“I didn’t—”
“Did you whisper in her ear that her husband would be better off without her?Did you tell her to jump with Issac in her arms, so he’d feel better too?And Thomas, did you say the same things to him?Did you tell him his brother, Joseph, would finally be free of the burden if he stepped off that car park roof.”
“I’d never—”
“I had a folder on my phone with their pictures, Thomas and Alexandra.He burst into the office during our session, and Alexandra, I saw her outside, pushing Issac.Issac dropped his Peter Rabbit, and Merc adopted the rabbit as his own.I linked them because I’d seen them.I couldn’t remember where, but I had.Two suicides.Both of them jumped.It didn’t sit right with me, but I didn’t get the chance to investigate.”
“That’s because there’s nothing to investigate.”
“You drugged us.You filled our heads with a need to jump.You made us reliant on these substances, and then, when you deemed the time was right, you took them away when we were at our lowest, stepped back, and waited for it to happen.”
Keeley shook her head, adamant.“This is ...this is...”
“It’s genius.”Chad smiled.“Truly.You don’t have to get your hands dirty, you don’t even have to be present when it happens.No one is surprised—in fact, in some cases, it’s expected.You help more than you kill, covering your tracks, and if anyone detects the drugs you use, it’s an unexplained trace found in your victim’s hair that a standard autopsy doesn’t even test for.”He ran out of breath.“Even this,” Chad placed his hand on the tin of sugar.“Your office is unlocked.You can claim it was tampered with at some point without your knowledge, hell, the fact that I robbed the computers so I could take it means it’ll be useless in a court of law.I’ve could’ve added the Zolpidem and LSD myself.”
“I’ve had enough of this now,” Keeley glanced over the back of the armchair at Romeo.“I’d like to leave.”
“You were never going to leave today.You came here, hoping I’d eat that brownie, hoping you could get your claws in me again and I’d fall unconscious so you could whisper your poison into my ear, but that was never going to happen.”Chad stared into Keeley’s face.“You’re going to die.He’s going to kill you, and I’m going to watch.But before that happens, you get the chance to either admit your genius or die a wide-eyed therapist with tears on your cheeks and snort on your lips.”
Chad stared.
Romeo waited.
Keeley wiped her hand across her cheeks.She’d stopped trembling and snuffling.
“You found out my biggest secret,” Chad whispered.“It’s only fair you share yours.”
“Thomas.Alexandra.You...It’s the tip of the iceberg.”
Chad nodded.“I thought as much.But it won’t be me searching for the bottom of it.”
“I guess not,” She turned to Romeo, holding a hand up to stop him when he took a step closer.“How many?”
Romeo tilted his head.When he’d finally let the monstrous part of himself free, he’d rationed his kills to five.Five times to feel how he was supposed to.Five times to play God.With Chad at his side it was no longer a countdown.His kill count could go up.
It could climb and climb with no ceiling.
“You’ll be number ten.”
Keeley grinned.Her sweet façade fell away to something savage.“You’ve got a lot of catching up to do ...Countdown Killer.”
Through the boarded-up window, Romeo heard the magpies, chuckling, chortling, thenscreaming.
The raven, it was there too.
“Now?”Romeo asked Chad.
“Now.”
