The bullet entered his head between his eyes, cracking the window behind him. The sound had been loud, louder than I had thought it would be. My ears were still ringing, but I had no time to spare.
I put the gun in the safe behind the artwork in the office and set about pulling his body through my house. I wrapped his head with a scarf to stop the bleeding and hauled him down into the basement. I laid out some plastic wrap I had left over from when the house was being painted and rolled him into the center of it before I wrapped him up and tied it together, shoving him into the corner of the darkened basement to be dealt with later.
I moved upstairs to clean the rest of the office before I headed back to town. The window was going to be a pain, there was a goddamn bullet hole in it. I tidied the desk up, and made sure I had everything cleaned up before I turned the lights off and headed back down the hallway to the door. I stopped in my tracks when I heard the door knob rattling. The shape of a man through the frosted glass panes told me I wasn’t alone anymore.
Shit.
I could tell it was him.
Detective Garrick was here.
Fuck.
I slowly edged back down the darkened hall and back into my office, hiding in the darkened recess of where my bookshelf had been before I’d turned it into a bar and I waited.
Kane
I knew the door was locked, but I could feel how weak the lock really was. I’d been in a house with a door like this before and I knew if you leaned on it enough at the same time as jiggling it, you’d be good. I did just that and felt the lock give way, allowing me access to the house. Everything was dark, and something felt off about it all. I pulled my gun from its holster and headed down the hall, noting her handbag on the side bureau.
She was here.
My heart was leaping at the prospect of her catching me unaware, blood rushing through my ears as I moved down the hall. Just like her other properties, nothing personal was in this house. For all intents and purposes it was just a place she came to stay.
Who was this woman?
This woman who haunted my dreams both terrified and intrigued me, and that was never a good mix.
I approached an open door and looked in to see the darkened room appeared to be an office. If Stanley were to be anywhere, it would be here. I did a cursory look around the room but no one appeared to be here.
Putting my gun to my side, I looked over the desk. Nothing was out of character.
Was I wrong? Did he go home and not break in?
I’d come all this way for nothing. I looked down at the name that she used for all her properties on the paperwork in front of me. It was dark in this room, but the daylight from outside allowed me to read it.
It was a contract for the house, and the signature was for this Camille person. Who the hell was Camille, and what was her connection to Maurelle?
I heard the telltale sound of footsteps behind me and my heart rate quickened. I knew for sure she would have a weapon trained on me and she’d have every right to. I had broken into her home without announcing myself.
“Damn, you’re good.”
That’s all I could muster as I leaned into the fact that she was probably going to kill me and no one would ever find me again. She was going to get away with it. I hadn’t told anyone about where I was going or who I was pursuing. No one knew about the case I was building against her.
“As are you,” her voice rang out around the room. “And I think we both know, I can’t have that.”
The sound of something breaking was loud in my ears, before I felt something hard hit me from the back and my knees gave out underneath me. Darkness claimed me soon after as I saw her face come into view just as I felt the abyss take me.
Wind lashed at my face, the bitter cold stinging my cheeks. My eyes were warm from unshed tears as I looked over at her. Standing there, her profile was distinguished. It was the only way I could describe it, even at my young age. She was looking off into the distance. As I turned my head to see what she was seeing, I was taken by the beauty of the mountains. I’d always known we lived close to the mountains, but I’d never truly seen them like this before. I’d never been allowed to come up this hill before, father didn’t approve of us leaving the town center. I looked back at her, and she was now looking over at me, her eyes watery.
I knew this was goodbye.
Somehow, I knew.
She dropped her suitcase and came to me. Her arms outstretched. I ran into them, feeling her warm embrace and trying to remember how it felt. She dropped to her knees, to look me in the eye. Her hand on my cheek, warming me.
“My darling,” she said, her voice broken with emotion. “This is harder than you’ll ever know. One day, you’ll understand.”
“Why do you have to go?” I asked, my tears now tumbling down onto my cheeks.
