55. REASONABLE DOUBT

55

REASONABLE DOUBT

YARA

R yden was staring. He kept staring even as he expertly guided the car out of the dense trees and into the highway. Silence filled the car, and I was usually okay with silence, but not this time. I knew I should say something after the kind of day we had—he watched me kill a man and admitted he was turned on by that—but it was like my mouth and mind were disconnected. Broken. There just weren’t enough words left in me for that.

“We have to get rid of the sedan,” Ryden said after a few minutes of silence.

“I know,” I said. I already knew I had to give it up, but this car had been my partner-in-crime for so long, and it was the last piece of good thing from my old life.

“It was my grandfather’s,” I said with a sigh. “What should we do?”

“There’s a junkyard on the way to Enzo’s funeral home. We need to lean the evidence and then destroy it.”

I nodded. It made sense. We couldn’t keep it any longer. If the cops found my other car, they’d trace it back to me. I couldn’t risk them finding the sedan in my possession.

“Are we going to the funeral home now?”

Ryden nodded as he swerved the car around and changed directions. “We should.”

My stomach shifted uneasily. Even the thought of the cops didn’t make me that nervous, but the thought of seeing Irene again… God, what happened to us?

It’ll be alright. Just give her some time to stew about it, Kat said.

Ryden grabbed his phone and handed it to me. “Call Enzo.”

I dialed Enzo’s number, and he picked up the phone as soon as I called.

“Ryden? Are you fucking alright? Where the hell did you disappear to? I’ve been calling you for… God knows how long. What the fuck happened, you stupid asshole? I was fucking worried and… Did Yara…”

“This is Yara,” I cut his rant off. There was a long moment of silence as I turned on the speakerphone.

“Oh, fuck.”

“It’s alright. Long story short, we found The Strangler and killed him,” Ryden said, his voice cool as a fucking cucumber.

“We?” Enzo said in a squeak.

“She’s K.Y. Wolff.”

Another gasp. “K.Y. fucking Wolff? What the hell is going on here? Don’t tell me she’s someone like…”

“Like me,” Ryden said, filling the silence.

“She killed Victor.”

Ryden’s eyes met mine before he turned away. “She did. We have to destroy the car.”

“Menko’s Junks,” Enzo said with a hum. “Menko is a thieving piece of shit, and he abhors CCTV.”

“That’s the plan,” Ryden said. “We’ll be there in a few.” Ryden hung up. Soon, we were on Enzo’s massive property. Ryden drove the car around and parked it by a small building behind the funeral home.

“What’s this place?”

“The crematorium,” Ryden smirked and knocked against the door. Enzo opened and stared at the both of us with a wince.

“You two look like…” He shook his head. “You need to get this cleaned up.”

“I’m alright,” Ryden and I said together, and Enzo frowned.

“No, you’re not alright,” he said, motioning us inside.

“The car?”

“I’ll deal with it,” Enzo said. “You take my car and go home. Take care of these wounds and… do whatever serial killers do at night.”

Ryden and I shared a quick look with a smile that soon turned into a heated glance.

“Fuck you, guys,” Enzo said with a grin as he opened another door, and we were inside the funeral home.

“Where’s Irene?” I asked, pulling at my sleeves. Enzo gave me a comforting smile.

“She’s fine. She’s at my place. Do you want me to call her?”

“No,” I said. “She needs time. I’m going to give her that.”

“She’s bossy as fuck,” Enzo said with a grunt. “And she loves you. Give me the keys.”

I gave the sedan keys to Enzo. “I don’t want you to get in trouble because of…”

“Yara…” Enzo grabbed me by my shoulder with a smile. “Listen to me carefully. I’ll do anything for my family, and you’re one of us now, even though you made a fool out of my best friend.”

Ryden growled. “Fuck off, you idiot.”

“It all makes sense now. You were obsessed with K.Y. Wolff, and then you met Doctor Death here.”

“You were?” I asked Ryden, and he bared his teeth at me.

“Fuck no. I only wanted to kill her.”

“You did not.” I smirked. “That day… I rubbed my ass against you and…”

“Then you fucking stabbed me in my dick.”

“Oh, I made sure not to damage your beautiful dick.” I grinned, and Enzo howled in laughter, much to Ryden’s displeasure.

After saying goodbye to Enzo, Ryden drove me home in Enzo’s car. We walked inside and sat down on the couch with a frown.

“Are we going to talk about this or what?” Ryden said, previous playfulness completely wiped away from his voice. This was the time for confrontation. For someone who thrived in chaos, this made me anxious.

“Should we?” I asked, running my fingers through my hair. I had never been so nervous in my life, not even when Logan Jones was shooting at us. But now… “Do you even want to be here?”

“Fucking yes. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be. I’ve been running my whole life, but not anymore. I want to stay. I’ve found my home.” His eyes were directly on mine, prodding, intrusive. “I found a place where I want to belong forever. You just have to make up your damn mind. What do you want, Yara?”

“But… I killed your brother,” I whispered.

What are you trying to do, you idiot? To push him far away or to pull him closer?

I have no fucking idea, Kat. All of this is a clusterfuck.

“Fuck. You couldn’t be more clear. You want me to go, then?” Ryden asked, standing up with a grunt.

The veins on his hands became obvious as he balled them into fists.

“Will you go if I ask you?”

“You know… I’ll respect your decision most of the time, but this isn’t going to be that time. I’m staying. Let’s get our wounds cleaned up. We have to wipe that art Logan made on your wall, as well.”

I patched up the gunshot wound on his shoulder and applied ointment to the scratches on his skin. After I was done, he cleaned mine, his fingers gentle. He touched my jaw with a wince. “Does it hurt?” I shook my head. “It’s bruised.”

“I don’t feel it,” I said as he applied more ointment to my jaw.

When he was done, he stared at the wall. “Now to the faces. Do you have vinegar?”

“Kitchen. Second cabinet from the left.”

He came back with a bowl and a damp sponge. I sat there on my bed, staring at Ryden’s back flexing under his shirt as he meticulously wiped every line of unwanted reminders on my wall. Before long, the smiley faces were gone, much like the one who had drawn them.

Ryden put the washcloth and water down and slumped on the bed with a sigh. “Come here, Red.” He lay down and patted the space next to him. I joined him.

“Is he really gone?”

“He is.”

“I’m so tired and sore.”

Ryden pressed a kiss to my forehead. “Go to sleep, baby. Go to sleep. You had a long day.”

It usually took me a long time to fall asleep, but with Ryden here, the lingering fears were gone. I knew I’d always be safe with him.

“Goodnight, Ryden.”

I woke up with a yawn. Ryden lay on his stomach next to me, still asleep. Staring at my clock showed it was six in the morning. My body ached when I tried to stand up.

The Strangler was dead. I should have felt lighter, but something was bothering me. Now that I could think properly, I knew one thing. Logan didn’t look at me like he was in love with me. I saw his hatred when he looked at me, his disgust. Like I was the reason his life was… a fucking catastrophe.

That wasn’t love, the kind of love he spoke of in all those letters—obsessive, needy, consuming love.

If he could have, he would have killed me right there. So why didn’t he? What made him stop?

My disruptive thoughts were cut off by the ring of my phone. “Detective Rosario?”

“Doctor West, we need you at the ME office immediately.”

“What happened, Detective?”

“We found a dead body, and the circumstances… They’re not suitable for discussion over the phone.” He hung up before I could ask more. I woke Ryden and he yawned, rubbing his eyes.

“It’s Detective Rosario. He wants me to meet him at the ME office. They found a dead body,” I said with a frown. “Could it be… Logan?” I rubbed my forehead with a scowl.

“Let’s find out,” he said.

“I have to cover this,” I said, pointing to my jaw. I walked to the bathroom, and he followed me in. When I was done brushing, I grabbed the makeup kit and concealer and carefully applied it on my bruised jaw.

“How does it look?”

“It’s hidden. I don’t think anyone will notice.”

After we were done, he drove me to the ME office.

The place was already swarming with uniformed officers when we stopped just behind the crime scene tape. Lucy and the other employees of Coffee Connexion were staring at the scene, their faces pale.

I approached Detective Rosario and gasped when I took in the grisly sight before me.

On the bench, where I often took my lunch breaks, sat a dead body, perfectly poised, a gun in his hand. Not just any dead body—it was Logan Jones. My eyes widened, and my fingers trembled as I took a quick step back.

What kind of sick game was this? Who could have done this?

This is so fucking bad, Yara.

I killed him, and we left him buried in the marsh. Was I imagining this or was he here?

Logan was staring at me with lifeless eyes. He was like a ghost coming alive to torture me even after death.

Amy Walden gave me a worried look when she came out of the building with Detective Rishi Patel. He looked serious, and he came toward me as soon as he saw me. “The victim is Logan Jones, an artist at the gallery where Daphne Morgan was the director,” he said, fixing me with a steely gaze. “Dr. West, why did you run his fingerprints? Amy mentioned you brought in a dollar bill to test for prints, and the prints belonged to Logan Jones.”

Amy threw me an apologetic look. It was not her fault. I already knew this would come up as soon as I saw Logan’s body.

“He’s not just any victim, either. We also think he’s The Strangler,” Detective Rosario said as he stepped closer to me.

That was when I realized that I wasn’t the only ME at the scene. There was Doctor Kavya Metha, with her gloves on. I was asked here because they wanted to find out why I’d run a fingerprint search for Logan Jones. This was an interrogation. Maybe not formal, but it was.

“Are you sure he’s The Strangler? I checked his fingerprint because I saw him following me. I just wanted to make sure he wasn’t a threat.”

“He was definitely a threat,” Rishi said with a frown as he studied me with eyes that were so blatantly accusatory. He somehow knew I wasn’t telling the whole truth.

“He might have been stalking you because you were going to become his next tableau,” Detective Rosario said with a sigh. “Are you okay, Doctor West?”

“I am,” I said with a shudder. “How was he here?”

“We are assuming one of the women he tried to kill, killed him?” Agent Hayes said as Kavya Metha walked closer to Logan’s dead body, taking her scalpel out.

“The knife wounds are intentional, decisive. So were the gun wounds. 9mm. It’s murder, and the one who killed him was enraged by whatever he did…” she continued, but her words were like a distant roar as I kept staring at Logan. “His hyoid bone is fractured and…”

How was he here? When we left, he was at the bottom of the marsh. Who would go to such length? Why?

Rishi’s frown deepened. “Why didn’t you file a report? He stalked you, and you thought you’d deal with it by yourself?” There was no warmth in his eyes, no kindness. He crossed his arms across his chest, trying to be aloof, trying to be a cop. I had never seen him like that… not with me.

I could see the skepticism in his eyes. He didn’t believe my story, not fully, not yet.

“Yes, Detective Patel.” I nodded as Ryden joined me, shooting a glare in Rishi’s direction.

“You were aware of it. You went as far as finding him on AFIS, yet you never lodged a formal complaint?” Rishi asked.

He’s interrogating you , Kat said. He doesn’t believe your story.

“I suspected it might have been someone I helped put behind bars, and they were just trying to scare me or something,” I said, biting my lip.

“That was all the more reason to report it formally,” Rishi retorted with a grimace. “Given your line of work and what you do, you could have at least informally tipped us off, Doctor West.” The way he said Doctor West was a cold warning. “Where were you between three to five o’clock?”

“Are you asking for an alibi?” I frowned.

“Where is this headed, Patel? She didn’t do anything illegal,” Ryden said with a frown. “And she was with me. In bed.”

Patel shook his head and walked away, then whispered something to Detective Rosario.

“Don’t go anywhere else, Doctor West. We need to take your statements when we’re done here,” Patel said with a cursory glance at my hand on Ryden’s, and his brows furrowed. He didn’t look too pleased.

“I’m not going anywhere,” I said with a frown.

“What crawled up your ass and died, Rishi?” Ryden growled with a glare in Rishi’s direction.

Rishi looked at Ryden and then at me. I knew he wanted to tell Ryden something, something he didn’t want me to hear.

“Nothing,” Rishi said, his lips pulled down. “It’s just weird. I’ll talk with you later.”

Sighing, I stared at Doctor Kavya Metha as she took notes of every wound and every laceration. Should I just walk away now?

“Detective Rosario,” I said with a frown. His face fell when he looked at me and then at Rishi Patel.

“You understand why you can’t work this case, don’t you, Doctor West?”

“I don’t,” I said with a shrug. “But I’ll respect your wishes. Now what should I do?”

“Go home. We will take your statement shortly after all the formalities here are done, Doctor West.”

“I’m in trouble, am I not?”

The detective shook his head with a kind smile. “No, you’re not. It’s just a formality, Doctor West. You have nothing to worry about.”

“If you say so. Bye, Detective.” With a sigh, I walked toward the car, and Ryden followed me. When we reached the car, I finally gathered the courage to meet his eyes. His brows were tangled together and he was tugging at his hair as if he wanted to pull them out one by one.

“Rishi gets this look… when he wants to keep digging. He’s not going to let this go, Yara.”

“I know,” I said with a sigh. “When he found out I knew both Daphne and Miranda, he started to suspect that I was somehow connected to all of this. He wasn’t wrong. I have no idea how I’m going to deal with this.”

I always found a way, but other than killing Detective Rishi… I could do nothing except wait and watch.

“We will find a way.” He tried to be strong for me, but I heard the agitation and thinly veiled desperation in his voice.

“At least The Strangler is dead. That’s something.”

“Yes, but now we need to find out who the fuck dragged his ghost out of the mud. Someone saw us, and they wanted to play their sick game with us.”

I rubbed my forehead, staring at the crime scene. Everyone was there doing their jobs. Keya and the CSRU were busy gathering and preserving evidence. Dr. Metha was instructing the orderlies to move the body to the morgue. The detectives were questioning people milling around, trying to discover more about this gross display.

And here I was, alone. For the first time, I was standing on the outside, watching them work, trying to solve a murder I had committed. This wasn’t the first time, but it was the first time I felt like I was floundering, drifting.

The ground beneath my feet felt unstable, and I hoped, with all my heart, that it wouldn’t give way.

“Let me take you home, baby.”

Home. That was what I needed now.

“Yes.”