Page 46 of Obsession

If we had a heart rate monitor, it would set off alarms blaring everywhere. It makes me smile.

“When I’m done playing, you run straight back to bed, Dad. It’s past your bedtime,” I echo his words from that night when his friend, Mark Archer, forced me to play Milk the Cow, which soon became his favorite game. I can still hear their mocking laughter as they made mooing noises at me when I was naked and crying.

“Shame you can’t run. I bet you want to right now.” More cola spills down his chin, but the tears make my smile grow so wide that my cheeks ache. “Drink it up, Dad. It’s late, and you need to sleep.”

19

ROBBIE

“Are you sure about this?” Officer Miller asks, leaning back against the door with his arms crossed, a folded newspaper in his hand.

“Have I been wrong before?” I ask, seated on my bed, a tattered copy of Dune in my hand.

“Buckley confessed to the murders of those girls?”

“You know the inmates talk to each other through the walls. They’re thin fucking walls.”

“Shit… Alden has always professed his innocence.”

I stay silent while he pinches the bridge of his nose.

“They’ll want to review the evidence again, but the conviction against Alden is likely to stick unless they find DNA linking Buckley.”

“Buckley still hasn’t made an official confession.”

The look he gives me is comical. “You know I have to move forward with this information, even if it turns out to be nothing more than whispers between inmates. Alden has already spent the better part of a decade behind bars.” He falls silent before muttering, “Such a clusterfuck,” under his breath. Then, as ifhe remembers the deal, he unfolds his arms and hands me the newspaper.

I place the tattered book down beside me and take it off him, wasting no time flipping through the pages until I find her photograph.

“It’s a bad idea to get attached to a girl, Hammond. You know no one gets their happy ending in here.”

“Spare me the lecture, will you? I already know—” I fall silent, looking up at the TV.

Officer Miller walks deeper into the small space. “They found another body early this morning, hanging by its feet from the suspension bridge near the iron factory. She had been decapitated.”

I whip my head in his direction. “Fourth victim?”

“Yeah…” he breathes, a green hue coloring his cheeks. “Nasty shit.” His expression shifts, and he smirks. “Looks like you have competition, Hammond.”

Snorting, I suppress a chuckle. “They’re not even trying to be careful or conceal their crime, so it’s only a matter of time before they’re caught. In fact, they want to brag and play cat and mouse with the authorities. My guess is a young male in his early twenties. Thinks too highly of himself.”

“Sometimes I forget that you’re an expert,” Miller mutters, walking back to the door.

I flip him off, causing him to chortle on his way out.

Officer Garcia removesthe handcuffs and goes to stand by the wall. In the last couple of months, I’ve had more time outside my cell than since the day I was handed my death sentence.

It’s been a long fucking time.

My lawyer, Mr. Needham, has been with me from day one. He’s now sixteen years older and tired as hell. We both are.

Removing his specs, he sets them on the table, rubs his eyes, and puts them back on before picking up his bag and fishing out a folder. His charcoal shirt is creased from the long car drive, and his tie needs tightening. But I have a feeling the news is bad, and he loosened his tie before I entered the room.

He clears his throat and says, “I’m sorry.”

Silence falls.

Placing my elbows on the table, I rest my chin on my cupped hands and peer out the barred window to our left. Fluffy clouds dot the blue sky, and the mountains’ peaks are visible in the distance, capped with snow.