Chapter 56

Chapter Fifty-Six

I am driving myself completely out of my mind in the apartment waiting to hear from Jake, so I decide to walk over to the yoga studio. There's a six-o'clock class, and I figure that will keep me occupied until dinner time. Not that I expect to have any sort of appetite. I attempted to choke down a sandwich for lunch and I ate about a quarter of it.

I called Gretchen to see if she wanted to join me, but she was busy with Randy. So it's just me walking by myself to the yoga studio. At least Tom is at the police station, probably behind bars, so I feel safe. Well, safe- ish .

There are only about half a dozen women in the class today. I roll out my mat in the corner of the room and grab a few yoga blocks as well. Arlene comes into the classroom, her ponytail swinging behind her head. She smiles and gives me a big hello.

"Just you today?" she asks.

"Just me."

"By the way," Arlene says, "I wanted to tell you that I saw you with a young man on the street last week. He had black hair and he was very handsome."

"Um, thanks."

She frowns. "I hope it's not out of turn to say this, but he had a very dark aura around him. It was extremely unsettling for me."

Well, that may have been because he killed a bunch of women. "Huh."

"I tend to be very intuitive about this sort of thing," she says. "I just think you should be very careful around this man."

Where were you a few days ago, Arlene? "Don't worry. He and I aren't seeing each other anymore."

"Oh, thank heavens!" She clutches her narrow chest. "I have to tell you the truth, Sydney. When I saw that man, I wanted to run over to you, grab you by the shoulders, and tell you to run away."

Great. Even Arlene knew my boyfriend was a creep.

The yoga class lasts a little over an hour. Usually, I find the stretches very relaxing, but today my body doesn't want to cooperate. Every inch of me feels tight, and when we do the meditation at the end, my mind won't stop racing.

What's going to happen to Tom now that the police are onto him? Will they end up arresting him today? Is he in jail right this moment? Will they search his apartment and find more evidence of those girls that he killed? Maybe a stash of the hair that he sliced off their scalps?

When the class ends, I grab my purse and dig out my phone. My stomach fills with butterflies when I see a missed call from Jake. No, two missed calls.

That's not a good sign.

I click on his name to return the call, and almost instantly, he picks up the phone. "Sydney," he says.

"Did you bring him in for questioning?"

"Yes, but—"

"Is he in jail?"

There's a long silence on the other line. "No. We had to let him go."

"What?" I cry. "But you confirmed it, right? You fingerprinted him and it was a match, right?"

"It was a match," he confirms, "but that's not evidence of wrongdoing. All it proves is that he was in their apartments at some point in the past."

"But that's really suspicious! Couldn't you have—"

"He has an alibi, Syd."

I frown. "An alibi?"

"For the night Bonnie was murdered. He has an airtight alibi for the entire night."

What? "Are you sure? Maybe whoever gave him his alibi was lying."

"He was working at the hospital the whole night," Jake says. "Multiple people saw him there. There are cameras too. It's rock solid. There's no way he could've killed her."

I am stunned. I was certain it had to be Tom. His fingerprints were in those girls' apartments. Even Arlene thought he had an evil aura!

I guess it's good to know that I wasn't dating a murderer, but at the same time, I have even more questions. If Tom didn't kill those girls, who did? And why was he hiding his relationship with Bonnie? Why was he calling me from a burner phone?

Somehow, even though he has an alibi, I'm not certain that Tom is innocent.

"You okay, Syd?"

"Uh-huh." I swallow a lump in my throat. "I'm just… I don't know what to think anymore. You really don't think Tom killed those girls?"

"Like I said, he could not have done it. What he told us is that he's been dating a lot of women, and just by chance, he happened to have gone out with both of them."

"And you believe that?"

"I do, Syd."

"So…" I tug at a lock of my hair. "If I told you I was going to go out with him again, you would be fine with that?"

Jake is silent for several beats on the other line. "No," he finally says. "But not because I think he killed anybody."

I let that statement just sit there for a moment, because I don't know what to say.

"Listen," Jake is the first to break the silence, "Brewer isn't going to hurt you. Like I said before, he is a solid guy. I trust him. But I'll keep an eye on your building anyway, okay?"

"You don't have to do that."

"Yes, I do."

I consider asking Jake if he'll come over to escort me back to my building from the yoga studio. But that would be ridiculous. Yes, it's now dark, but it isn't even that late. There are still people out on the street. I am perfectly safe walking home. Especially now that I know my boyfriend is definitely not a serial killer.

Although, there is still a killer out there. Somewhere.

I grab my coat, say goodbye to Arlene, and head out into the cold, dark night. The temperature has dropped abruptly in the last couple of weeks, and winter is setting into the city. We might end up having snow for Christmas.

When I get closer to my building, I see somebody sitting on the front steps. It's a man, and he looks familiar, even with a beanie stuffed on his head and wearing a coat. As I approach, the man stands up to look at me, and in the glow of the streetlights, I can clearly make out his face.

It's Tom.