Page 65 of One

“We can take Sari, since Michael and I will be going as well,” I say around a mouthful of warm lasagna Michael has just fed me.

“We will?” Michael’s head snaps toward me, his face sparkling with happiness. I nod, earning a quick egg-bacon-flavor, kiss.

“Not at the table, kids,” Rami whines, covering his eyes.

“That’s great!” Sari exclaims, starting to talk about some of the people that will be present at the symposium with Michael.

Uri is brooding dangerously in his chair, glaring at me. His sociopathic mind is surely at work, judging by the way he blindly stabs at the lasagna with a fork.Suicide Bridge, I mouth at him, reminding him of the fucking bulbs.

“We have the Brampton Charity for foster kids next month,” Uri reminds me with a smirk, knowing how boring those functions are for me. I’d much prefer to just give the charity the money, rather than spend time with entitled pricks.

“It’s on the fifteenth,” I say, flipping him the bird behind Michael’s back. “The symposium is a week later. Which reminds me that I need to tell Sandy to buy a ticket for you to the charity event,” I tell Michael.

“What?” Michael shouts, quickly covering his lasagna-filled mouth with his hand. “I can’t come!”

“Why not?” I ask him. The table falls oddly silent.

“I… I’m not good with…people,” he whispers.

“He means living people, since he’s terrific with corpses,” Rami annoyingly cuts in. “Mike, can you raise your voice? It’s hard to eavesdrop from here.”

Ignoring my brother, I focus on Michael. “I want you there.”

“Why?” His eyes are flickering between mine, searching. He still doesn’t get it.

“To show my boyfriend off, babe.” I cup his cheek. “To let people know you’re mine.”

His long exhale of breath is soon followed by a shy smile. But he’s got a point. We should test the waters first.

“Okay,” he softly voices.

“You’re so cute,” Sari almost coos at us.

“Puke inducing.” Rami rolls his eyes.

Michael gives him the bird, turning to our empty containers to close the lids before placing them in one of the paper bags.

“I've checked the Rope Killer police files and the last murder doesn’t feel right,” Uri abruptly mutters, not lifting his eyes from his plate.

“The victim was a therapist.” Sari nods. “He was found in his office.”

“But not killed there. His body was moved,” Michael says.

“For sure. He lost a lot of blood from his nose, but there was none on the carpeted floor where the body was found,” Rami adds.

“He experienced a severe nose hemorrhage because of his hemophilia,” Michael explains.

“His shirt and pants were covered in blood.” I saw it in the forensic pictures of the crime scene attached to the police files. The absence of blood on the floor is proof of what Michael said: the body was moved.

“But the other four victims weren’t.” Uri says.

“No,” Rami replies.

“It was a crime of passion, then.” Uri claps his hands, making Michael jump at the sound.

“You mean that it was committed out of anger or fear? Not premeditated?” Michael asks him.

“Exactly.” Uri nods at him. “Something must have happened with the last victim to force the killer to move the body.”