Page 55 of The Lost Zone (Dark Water #3)

“Tyler has recording devices everywhere. I’ve seen them myself.

I have no doubt, from my understanding of how he operates, that he’s kept considerable amounts of footage from those devices, which he uses for his blackmail operation.

I’m sure we won’t find any footage from the night of November third 2088; he’d be an idiot not to have deleted that.

I’m getting ahead of myself, though. He’ll deny the existence of the footage, I’m sure, and anything we do find will be innocuous.

He’s had several days to put a clean-up operation in place, and seven years to hide all manner of evidence.

I have warrants to search all his premises – his houses and his businesses.

Seize anything relevant to the case, especially all his electronic data.

This is a huge operation, and I need you all on top of your game. ”

His team, some of whom he’d never met before, looked suitably serious. They all knew this was the kind of case that could make or break a career.

When he’d finished his briefing, he dropped by Esther’s office.

“All set?” she asked.

“Yup. We’ll get him,” he promised.

“We’d better,” she shot back.

“There’s one thing I want to check… Alex’s status. I know the lawyers nuked it out and we lost, but I also know there’s no way a judge will return him to Tyler. That leaves him in a kind of legal limbo.”

“You’re right. I already asked our lawyers to look into it,” she replied, as briskly efficient as always.

“Lytton’s contract is owned by Tyler Tech, not Tyler personally, but given he’s the CEO of Tyler Tech, and Lytton is the chief witness in our murder investigation, it’s not appropriate he be returned to them.

I very much doubt they’ll ask for it, either, given the circumstances. ”

“So he’s back to being ours?” Josiah asked.

“No. He belongs to Tyler Tech.” She sighed. “His microchip is registered to them, and they have access to his tracking data, not us. He’s simply in our custody pending the outcome of our investigation. It’s kind of a fudge, but that’s the best we can hope for, in the circumstances.”

Josiah stared at her glumly. He had expected as much, but he wasn’t looking forward to telling Alex. Maybe it was something he’d keep to himself, unless Alex asked.

It was gone midnight by the time he finally left Inquisitus, and he’d be starting again at the crack of dawn. He didn’t mind. He loved the adrenaline buzz of a case like this.

He wasn’t remotely surprised to find the lights on in the living room when he returned home, and Alex pacing the floor like a caged cat.

“Well?” Alex demanded the second he walked through the door. “What did you find? Are the remains hers? Is Tyler behind bars? Did he admit to killing her? What’s happening?”

“Hey, slow down.” Josiah glanced around. “Where’s Sem?”

“He went to bed hours ago.”

“As I told you to do.” Josiah strode into the kitchen and retrieved a Coke from the fridge.

“You knew I wouldn’t. How could I?” Alex demanded, following him.

Josiah looked around the fridge for some food. He was starving, but there was no meal waiting for him; he doubted that Alex had eaten anything, either. He took a couple of ready meals from the freezer and shoved them in the oven.

“Josiah! Tell me,” Alex pleaded, grabbing his shoulders and swinging him around to face him. His eyes were almost feverish with anticipation, and Josiah could have kicked himself for not realising sooner how on edge he was.

“The skull is almost certainly hers – although we still have to prove it. Tyler didn’t co-operate in the interview and posted bail, which was approved, so he’s back out again.

We don’t have enough evidence to charge him yet, but we’re working on it.

We’re going into all his properties to seize evidence first thing tomorrow,” Josiah rapped out.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to keep you on tenterhooks. ”

Alex took a deep breath, then another, and then, much to Josiah’s surprise, he burst out laughing. “It’s her? It’s really her?”

“Yes. At least, it probably is.” Josiah watched, startled, as Alex threw back his head and laughed some more.

“Oh, God. Oh, my fucking God! It’s her. After all these years… it’s her!” His laugh became high-pitched, verging on hysterical, and then suddenly he wasn’t laughing anymore but sobbing – great, gasping sobs. He bent over double as if unable to breathe, tears running down his face.

Josiah sprang into action. “Hey, it’s okay…

hold on to me…” He put his arms around Alex and helped him stand, but Alex wouldn’t – couldn’t – be contained.

He pushed himself away and ran out of the kitchen and back into the living room, as if searching for an exit.

Josiah followed, watching, as he started rampaging around like a wild beast, his arms crossed over his abdomen, alternately laughing and sobbing, as if deranged.

Josiah stood back and let him go. He was no psychiatrist, but instinctively he understood.

Alex had suppressed all his emotions for years in pursuit of this one goal.

While his quest for justice for Solange was by no means over, the finding of what were almost certainly her remains was huge.

Last time he’d seen her, she’d been a person, and now she was just a pathetic fragment of a skeleton.

Josiah could see that it was all too much for him.

All of it. The years reaching this point, and then the rollercoaster of the last few days, culminating in that showdown this afternoon when Tyler had so nearly taken custody of him.

How on earth was Alex supposed to process all this?

How could anyone? No wonder he was having an epic meltdown.

Alex walked like a drunken person, his arms still wrapped tightly around his body, as he veered between maniacal laughter and heart-wrenching sobs, his entire frame shaking as he lurched around the room.

Josiah longed to put his arms around him again, to offer him comfort, but he knew it wasn’t the right time.

Alex needed to do this, to let it all out.

For years, he’d had no option but to wear that mask, to pretend he had no feelings and no opinions, and that he was happy to do whatever his houder ordered.

He’d carried the burden of his self-imposed mission for so long, giving everything to it.

Now, the strain had, perhaps inevitably, caused him to break down.

It was as if his body couldn’t contain all the emotions he was feeling as he hollered and sobbed and screamed like a banshee, then laughed like a lunatic.

His emotions were so turbulent, so huge, so desperate for release after years of being suppressed that they were tangible.

Standing in that room, watching helplessly, Josiah could feel them.

It was a whirlwind, a wild, unfettered storm, and there was nothing to do but wait for it to blow itself out.

Finally, exhausted, Alex stopped pacing.

Falling to his knees by the sofa as if he couldn’t walk another step, he sobbed into the carpet.

Josiah considered approaching him, but some instinct held him back.

Alex had been denied agency for so long.

It felt important that, in this moment, when his emotions finally had release, he should choose his own path to comfort, wherever that lay.

Josiah wouldn’t take offence if that path wasn’t him.

He knew his own feelings for Alex strengthened by the day, but he was by no means sure that Alex reciprocated them.

There was affection there, yes, and gratitude, and sexual attraction in spades…

but Josiah wasn’t sure it went beyond that.

The least he could do was allow Alex the space to fully express his true emotions, for perhaps the first time since he became an IS.

So, he waited patiently, concerned but not intrusive.

This was Alex’s moment, not his. He might have laid his career on the line for this case, but he’d been pursuing it for only a few days.

Alex had given it everything he had for seven years, and it had taken an impossible toll.

All Josiah could do was wait with compassion to see what Alex needed from him next.

Eventually, Alex stopped shaking. He looked up, his face red and streaked with tear stains, his eyes wet.

“What would you like me to do?” Josiah asked softly. “Do you want to be alone? Or held? Do you want food, or just to sit?”

“Choices?” Alex whispered. “I haven’t had those in years.”

“I know, but you have them now, and with me, always,” Josiah said fiercely. “Do you understand that?”

“Yes.” Alex grabbed the side of the sofa and pulled himself shakily to his feet, staggering over to him and falling into his arms.

Josiah held him tightly, kissing his hair over and over again.

“I’ve got you, love, I’ve got you. Let it out.

Let it all out,” he murmured as Alex pressed his face into his shoulder and hung there, exhausted, his body heaving with the raw, gasping aftermath of his outburst. He held him for a long time, until finally it seemed the storm had passed.

Then, gently, he walked Alex over to the sofa and helped him to sit.

“I’m going to get you some hot, sweet tea,” he said.

“And some chocolate,” he added, hurrying to the kitchen.

Alex was too far gone to offer the eye-rolling that would normally have accompanied that suggestion – both those things were his panaceas – but in this moment, he could think of nothing better.