Chương 44: Thirteen People
Nick hung up and as I walked back to the living room I saw there was another text from Jon.
'Wow, you weren't kidding about needing sleep. I'm glad you're okay'
"How long does it take to find a phone, girl?" Faye asked in disbelief. "You've missed an episode and a half."
"Sorry, I had to call—" I cut myself off. I didn't want Faye thinking about Nick. "—my dad."
Why on earth did I say that? Why didn't I say I needed to call Jon? Ugh, because I didn't want her asking about Jon anymore when I was so unsure what was going on with us.
"You've never mentioned your dad before," she said before shoveling in a handful of chips.
"We don't talk much," I lied.
We didn't talk at all. I hadn't had any contact with him since the day I left for college. He had made the months before graduation without Cindy to protect me a living hell.
I didn't even know if he was still alive. The only reason I didn't kill him myself was because it would have been too obvious it was me.
"You not like his new wife or something?"
"Or something," I said without elaborating. That monster was the last thing I wanted to talk about.
"My parents call me every other day. I couldn't avoid them even if I wanted to." Faye shifted on the couch and sighed. "They don't like that I'm going into criminology. They think it'll put a target on my back.��
"Oh…really? What makes them think that?" I asked, trying to hide my nervousness. If Faye had been anyone other than my best friend, she would be dead already for getting too close to the truth about me.
"They think criminals will come after me. How paranoid. I want to go into the FBI. Agents hardly ever die in the line of duty. I'm not a baby anymore," she pouted.
"You'll always be the baby though, you're the youngest," I teased, trying to change the subject.
She sighed dramatically. "The youngest of five. All of whom have gone into respectable 'safe' careers and had multiple grandchildren for my mother to fawn over. I'm the black sheep."
"Nothing wrong with doing something different from your family," I said, reaching over to snatch some of her chips. "I don't think you'd be half as fun if you were a lawyer or some high-powered business lady. No one that fancy would sit here in their pajamas and watch TV with me."
Faye smiled. "You're surprisingly good at making me feel better."
I shrugged. I guess my comforting adult skills weren't so terrible after all. "Well, we have been roommates for a while so I'd hope so."
We watched two episodes of Cutthroat Kitchen like normal and I felt myself relaxing. What was I so worried about anyway? I had successfully distracted her. We were nothing more than two friends hanging out watching TV together. I felt kind of bad for avoiding her so much. I could handle this.
"Oh hey, before I forget, I looked into that crime lord business like you suggested."
Nope, my instinct to stay away was dead on. My heart pounded so hard I thought my ribs would crack. She must have hit another dead end and wanted more advice.
What could I say this time? I didn't have any other ideas!
"I wasn't able to find anything," she continued as if nothing was wrong while I was on the verge of a panic attack. "I did some digging into the latest news on all of the known crime lords in the area and it doesn't look like they were sending out hits on anyone. It was a good idea, though. I should have known it wasn't a crime lord, some of their charges didn't fit the bill.
"First was a drug addict…then a prostitute…a sex offender…a couple more drug addicts…a drug dealer…none of it fit together. I dug a little deeper and found out that most of them were also suspected of child abuse but either weren't formally charged or the charges were dropped. I guess that's the closest connection but what kind of person would bump off child abusers?"
My brain almost completely shut down. Too close. Faye was too close to figuring me out.
The logical next step was looking into who had access to the child abuse cases. She would turn the police onto my office. Then to me.
I frantically tried to think if I had alibis that could work for any of the nights in question. I couldn't remember! For at least three of them I'd snuck out while Faye was in her room so she could be my alibi for those but as for the rest…
"No clue," I said nonchalantly.
"I can't imagine what would drive someone to kill twelve people," she said with a disbelieving shake of her head. "And what if it's more? I only know of the ones here in Richmond. For all I know, this serial killer could have hit a bunch of other cities before coming here…"
Thirteen. I'd killed thirteen people. The twelve she knew about…and Cindy's murderer.
Even with this information, I hadn't been officially assigned to all of the victims' cases. When I was, there were other people on multiple cases with me. Jon. He'd been on at least half. Patricia had been on three.
Who had been on the others? I needed to look at those old files. I had to find a way to cover myself.
Would I be better off leaving? I could start over in a new city where nobody knew me. I could avoid getting close to anyone this time. No one would suspect a thing.
But I couldn't leave Nick. Could I convince him to leave his house and his family's graves? No, that probably wouldn't work…
What about Jon? Could I really leave him and his girls too? I didn't know what to do about him but as much as I hated to admit it, I wasn't as free from attachment as I'd been when we first started "dating."
"You okay?" Faye asked, concern lacing her voice.
Crap. I'd been so freaked out I hadn't paid attention to a word she was saying for at least five minutes. "I'm fine," I insisted. "My brain is mush from oversleeping. I spaced out for a minute there."
She rolled her eyes. "Girl, you've got to take better care of yourself! I was wondering if you could access any of the files for me at VDSS to help me figure this out."
Thankfully I had a valid excuse not to. Handing her the information that would sign my death warrant would have been terrible. "I can't give out case files, sorry. Confidentiality, you know?"
"Ah, I forgot. No worries, maybe if I talk to my professor about getting a warrant…I'd have to write up a really strong case for it. But if I actually helped the police catch someone! It'd be amazing! You can keep watching without me, I'm going to write up my proposal!"
She practically skipped out of the room, thrilled with the prospect of unintentionally ruining my life.
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