Page 56 of From Hell

Calling him is easier than face-to-face, but I whip up a batch of strong coffee and bless it with a large dollop of cream and sugar before picking up the phone. I’ll need my nerves and wits about me. Dad is family, but he’s also a cop.

“Elaine, I can’t tell you anything about this before you ask. You know that,” he huffs down the phone when I eventually gather the courage to ring him.

“I know, but just this once. Please, Dad, I was friends with him at med school,” I lie, unable to stop myself from gnawing my lower lip.

“You were?” He sounds suspicious.

“I’m also worried. It’s close to where I live.”

His tone softens. “Do you want me to come over later?”

“No need,” I say quickly. “I’ll see you soon, anyway. We have games night coming up. You can still make it, right?”

“Should be able to now my case has been reassigned.”

“Reassigned? So, you have evidence the missing surgeons are related?”

He sighs. “Nothing gets past you, love, does it?”

I let out a stiff laugh. “Like father, like daughter.”

After several more rounds of me begging, repeatedly assuring him that nothing he says to me will make it back to Cash, Dad admits that apart from the men knowing each other and running in the same circles, they have zero evidence. The body and crime scene are clean. Too clean. Staged almost.

“I shouldn’t be telling you this,” my dad sighs. “But the time of death puts the murder in the early hours of Sunday morning.”

“You mean last Sunday?”

“No, this Sunday. Last night.”

A cold chill steals over my bones.

It’s been a week since I buried him. If Henry wasn’t dead then and I didn’t kill him…

Then who did?

* * *

“So your stalkeris trying to get you caught?” Sage asks, shoving a chocolate-covered strawberry into her mouth. Sage always goes for the sweet toppings on her breakfast pancakes.

“I don’t know what they’re trying to do,” I admit, pushing the food around my plate. With everything happening, I’ve lost my appetite. I can’t help but watch the room, eyes drawn to every person who could be my stalker slash killer. Sage catches me looking and scans the crowd, too. Nola hasn’t arrived yet, so Sage and I are in a semi-circular booth—the perfect place to view everyone and all the exits.

I haven’t told Sage and Nola everything. They know the body was taken and dumped in a different location, but they don’t know Henry was alive when this happened.He was alive.I messed up, and someone took care of him.

I swallow hard, the sugary dough I’m eating clogging my throat.

“Do you think they’re here now?” Her eyes become big and round as she looks about.

“Oh no,” I say quickly, shaking my head. “Of course not.” Upsetting Sage is like pointing a gun at a bunny rabbit. I don’t have it in me. Sage seems happier about that.

“Oh, Nola is here.”

Nola appears in the doorway, shaking the raindrops off her umbrella as she spots us. She waltzes over. “Pissing down in August, who would have thought it,” she says, echoing my words from the other night, sliding into the booth beside Sage.

She orders from the server and then focuses her uncovered eye on me. Her other one hides beneath a black patch—black, meaning she’s in a bad mood. I didn’t realize our friend color-coordinated her eye patches according to her emotions until one of the Stronger Together regulars, who has a girl crush on Nola, pointed it out to me. I don’t even think Nola knows she does it.

Nola seems to take my update in her stride, and I tell her what I told Sage, that I didn’t mutilate Henry’s body.

“I told you someone is playing with you,” Nola chimes in after a long pause.