by E. R. FALLON
Once loose, Paige galloped happily into the room, jumped up onto the bed and wet my face with her kisses. I rubbed her soft ears and gently eased her away. The dog’s leash clinked when Sammie hung it up in the other room and then Sammie stood leaning against the bedroom doorway with her arms crossed, watching me. She had an expression on her face like she was confident we’d get through the ordeal and be okay. I wasn’t as positive and was glad I had her on my side.
I remained seated. Paige sat between us on the floor. I spoke calmly considering the situation. “Em leaked the story. That was why she texted me, to confess.”
Sammie’s tone bordered close to brutal anger. “She can’t—she can’t just do something like that.”
“She did. That’s what she wrote to tell me just now, while you were out with Paige. She sold the story to that website. She wrote to apologize.”
Sammie ran over to the dresser and snatched my phone. After a moment I realized she was reading Em’s texts. “She can’t get away with what she did to you. There has to be a consequence . . . I didn’t know you told her about private stuff.”
“I opened up to her when I met her for coffee. We’ve worked together for a while now. I thought I could trust her. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The most fucked-up thing is I can’t bring myself around to hating her.” I chuckled at the lunacy of what I’d said. “She needed the money for her son. I know what it’s like to be broke and desperate.”
“I’ve always been sympathetic to her situation, but, I’m sorry, I don’t care how desperate she was, she must have realized how much doing this would hurt you. You don’t do that to someone’s life, you just don’t, not if you even remotely care about them.”
“I’m not sure about that. I can’t say that if I was in her situation I wouldn’t have done something similar. She was afraid what might happen to her son if he attended a school with a high crime rate. She was trying to do right by him.”
Sammie faced me and gripped my arms, and it took her a few tries but she lifted me to my feet. “You’re too good of a person sometimes to see when someone’s wronged you. But I’m going to tell you, she has.”
“I don’t need to be protected.”
“Seems to me you do if you feel sorry for the person who did this to you.”
“This thing, whatever happens, will pass. I’ll deal with it and move on.” I went to the window to check outside. “I’m not going to make a big deal out of it if I don’t have to.”
Sammie approached me and looked out the window too. “You might have to. You could get into trouble for telling her what you did about the messages left on the victims. At the very least you certainly won’t feel comfortable working with Em after this.”
“I might not have to. She could get fired,” I said.
“And rightly so.”
“I could be fired also.”
“What? No, they can’t do that.”
“Don’t tell me the possibility hasn’t crossed your mind?”
Sammie looked at the floor and reluctantly nodded.
Not only had I lost my privacy, I’d also lost a team member, and the nauseating tension of all of that hitting me at once was almost too much to bear. I swayed and leaned forward, and it felt like my legs could give out and I’d crash through the window and tumble to the sidewalk below. Sammie supported me in her arms and walked with me to the bed, where she sat me down and took a seat with me.
She sounded eager to get me to focus on something else. “We haven’t fed Paige her breakfast yet,” she said. “I hope she eats this morning.”
“At least then that will lift some of the burden,” I agreed. “I can feed her, or you can go feed her now if you’d like. I’m fine here.”
Sammie didn’t move from her place beside me. “She can wait a moment. I’ll feed her in a bit. I’m not leaving you. You can’t be alone.”
“With this crap out there, this story, it’ll change things for us.” I waited for her to concur with me. “People will know certain things about us, about me, and about my mother.”
“We won’t let it change us. We are going to fight this thing, we’ll fight it to the death.” The determination in Sammie’s voice inspired me.
“Do you think that can be done?” I asked.
“I know so. After everything you’ve been through and we’ve been through together, this whole thing will be a small dent in our life. We won’t let it be anything greater than that.” Sammie pressed her lips to my forehead, with her words warm on my face.
“I’ll go feed Paige,” I said, getting up.
I didn’t get far because Sammie held onto my shirtsleeve. “You’re not walking away from this,” she said.
I sat down again and wrung my hands. “I’m not walking away from anything.”
“You were walking away from me just now.”
The sun filled our bedroom with a soft, joyous yellow light that contradicted the mood. “I was going to feed Paige.” I looked from my hands to her.
Sammie gave me a reproachful look, and then smiled. “That was your excuse. I already said I would feed her.”
“Okay, you win.” I managed to smile.
An hour later, after I’d dressed for the day, Gilani rang me. Em had sent me a few more texts, one where she asked me what I planned to do with what she’d confided to me, but I hadn’t written her back.
“You’ve read it, then,” I said to the chief.
After a pause, Gilani said, “I heard about it from someone in the precinct and, yeah, then I read it. I need you to come to my office to talk with me. I don’t want to do this over the phone.”
I considered he might have been firing me.
“I don’t want you to think I’m harassing you because, you’re, you know,” he said. “This is not about that.”
I waited in silence but I was certain that, yes, I did know what he meant.
“I need to see you because certain aspects of the case were mentioned and that could harm our investigation,” he said. “So I have to talk with you, in person.”
“I understand. I’ll come in to speak with you. What time do you want me to come in?”
“I’d like to see you now.” He didn’t sound as friendly as he had in the past, but he didn’t sound angry either.
“I take it this is pretty serious,” I said.
“It is. Can you come in?”
“Yeah. If the traffic’s not too bad, I should be there in a few minutes.”
“Good. When you arrive, come straight to my office. Whoever’s at the front desk will be expecting you.”
Sammie had called into work and asked for the day off. “Do you want me to come with you to city hall?” she asked, handing me my jacket at the door.
“No, it’s all right, you stay here and be with Paige. She’ll be frightened if any reporters come knocking on our door.” I took the jacket from Sammie and she watched me put it on. Paige hadn’t eaten again when Sammie fed her.
“Are you sure?” Sammie asked.
“Yes,” I said, tucking my arms around her sides and kissing her. “I’ll be fine. Don’t you worry about me, okay?”
Sammie nodded slowly. “I am worried. I’m worried about you, and I’m worried about the dog. What did Gilani say to you?”
“Are you asking me if he’s going to get me fired?” The question had been there in her tone.
Her eyes widened and her lips parted. “Are they going to?” Then she answered her own question. “How can they? You weren’t the only person who knew about the writing on the victims. Others did. I knew.”
“They didn’t used to be named Evelyn, and their mothers weren’t notorious serial killers.”
“What are you saying, do you think he considers you a suspect?”
“Possibly.” I shrugged my arms into the jacket’s sleeves.
“Are you going to tell him about Em, that she sold them the story?”
“I’ve considered doing that, but it’s not my place to tell, it’s up to
her, and I think she will.”
“You have too much faith in her,” Sammie said, with a distant look in her eyes.
“Someone has to.” I gave her a quick peck on the cheek and left.
Chapter 7
Sammie and I often kept our car in a garage a few blocks north of our apartment building. Living in a city with easy access to pretty much everything, we rarely drove the car except for trips to the stores or to travel out of town.
That morning I rode a taxi to the city police’s main headquarters. I’d wanted to walk to clear my head, but the risk of running into members of the media put an end to that wish.
About twenty minutes later, I arrived at the five-story red-brick city hall building and paid the driver. I half expected two cops with handcuffs to be waiting to arrest me as I got out of the taxi and headed for the steps. The guard at the front desk, who oversaw the goings-on in the lobby, and who I somewhat knew through work, nodded at me.
The inside of the expansive building was as noisy as the street outside. People waited for elevators to arrive in the marble-floored lobby. I entered the police headquarters on the first floor and made my way through the rows of police administrative workers at their desks, who made little effort to conceal their murmurings among each other and the interested looks they shot my way, to Gilani’s private office at the back of the area.
I’d visited his office once before, for a meeting at city hall, when I was first hired by the city. At that time, the chief had told me, the young and eager crime-scene-cleaner-to-be, that although the city expected him to manage us, he didn’t have time to babysit the team when he had families who wanted those responsible for their loved ones’ deaths caught and locked away, but that if I had what I thought was a very important question, I should feel free to ask him. And I felt he’d be there for me if I needed him. I’d refrained from bothering him, and had done fine, until now.
I stared at the lettering on the frosted glass window of his closed office door and knocked. “It’s Evan Lane,” I said.
“Come in.” I couldn’t read his emotions through his voice. He sounded somber and confident, but, then again, he typically did.
Chief Gilani didn’t get up from his wide desk to greet me. He looked up from reading the paperwork he had in front of him and gestured to an office chair in my path. I removed my jacket, hung it over the back of the chair, and sat down.
“I’m really sorry about all this.” He stacked the papers and set them aside. “First off, I want you to know that you aren’t a suspect right now. I know the kind of person I hired and I trust you.”
I breathed out, but my breathing hitched a little at the right now part of what he’d said. “I appreciate that.”
“But I am going to need your word that you won’t leave the state,” he said.
I didn’t hesitate. “You have my word.”
“I’m sure the leak was internal, but in light of what was written on that . . . that website—I’m not going to give it the dignity of calling it a news site, because it’s not, it’s junk—I don’t think you gave anything to them. Regardless, it isn’t good that certain information about the mutilation done to the bodies is now known to the public. I’ve been bringing in anyone who had access to that information for a chat. Is there anything else I should know about? Is there anyone you might have told?”
Sammie knew, but I had the feeling Gilani meant outsiders to law enforcement. I uncrossed my ankles and sat taller. Now was the time. “I’ll admit I did tell one of the people who work for me, Em Gregory.” I didn’t let him know that she’d confessed to telling Crime Man. I reckoned I’d leave that decision to Em for when she was ready. And if she didn’t, then at some point I would have to tell.
“I see.” The chief set his hands on the desk and made a steeple with his fingers. He lowered his head and touched his forehead to his hands. “I’ll have to call her in to speak with her also.” He raised his head and stared at me, seated across from him. “But don’t tell her I’m going to do that.”
Had he thought Em might refuse to come in, or that she would flee the city to avoid speaking to him? “I won’t, sir. You have my word,” I said.
“I know I do. That’s what I’ve always liked about you, Evan. I feel I can trust you. I hope I’m still right.”
“You can. I’d feel terrible if I disappointed you. I consider you a friend.”
“And I consider you the same, and while I don’t like that you told Em, it would be two-faced of me to hold it against you, considering that I broke the rules by telling you in the first place.”
Gilani didn’t bring up my birth name, although I didn’t get the impression that he was intolerant, rather I sensed he was quietly aware of the fact and it was the unspoken question in the room, a question he didn’t plan on asking.
“Are you going to ask me to step down?” I said.
The chief shook his head.
“You’re going to tell me to step down?” I asked.
“Not at this time, but now that I know you disclosed confidential information to Ms. Gregory, information you weren’t authorized to have told, or even authorized to have known, I will have to recommend that the city suspend you, temporarily, so pay won’t be an issue. As for Ms. Gregory, I’ll know more after I’ve spoken with her.” He paused. “It doesn’t matter if you personally didn’t give information to that website. Of course, there will be repercussions for me as well, given that I’ve admitted to discussing undisclosed evidence in the case with someone outside the force. You’ll also have to attend a hearing.”
“All right,” I said, and swallowed air. “I’m sorry how this has affected you.”
The chief gave me a rare smile. “It’s affected you more, and I’m truly sorry about that. I wouldn’t want you to think we’re—I’m—blaming you because . . .”
Even if others inside law enforcement knew enough details about the recent murders to sell them to Crime Man, I was an outsider and not given the same professional courtesy.
“I don’t think you are, sir,” I said. “I consider who I am to be a fact, not an issue.”
“Right, then. The city has support staff, counselors and the like, on hand if you feel the need to talk to someone during your time off—”
I hurried to cut him short. “I won’t need to do that.”
“All right, but it’s a city requirement that I let employees know that.”
“I understand. I don’t need anything like that.” I tried to laugh it off but that appeared to escalate the chief’s concern that I talk with someone.
He sat back into his chair and furrowed his brow. “Are you going home after our meeting?”
“I don’t plan on jumping off a bridge, if that’s what you mean,” I said.
Gilani shook his head and gave me a reluctant smile. “Take care of yourself, all right? Someone from my office will be in touch about the date of the hearing.”
“When will it be?” I stood up and put my jacket on.
“It should happen within a week from today. Mine’s before yours.”
“I’m sorry, chief.” I genuinely was.
He nodded. “I’ll have someone call you to let know.”
“Thanks.”
I got to the door and opened it, but before I could leave, Gilani said from his desk, “Evan?”
I stopped and turned to look at him. “Something else on your mind, chief?”
He hadn’t mentioned Alice in our meeting, but from his body language, that was what he wanted to ask me at that moment. “No. I’ll have someone call you with the date of the hearing. Take care of yourself.”
“I can’t say I’ll look forward to that call, but I appreciate your faith in me.” I didn’t mention Alice either. I figured Gilani had enough resources at his disposal to research my mother if he wanted.
Outside city hall I blended into the large number of people walking on the sidewalk and I texted Josh before I got a taxi back to the apartment. I wanted to let Josh know that
he would be heading the entire unit by himself until further notice and that Em and I were out, for now.
Call the real chief with any questions, I wrote. I’m not authorized to answer them for the time being.
Sorry to hear that. You’ll always be our chief, was his reply.
Tears burned at the corners of my eyes and welled up. In the meantime I poked around the web and found out that the Crime Man post had indeed gone viral and people were making death threats against me online, but there was support for me too. I stopped looking, and my fingers shook as I texted Josh back thanks. Then I looked for a cab.
Although I wasn’t a suspect at the moment, there wasn’t anything preventing me from becoming one eventually. I knew what I had to do before that could happen. I had to return to Freedom Village and see my mother.
Chapter 8
“I can’t believe you didn’t tell Gilani what Em did,” Sammie said to me that night. “If she doesn’t confess to him soon, then I’ll tell him. And you can’t leave, not like this. It’s crucial that you stick around to fight this thing and not look like you’re running away, which you are right now. What about the hearing, Evan, how are you going to attend that if you’re in another state, tell me?”
I packed a suitcase on our bed with my back facing her. Sammie grabbed my arm and turned me around so I’d look at her.
“I don’t know,” I said. “What I do know is that if I don’t leave now to figure this thing out, I could be in a whole lot more trouble later on. It’s worth the risk. It’s happening again, and my mother is locked away so it isn’t her, and this time it’s happening because of me, someone is killing to get to me. I need to know who.”
She held me. “I can’t believe this is happening to us. How could this have happened? And I could kill Em, I really could,” Sammie said.
I rubbed away her tears. “No, you couldn’t.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re a decent person.”
“Let me come with you.” She gripped my arms. “I can take the time off from work. We can drive there together.”
