the bare skin showing on his side. “Are you sure you’re okay? You’re not like… seeing or hearing something, right? Would you like Dr. Paige to give you a thorough medical exam?”

“I’m sure the medical exam would be quite thorough,” he replies with a good helping of sarcasm.

Lucy Fur gets in on the action by perching on his chest so he can’t get away. I’m almost tempted to give her a high five but don’t want to ruin this moment by bleeding on Gabriel.

“We really need to get going.”

“Yeah. Definitely,” I say as I stick my head under his shirt, which makes Gabriel laugh, and I love hearing the sound of it with my head lying on him.

“What are you doing?”

“If I climb inside your clothes, you can wear me like a bulletproof vest,” I joke.

“You are so fucking ridiculous. Your head doesn’t fit under there.”

“I don’t know, I feel like I’m fitting quite well.”

He’s laughing harder now as he grabs my head, but he isn’t doing a very good job of pushing me out when he’s holding me down instead. I lightly nip his side, which makes him squirm a bit.

“You are so weird! What are you doing?”

Making you laugh, obviously. “Trust me, it’s not weird.”

“How the fuck isn’t this weird?” he asks as he twists, unseating the cat. “Stop! We need to go to work. Enough goofing around.”

“I’m not goofing. This is very serious. I very seriously don’t want to go to work,” I say as I bite him again.

Gabriel just squirms and laughs while hugging my head some more. “I don’t know what kind of weird mating dance this is, but it’s not going to work.”

“Are you sure?” I ask as I snake my arms around him and roll him onto me.

“You just going to smother yourself in my shirt?”

“If you let me. I’d rather smother myself with your body than look at Donna or hear Michaels or pretend to care about Penny. I care so little about Penny that I keep thinking her name is Jenny.”

“How long have you worked with her?”

“Years too long.”

“We should probably get going,” he says, although he shows no signs of getting up. Lucy Fur jumps onto his back and starts cleaning her paws. “Am I squishing you? I hope I’m squishing you.”

“I like being squished by you.”

“You’re the weirdo who climbed into my shirt.”

“It made you laugh, though, didn’t it?”

“Does that make me a bad person?”

“That you laughed?”

“That you con me into laughing at the stupidest shit. You really can’t be that funny,” Gabriel says.

I grin, pleased by my abilities. “I’m fucking delightful. Ask Michaels.”

“The last person I’d ask would be Michaels. Alright, for real, time is working against us. We have to get moving. I wonder if they’re going to call another unit in to assist us.”

“I sure hope not. I would hate to have to waste time manipulating more people,” I mutter.

“How about you don’t manipulate anyone and just be nice?” he asks as he pulls away from me before setting Lucy Fur on my chest. She extends her claws as she looks me in the eyes.

“Your cat’s showing off her murder weapons.” Yet no one likes it when I show mine off.

“She likes you.”

“So you say. Watch. Watch when I pet her,” I say as I reach out and pet the back of her neck. She blissfully sits there while Gabriel watches.

He looks like a proud father as he watches this exchange. “She clearly likes you.”

“Oh hell no. She’s just waiting. She’s planning to strike,” I say, but Gabriel doesn’t look convinced as he makes his way out of the room. The moment he’s gone, Lucy Fur grabs my hand in her paws, flips onto her side, and starts kicking the shit out of my arm.

“You win this round, monster,” I hiss as I hurry to get clothes.

Gabriel pops his head out of the bathroom. “Liam, could I borrow some clothes so I don’t have to run to Chris’s… oh dear god, the look of excitement on your face has made me change my mind. Never mind.”

“What fucking look? There was no look at all! If it was the manic look of delight you believe you saw as a fantasy of you wearing my clothes and going ‘I made you pancakes, you sexy man, but I got so hot I lost my pants’ runs through my head, then you’re obviously confused.”

“How the fuck did it go from me asking if I could borrow clothes to that ?”

“I don’t know, Gabriel. I think we’ve already covered the fact that my mind is a delightful place.”

“Did we? I’m texting Chris.”

“To wear his clothes?” I ask in horror.

“No, why the fuck would I wear Chris’s clothes when he could bring me my own clothes?”

“Ah… I might have… panicked a bit there. My bad. No, no. Please wear my clothes. I will do nothing and say nothing about it. I swear on your cat.”

“Don’t swear on my cat!”

“It’s like I can’t do anything right!” I head into my closet, but before I can fantasize over what I want him to wear, he grabs a button-down and dark pants.

“Do these work?”

“Sure, sure. You can wear anything and nothing and I would be pleased.”

When we’re both ready and I’m trying my hardest not to stare at the man who is in my house, wrapped up in my clothes, while drinking my coffee, we head out to the driveway.

“I guess we can drive separate so you don’t have to run me anywhere later,” Gabriel says, like he wants to take my state of euphoria and stamp it down to healthy levels.

“You might as well stay here again tonight, so it’d be best to leave your car here.”

“I don’t know what I’m doing tonight.”

I take his head in my hands and direct it to the window where Lucy Fur is sitting in her little window perch pawing at the window. “Look into her eyes and tell your child you’re not coming home tonight. You tell her you’re going out for milk, and five years from now she’ll wonder if you ever found that milk, and question if maybe it wasn’t the milk all along but her that was the problem.”

“You are so freaking dramatic! How do you two not see that you have the same damn personality?”

I simply laugh as I get into the passenger seat of Gabriel’s car so he can’t leave without me. He shakes his head but comes around and gets into the driver’s seat.

“I’ll let you make me dinner,” he decides.

“Oh, how generous.”

“Thank you,” he says as he backs out and turns toward work.

When we step into the department, we head straight to Penny’s station, and I slide into a swivel chair next to her. She spins in her chair and aims her monitor toward me before waving at it like a game show host.

Gabriel sets a hand on my shoulder as he leans over to get a better look, and I try to pretend I don’t notice. And then I quickly don’t have to pretend when I see that there’s a match on the fingerprints that’d been on the child’s ball.

“Oh shit,” Gabriel says.

“Uh-huh… uh-huh…” Penny responds, looking quite pleased.

“This matches the fingerprints from William Davies’ car,” Gabriel states in disbelief.

“We never identified who the fingerprints belonged to,” I say. “We knew the killer was Jon Davies, and I don’t believe they wasted resources pursuing the other fingerprints since they likely belonged to William since it was his car, and possibly a friend or someone else who’d driven the car before he bought it. I think they were so confident we had Jon caught that they cut us off from looking at it from other angles. Not that I think there were any other angles.”

“Do you think the current killer is the person who killed Jon Davies?” Penny asks. “What if Jon never even killed his wife and son? What if the same person who killed Eleanor and William killed him? What if they’d targeted Jon Davies all along, and when they came in to kill Jon, he wasn’t home, and they ended up killing William and Eleanor since they saw who it was? Then they came back for Jon later?”

Gabriel grabs my wrist and jerks me off the chair. He rushes down the stairs and out to his car that he gets into. Clearly, he also wants me in the car, but I kind of don’t want to. The look he’s giving me makes me uncomfortable.

“Get in the car,” he shouts.

“It looks scary in there.”

“You’ve never been scared a day in your life, get in the car.”

“Will you pamper me if I do?”

He rolls down the window and looks me in the eyes.

“Hey, handsome,” I say and give him a wink.

“Car. Now.”

“So bossy,” I mumble as I open the car door and slip inside. “I thought you were the nice one and I was the questionable one.”

“I am the nice one.”

Gabriel looks around, making us seem like the most suspicious humans to have ever graced this earth with our presence.

“You’d never get away with murder,” I decide.

“I don’t plan on it!”

“But you’re still cute enough I’d clean up your mess for you.”

“How sure are you that you killed the right guy?”

I hesitate. “You… really think I’d fuck that up?” I ask. “You don’t have more faith in me than that?”

“Don’t… I’m not saying…” Gabriel doesn’t appear to know how to finish that sentence.

“I didn’t kill an innocent person. I’ve never killed an innocent person, okay? From the first person I’ve killed until now, none of them have been innocent.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Are you worried that Jon was innocent? He fucking told me, Gabriel. He literally screamed that she was a ‘cheating whore.’ That she deserved what happened to her. He told me how ‘loose’ she was from all the cocks that’d been ‘stuffed up there.’ You’d be surprised what people will say when you give them false hope that they might get away if they admit their wrongs.”

“Did he tell you where his son was?”

“No, I would have told you if he had.”

Gabriel squeezes the steering wheel tightly, pulling against it.

“Gabriel, it’s all fine. Why would he have claimed to have killed her if he hadn’t? I have no fucking doubt. He described the hammer he used. He told me the way her fucking head caved in. He knew things that he wouldn’t have known just from reports. He told me where he stashed the hammer and was giddy that we never found it. He loved it so much he couldn’t get rid of it, like it was some fucking trophy of his.”

“That’s not… that’s not what I’m freaking out about. Do you know how hard it was playing dumb about Jon’s death? Pretending that I had no fucking idea how he died or who killed him while being the main detective on the job? And now someone could start digging into that again. What if they figure out it’s you?”

“You’re worried about me?” I try not to let my heart pound a little harder at this.

Gabriel gives me a look, and it’s so sharp that even I’m a little startled. I didn’t know he had it in him to wear such an expression. “Are you joking?”

“I… don’t know what the right thing to say is right now, but the very tiny part of my brain that seems semi-intelligent is telling me to just shut up.”

He’s still staring at me, so I stare back and try not to let myself be too greedy. How the fuck can he be so damn tempting… so fucking perfect? Such a wonderful man.

Gabriel grabs an empty paper coffee cup and throws it at me. “I’m freaking the fuck out over here and you’re delighted!”

“I’m not delighted. I’m angry. I’m a tough man. I’m snarly.”

“You’re fucking delighted! Liam, what if someone figures out it was you?”

“No one’s going to figure out it was me. Do you really think I’m that sloppy? I wouldn’t have gotten away with this for years if I was sloppy. Gabriel, I often kill people who the police are highly engaged with. People the police are looking into or have looked into in the past. I’ve never fucked up.”

“You’ve never been stopped midway through! What if you’re caught because of me?”

“It doesn’t work that way. If I didn’t do every single step with precision, then I would fuck up and make a mistake. But I treat every single step of it as if a forensics team could step in at any moment. I guarantee you that I could be in the middle of killing someone and a team could walk in, and they wouldn’t even find evidence that I was the one doing the killing. It’s okay. I’m fine. Let’s focus on the case. We just got some very interesting information.”

“Yeah… but how the fuck does this case relate to the Davies case? The fingerprints on the ball are the same as some that were in the car, but we’ve had no matches. We only know that two people were in the car: William and Jon. Clearly, the fingerprints aren’t Jon’s… so who else was in the vehicle? How long did William have the car before his death? Wasn’t it only a few days?”

“Yeah, it was,” I say.

“Could it have been a detailer? Don’t they always detail the cars before they send them home, even when they’re new? Or someone selling the car? Do you think we should look into that?”

My mind is racing, drawing back all of the details from the Davies case as I think it over.

I wouldn’t have fucked up. I know that Jon was a killer. He deserved to die. A person who can bash the head in of someone they claim to love doesn’t deserve any ounce of kindness.

Gabriel says, “I guess I’m going to go see about that. I mean… it’s something, right?”

I know we’re working against the clock with Jeffers in his hands. Who knows if she’s even still alive at this point, but if she is, we need to keep moving.

“Liam?” Gabriel asks.

“I’m going to stay out here for a second and think,” I say. “Being in a quiet space helps.”

“Okay,” he responds as he sets the keys on the console. “Here, in case you want the windows down. Just… if you need help, I’m right inside… or am I wasting time looking into this?”

“We’re wasting time doing nothing. At this point anything could be a clue; I’m not writing off anything yet.”

“Okay,” Gabriel says as he gets out of the car, and I watch as he walks halfway up to the building before looking back at me. He hurries back and gets into the car. “I wasn’t saying that you fucked up… or that I don’t believe or trust you. I didn’t mean it like that.” He closes his eyes and rubs his forehead. “Obviously, it’s wrong to kill people. But…”

I cup his cheek, and he opens his eyes. “I’m not upset. I’m well aware you will never condone what I do and what I’ve done. But I’m not mad about it.”

“I think… if you helped me understand why you started… not now. Right now, we need to get Jeffers back… but if you’d help me understand.”

“I can do that.”

Gabriel nods. “Thank you.” He puts his hand on the door handle. “Even facing death, he wouldn’t admit where his son’s body was?”

“No. He continued to claim he didn’t kill him… and I’m starting to wonder if he didn’t,” I say.

“But William’s blood was on the scene.”

“It was… Jon told me where he’d stored the murder weapon. He thought it was hilarious how no one ever found it. There’s no fucking way he left it in the house when he sold it, but the place he stored it could have traces of blood from the hammer. It’s a long shot, but there’s a chance.”

“You want to see if there are traces of William’s blood there?” he asks.

“I do…”

“Where was it?”

“In the basement.”

“Wouldn’t he have cleaned it up?”

“I don’t know,” I admit. “Who was first on scene, do you remember?”

“I think O’Brian was… right? It’s been a while, but I feel like she was one of the first.”

“Can you get me in contact with O’Brian?”

“Yeah, give me a second,” he says as he steps out of the vehicle to make a phone call. In the meantime, I close my eyes and try to think about what I’m missing. I feel like I’m being made into a fool.

The door opens and Gabriel gets in with the phone on speaker. “Good morning, Officer O’Brian, it’s Gabriel Hyde and Liam Paige. How are you doing?”

“I’m okay…” Her voice is weak and she sounds tired.

“That’s good. I’m glad to hear that. Do you have a moment?”

“Of course,” she says, sounding a bit slurred like she just woke up. “Thank you… for helping me. Thank you… thank you so much.”

“You don’t have to thank us. We’re just glad to have gotten you out of there safely. We are trying our hardest to get Officer Jeffers back home as well. But we had a few questions, actually about the Davies case a couple of years ago.”

“Oh?”

“You were the first on scene?”

“Yeah, me and Hernandez. The father was frantic… screaming for us to do something. We couldn’t get him to calm down, but thankfully, backup arrived quite quickly to deal with him while we started looking into the scene.”

“Do you remember if Jon Davies immediately mentioned his son being missing?” I ask.

She hesitates. “You know… I don’t fully remember. Maybe ask Hector; he was able to get Davies to stop screaming.”

“Thank you,” Gabriel says. “I hope you feel better soon.”

“Thank you both. Thank you so much. Please find Jeffers. She’s such a sweet woman. She doesn’t deserve this. I fucked up.”

“You didn’t fuck up,” Gabriel assures her. “You couldn’t control what happened.”

I ask, “Do you still not remember anything from the event?”

“I’m sorry. They said that maybe I’ll get pieces of it after some time… or I might never remember anything.”

“That’s okay. Just worry about getting better,” Gabriel says before issuing his goodbyes.

I see Hector heading up to his car while chatting with Matthew, so I lay on the horn, making Gabriel jump.

“Jesus! Warn a man,” he says.

“Hey, Gabriel?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m going to honk the horn as of one minute ago.”

He raises an eyebrow at me, but he’s all smiles when Hector and Matthew come over. Hector, who is in the lead, seems to see who is in the passenger seat, which he’s closer to, and veers around to go to the driver’s seat as Gabriel rolls down the window.

“Was there something wrong with my window?” I ask.

“You were behind it,” Matthew quips.

“Ha. You’re so funny, Matthew. Don’t forget you owe me your life,” I say.

“Most people in this field save lives with no strings attached—and then there’s you. I saw Robinson scampering around to find you a heater because your toes were cold.”

“If you have a problem with how I treat those I’ve helped or saved, then I’ll look the other way next time you try to make out with a bomb.”

Matthew sighs.

“Apologize. My feelings have been hurt.” I wipe away a fake tear for added drama.

“I am deeply sorry,” he says with much sarcasm.

“Liam, we’re staying focused,” Gabriel reminds me. “Hector, I wanted to ask you about the Davies case. O’Brian said you were one of the main people who talked to Jon. When you showed up, was he focused only on his wife? Or did he also mention his son?”

Hector rocks back on his heels. “Oh man… Let’s see… that was damn near two years ago.”

Matthew says, “No, you’re right. I don’t know what he said to Hector, but I do remember the call that came in was for his missing wife. No mention of the son until later. I remember asking about it because I found it odd that he hadn’t mentioned his son, making me question if he even knew the son was missing at that point in time.”

Hector nods. “I vaguely remember something about that. I think it was the son’s car in the driveway that made him and us question it. He said something about not being sure why it was there and that he must have been staying the night.”

“Why did he never bring this up again during any of the times we interviewed him?” Gabriel asks me.

“I don’t know. Maybe to force us to look at a wider picture instead of focusing just on his wife. If he was like, ‘I definitely didn’t kill my son,’ it’d imply he did kill his wife.”

“Wait, you don’t think he killed his son?” Matthew asks.

“What would even make you think that?” Hector asks with a laugh.

“Shit, Michaels is calling me. Oh, don’t forget we have a meeting in an hour. I think they’re going to lecture us again because of what happened to Jeffers following her daughter’s voice,” Matthew says.

“Tell Michaels we’re not going to make it. I want to check something out,” I say.

Matthew scoffs. “You want me to get yelled at?”

“This will be in exchange for me saving your life.”

“Man… like I know I’m making out in this deal, but I’m also a bit worried,” he says. “Michaels might just finish off what the cell phone bomb started if he hears you’re not listening to him again.”

“I can hit you with the car a little bit to help,” I offer.

“How the fuck would that help?”

“Everyone knows you can’t be as mad at a wounded person.”

Matthew doesn’t seem to think I’m funny, but I do get a small chuckle out of Hector. Maybe he’s not such a waste of space after all. And I won’t even bother glancing at Gabriel who is definitely not giving me a look and is definitely wowed by my amazing idea.

Once the two of them are gone, I turn to look at him. “Why don’t you go inside?”

“So you can drive off alone? Absolutely not.”

“Then will you let me back inside your shirt to protect you? I’ll have Robinson get in the back side so you’ll be bulletproof from all angles.”

“Sometimes I’m like, ‘Fucking hell, that man is so sexy that I can look the other way when he does weird shit,’ and other times I just can’t help but stare at you.”

“It’s my charisma. I’m like a magnet,” I assure him.

“Magnet, my ass. Where are we going?”

“Jon Davies’ old house.”

“Alright… are we going to get a warrant? Break in? Terrify the new residents by telling them there might be traces of blood in the basement?”

“I was thinking one or the other, but if things get a bit spicy, maybe all of the above.”

Gabriel sighs but starts driving. “So… you think that Jon didn’t kill William… then who did?”

“I’m thinking.”

“You want to share your thoughts?”

“Sure. I’m thinking that I’m sitting next to Gabriel the Great. Your turn.”

“I’m thinking that I’m sitting next to Liam the Ridiculous.”

“Good. Good. Glad we got that out there.”

Gabriel shakes his head but smiles. “Me too.”

“Pull in behind that red car right there,” I say. “I like to walk up to where I’m going. It seems more menacing.”

“You need your own theme song everywhere you go, in case people are confused and don’t realize you’re the main character of this world.”

I grin, liking that idea. “As long as this turns out to be a romance, I’m fine with that.”

“That… was kind of smooth, and now I regret thinking that.”

“Nah, embrace it,” I say as I head up to the front door and knock. “I also knock instead of using the doorbell, since it’s a power move. Shows I mean business.”

Gabriel pushes me out of the way and hits the doorbell. “I do not believe you should be in charge of interacting with anyone. You shouldn’t even be allowed to speak to others.”

“I’d let you gag me, and I wouldn’t even complain.”

The door opens and an older man looks out. “Can I help you?”

I pop my badge out. “Detective Paige with homicide. Can we go back into your woods for a moment? I’d like to check something.”

He hesitates. “Does this have to do with the body that was buried back there?”

“It’ll only take us a minute.”

“Yeah, of course,” he says, seeming unsure.

“Thank you,” I tell him before I head through the side of his yard so I don’t have to jump the fence to get back there.

“I… thought we were looking for traces of blood? This is what I mean when I say that you don’t tell me what’s going on.”

“I’m not not telling you. It’s more that I was like, ‘Yeah, we should see if we can find traces of William’s blood,’ and then when I saw his face, I was like, ‘I’d rather go look at the grave instead.’”

“I’m glad you think of better things when you see my face,” he mutters.

“Mostly rainbows and unicorns.”

“Good… sure,” he says, walking beside me as we reach the wooded area. We’d been to the grave more than once, so the area’s not hard to find, and when we step up to it, Gabriel goes, “Huh.”

“Right?”

“Someone’s cleaned it up. Not much… they didn’t want to draw our attention to it, but it’s definitely been cared for since the last time we were here.”

“I agree.”

“You think it was the owner not realizing what he was doing or trying to be respectful?”

“It could have been, but the attention to details seems to be more intimate than that,” I say.

“Jon could have done this after he won the court case, right?”

I sit down and stare at the grave for a long moment. “He could have, but I think I’m wrong.”

“You don’t think Jon killed her.”

“No… I think Jon only killed his wife. I don’t think he killed the woman buried behind his house… and I don’t think he killed William.”

“The Jane Doe’s body was never claimed, right?”

“No.”

“And no missing women in the area matched her description.”

“Nope. Have a seat,” I suggest.

“We don’t have time to sit here; we need to find Jeffers.”

“I know. But we need to knock him off his game, and in order to do that, I want to give him time.”

“What do you mean?”

“If he’s following you, I want to give him a moment to do whatever nonsense he wants to do,” I say.

Gabriel looks anxious. “You think he’s watching us?”

“I don’t think he’ll come out here in broad daylight, but I think he’s tracking your whereabouts. He failed to take you again last night. The fact that he keeps fucking up is going to make him take more chances and mess up.”

Gabriel sits down next to me. “How long do you think we need to wait?”

“Probably not too long.”

“I feel awful for this woman… so alone that even all these years after her death, no one has ever come for her.”

“He loves her,” I say.

“What?”

“He loves her so much that he’s going to tear our entire department apart because of her.”

“She’s why…” Gabriel muses as he realizes what I’m saying. “She’s why he’s targeting us. We took the body from him. Do you think he’s someone she knew, or did he just love her because she was a victim of his?”

“I don’t know the answer to that… but it’s why he said something about how he wanted me to know what it feels like to have something precious taken away. Because I found her… and the department took her from him.”

“Fuck.”

“I can’t believe I fucked up like that. I should have known it was different,” I say.

“Liam, you can’t throw the blame onto yourself with this.”

I sigh. “Let’s go. I think he should have had enough time.”

We head back to the road, and I see that the red car is gone and in its place is a little cardboard box.

“What a lovely present,” I say with sarcasm.

“Another bomb?”

“If we’re lucky. Call it in.”

“Okay… where are you going?”

“I had you park there for a reason,” I say as I point to Becca’s house with her doorbell cam. “Don’t you want to know what the video shows?”