I was neither but no explanation I gave put Tyrone on a different path and with Samael missing, supposedly dead, I had no one to truly back me up. We all knew, though, that Samael was gone. A man like that wouldn’t hide out. He wouldn’t leave me to explain all this on my own. He was a good detective. He also wouldn’t have left Runo.
Blowing out a heavy breath, I exited the car and head up the steps through the front door. The silence hit me first, a breath of fresh air from the chaos out in Primrose. Tomorrow, I’d fire Tyrone and set Runo in the limelight like he truly wanted. The game was over and while he had had his fun, it was time to end it.
Another step into my house and I caught two things at once: blood splattered across the foyer, dark streaks glistening on the walls and the stench of rotting flesh choking the air. The basement door gaped open, flies buzzing around my house in a thick hum that only grew louder as I headed toward the kitchen.
The sight stopped me cold—old meat on the counter, an arm sprawled across the table bloated from the heat in my house, flies crawling over it like a living shroud. A gasp of horror tore from my throat as I fumbled for my phone and dialed Runo, my voice shaking with rage and panic. “What have you done?”
Runo’s cackle crackled through the line, a sound that sent a shiver through me. “I haven’t done anything. I assume you got home to the messyouleft. Dad, you really should be more careful.”
I gripped the phone a little tighter, my voice rising. “I’m turning you in. You won’t get away with this! They’re… your men… Merchant…”
Runo’s voice cut in, still playful but a cold edge to it that boasted everything I knew about him. “His name isSamael, by the way. Well, it’s Timothy, but that’s such a disgusting name. Look, I’m not sorry it had to end this way.”
“You have done so much damage to a place I’ve tried to keep afloat.”
Runo’s responding laugh echoed in my ears. “Dad, let’s be honest here, you always really liked this game. You wanted to be one step ahead. You wanted to be the best, and you couldn’t do that with a crazy family, but you know what? I think you secretly like this. I think you’re just as twisted as I am. Maybe you don’t have voices, but why else would you repeatedly cover up for me?”
My voice shook, a new wave of rage and panic mixing as I spoke. “You’ve left me so much to clean up. Why would you bank on me taking the fall for you or hiding your mess?” I had a mind to search for Runo and wring his neck before turning him in.
“Because that’s what you’ve always done,” he sing songed. “It’s fine, though. I told Tyrone something was going on with you. We’re coming back to do a wellness check.”
My breath caught in my throat, the phone nearly slipping from my grip. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“We’re on our way. You’re sick, Dad.You’ve made such a mess.”
“Tyrone will never believe you.”
“Just hold on,” Runo said, ignoring my statement. “And Dad? I wouldn’t touch anything if I were you.”
RUNO
Dad had sounded a little odd on the phone. Not the kind of odd where I thought he was terrified out of his mind at the mess I had left but more like odd as in he wasn’t as terrified as he should have been. Did he know I was leaving this for him?
He couldn’t have.
I had planned too well.
And if he had known, he would have never stepped inside.
Killian: Ready to act innocent or would you like to switch?
“Fuck off, Killian.”
The others started arguing, telling me this was a horrible idea but it wasn’t their choice. This was one of the last pieces of the puzzle and I had to play this part perfectly. Taking a deep breath, I slowly pushed inside Dad’s house, making sure to stay just inside the foyer so that I didn’t touch anything.
Dad turned in his chair from the kitchen, his face a mask of despair and betrayal. “I’ve done a lot of shit for you, defendedyou, covered for you, and this is what you do? Digging up your own goddamn doctor? Runo, when does this end?”
I guess he had figured by the amount of blood along the floor and walls that I had brought Dr. Harley here first. It had been a masterpiece, watching Slash display his craft. Even Aeron had come along, the both of us entranced by the slicing of flesh, a deadly dance that held us captive until the very end.
When we moved the body to that little eatery, no one even thought twice to truly check the body. Dad was still covering for me but the mixture of Dr. Harley and Samael’s blood had everyone on edge. Where was Samael? Was he alive? Had he left town?
People slowly lost hope over the week, Tyrone and other officers grilling me regarding my whereabouts. I played the perfect little journalist, broken that my lover had died. When people asked who I thought did it, I never answered. I just let the cards fall where they may, the unrest in Primrose the perfect distraction to finish my plan.
And now, it was time for us to finally reach the end. Or pretty close to it.
I definitely thought this moment would have come sooner, Dad waiting an entire week to come back to the house but it made it better. Things had rotted. The stench in here was awful and I had even left Aeron’s freezer open so that the entire house was thick with the scent of death. It was almosttooperfect.
Dad’s eyes burned into me, his hands trembling. “I knew you were twisted, but… killing your own boyfriend? Where is he? Where did you put his body?”
