Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 106422 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 532(@200wpm)___ 426(@250wpm)___ 355(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106422 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 532(@200wpm)___ 426(@250wpm)___ 355(@300wpm)
“Do you know about Rhiannon?” Shumi asked in a sudden burst. “I believed him when he said he didn’t have anything to do with her death. I always believed him.” Her sobs were heartrending. “He was my husband.” A whisper wrapped in tears. “I believed him.”
I put my arm around her, looked at Ackerson.
Who said, “I think we’re done here for now.” She stepped out, her phone in hand, but she was still nearby when I left Shumi ten minutes later.
Her family had rushed in after the detective left, but she’d leaned into me instead, so I’d stayed. Until, at last, she fell into an emotionally exhausted sleep. Her mother had looked at me. “She trusts you, a near stranger, more than she trusts us.” It was less an accusation and more a confession.
There was nothing I could say to that, because it was true.
So I’d said nothing, just touched Ajay on the shoulder before I left.
“What will I tell Diya?” I said to Ackerson when we met by the empty waiting area outside the ICU. Knowing her brother had done this, annihilated their whole family—it would destroy her.
White lines bracketed Ackerson’s mouth. “I don’t envy you. Men like that, I wish they’d just take themselves out, but they always murder the innocent, too.”
“I read about family annihilation,” I admitted now that I was no longer a suspect. “I couldn’t understand how anyone could murder their entire family, was trying to figure it out.”
“Psychobabble bullshit is that they’re narcissists who believe no one will be able to go on under the circumstances, so death is the kinder choice.” She twisted her lips. “At least your brother-in-law had the grace to end his own pathetic life, too. A lot of that kind—and it’s nearly always men—flinch when it comes to their own life. Cowards.”
I would’ve never used that word for Bobby, but what other one was there?
Coward. Killer. Murderer.
That was now Vihaan “Bobby” Prasad’s final legacy.
“And to think,” Ackerson said, “I was beginning to lean away from him as the suspect. He was in negotiations with a possible business partner—we spoke to the man, and he said that while things were dire with the business, it wasn’t beyond redemption.
“Guy was willing to stump up the necessary cash for a majority stake, and they’d worked out what had gone wrong so it wouldn’t be repeated. Had a whole five-year plan mapped out to not just put Elektrik Ninja in the black, but expand it into Australia.”
“He’d have lost control,” I said, thinking about how he’d monitored every aspect of Shumi’s life, how he’d followed Diya when she went on dates. “Someone else would’ve been the boss.”
Ackerson shrugged. “Yeah. You’re probably right. It’ll all come out in the inquest down the road, I’m sure. But on my end, the case is closed—Shumi’s account explains everything. Bobby Prasad must have started the fire, then taken his own life, not realizing he hadn’t managed to kill Diya and Shumi.”
I decided to follow Ackerson’s lead. No one, least of all my wife, needed to know my suspicions about her parents. Sarita, Rajesh, Bobby, they were all in the past.
As were Susanne, Jocelyn, and Virna.
It was done. Finished.
Chapter 66
Private notes: Detective Callum Baxter (LAPD)
Date: Nov 2
Time: 02:08
Things are finally starting to come together. We might not have physical evidence, but even the DA thinks this much circumstantial evidence will bury the bastard.
I’m not giving up on the physical evidence, though—eyewitness testimony might be notoriously unreliable, but the professor gave me a whole new window of time to check for movements in and around the route. Thank fuck the tech guys who got all that footage last December were as anal as usual and went back an entire day.
We’re still shit out of luck when it comes to some footage we didn’t know to get at the time, but it won’t matter if I can pin him on at least some of the footage we do have. Because he lied. Not once, but in every interview. It’s all on video.
Chapter 67
Sarita, Rajesh, and Bobby’s joint funeral three weeks later was a somber affair.
Shumi hadn’t wanted Bobby anywhere near his parents, while Diya remained in a state of shock, not able to process the events of that horrific day—but in the end, there hadn’t been a choice.
The remains were in such bad shape that some fragments were mere bone shards. There was no way to know which piece belonged to which family member without DNA testing each and every fragment—if the DNA was even there to find. The experienced forensic anthropologist the cops had asked to consult on the case was of the opinion that some of the shards were simply too small or too damaged to differentiate using any of the usual markers.
All three were as linked in death as they had been in life.