Total pages in book: 173
Estimated words: 163802 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 819(@200wpm)___ 655(@250wpm)___ 546(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 163802 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 819(@200wpm)___ 655(@250wpm)___ 546(@300wpm)
“I see,” she said.
“And,” I went on, “of course you must secure the crime scene and make sure the suspect doesn’t slip away, but you do not have my permission to conduct a search of any room in this manor that isn’t my mother’s.”
“How unfortunate, Mrs. Kim.” Her tone matched mine. “We assumed you’d want to do everything to help us find your mother’s killer. Were we mistaken?”
“You were if you thought emotional manipulation would work on me.” I tugged on my hair, undoing the stupid bun, and taking out the clips and earrings. “I won’t let you treat me or my family like suspects. Davis suspects the same person who—who k-killed”—my voice broke—“my mother, also killed Mrs. Prado. And he ruled me and my husbands out as suspects in that crime weeks ago, so the last thing I’m going to let you do is waste time going after us while the real killer slips out the front door—if he hasn’t already.
“Because your captain is right. Right now, the manor is full of wealthy, entitled townies and cityfolk who’ve seen enough crime shows to know that they don’t have to speak to you, and they don’t have to stay here longer than they want to.
“So every fucking second you spend fiddling with the phone of the woman who was downstairs with a cop shadow all night, is an unforgivable insult to my mother—who deserves competent officers who don’t need it explained that a person can’t be in two places at once.”
She stiffened, eyes flashing.
“You better spend every fucking second of every fucking minute from now until the detectives arrive comparing notes with each other and identifying who came upstairs and into the east wing when they had no reason to be there, and then you turn the heat up on those fuckers until they fry!” I burst out, finally unleashing an emotion—but it wasn’t sorrow. “And if you don’t have that list ready and in my hands by sunup, I promise you— I swear on my life! That I will sue you and your whole department for negligence!”
“Mrs. Kim—”
“How dare you!” I screamed, throat shredding. “How dare you question my desire to see that filthy fucking psychopath in the electric chair!”
“Mrs. Kim, I—”
“You don’t need my help to find him. You don’t want it!” I roared. “Because if I go searching for that bastard, I won’t stop until I stab him so many times in the fucking face HIS EYEBALLS BURST!”
She gaped at me—truly stunned like she didn’t know if the five-foot-one, hundred-and-ten-pound woman was about to attack.
Chest heaving, I felt that tight, writhing, festering, flaming pit that appeared after finding my mother, harden into something heavier, sharper—deadlier.
“So, trust me,” I rasped—my sore throat lacing the words sinister. “I want you to be the ones to find him. He wants you to be the ones to find him. Because if I get to him first... I’ll be the one going to prison for murder.”
Both officers stared at me, their poker faces blown. Her partner opened his mouth like he was going to say something. And then she opened her mouth.
Thinking better of it, their lips resealed, and they left.
HOURS LATER, WE WERE all back in the ballroom—spread out among the tables and chairs as three individuals stepped up onto the platform.
The full table was mine. Rhodes, Micah, Alex, and Courtney huddled around me—all of them touching at least one body part. My hand, shoulders, my thighs. All of them trying to will comfort into my bones.
But none of it touched the pit.
A woman in silk gray pants and a matching gray vest broke from the pack and stepped forward on the platform. “Hello, everyone, I am Detective Balogun,” she began. “I won’t say good morning, because it’s far from that. I’m deeply sorry for what has happened here, and I extend my sincerest sympathies to Madame Kim’s family.” She nodded in my direction. “I know you’re all tired and scared. You want to go home, and for those of you who are home, you want to know who came into it and violated it in the worst way.
“I swear to you that I, and my partner, Detective Kaplan, will do everything in our power to achieve those ends, but we’ll need your help,” she said. “My officers have been very thorough in pooling their recollections for the creation of this list.”
Micah brushed his hand across my thigh and slipped under my palm, lacing his fingers through mine.
Even with everything happening, my body responded to his touch—leaving a tide of goose bumps in his hand’s wake. Surrounded by him, Alex, Rhodes, and my best friend, the pit didn’t shrink, but it didn’t grow either.
“This list,” Balogun continued, “is you. With the exception of Mrs. Soo Min Kim, you are the people who left the party and went upstairs for reasons unknown before the time of death. And we will be speaking to you all now—one at a time—to discover why.”