“But you didn’t take the offer. Why?” George thought he knew. Better to hear it from the chief, though.
“Tyler. Moving again wouldn’t be good for him, and, well, he can’t stop talking about you, Hayes. I’ve never seen my son so happy, so carefree. Because he now has somebody who believes him. I can’t take that away from him.”
“It’s not about believing.” Andi leaned his head against George’s thigh. He did that a lot, seeking contact. George didn’t mind in the least. “Don’t get me wrong, finding somebody who believes you is great. Finding somebody whoknows? That’s close to impossible.”
George felt the muscles in his neck tensing. On a deeper level he understood that Andi wasn’t slighting him, that his words were a statement of facts, not a complaint. It still tore at his pride, while at the same time his heart bled for his partner and lover. Imagining the loneliness Andi had to endure, the feeling of being cut off from the rest of the world because of something he had no control over—it was devastating. As if he had read his thoughts, more likely the change in his pheromones, Andi took George’s hand in his. Chief Norris watched, not commenting. Instead, she straightened in her seat.
“I can’t promise you roses from now on, Detectives. There will certainly be times when I wish nothing more than to strangle you slowly and vice versa. What I will promise you, though, and not just because you saved Tyler and Gelman has threatened me in no uncertain terms, is to give my best to be open from now on and to have your back like I should have from the beginning.”
She started to rise, and Andi did so as well, taking George with him. Andi actually smiled. “That’s all we’re asking. And I promise to try and keep in mind where you’re coming from.”
The chief lifted a brow. “No promises of changing your ways?” George couldn’t believe it. There was a hint of amusement in her voice. Was she really trying to make a joke? It seemed so, because she relaxed a bit more.
“I think everybody here knows that would be impossible. Lenience is all I can offer.” He held out his hand. Norris took it.
“I’ll take it.” She offered George her hand as well. After they shook, she turned toward the front door. “I also wouldn’t mind if you spent some time with Tyler. If that’s okay for you?”
“Gladly. He’s a good kid.” Andi slumped back onto the sofa. The interaction had probably drained him.
George escorted the chief out of the house before he went back to his dough. It was time to have a meal.
22. Happy Endings Everywhere
“OOH, LOOKwhat the cat dragged in!” Geena strode toward Andi and George with a big grin on her face when they entered the bullpen. Their four days of rest were up, and there were reports that needed to be written. Andi was also curious what Geena had found at Zane Werner’s house. They still didn’t know what had made Werner kill all those people.
“Geena, so nice to see you again.” George made a face while hugging her.
She turned to Andi, spread her arms, and started grinning like a loon when he shied away from her. “Just kidding. I’d never dream of touching you, Hayes. You’re not my type.” She winked.
“You’re evil.” There wasn’t much heat behind his words because he was still mellow from their free time.
“I get to be. You caught the killer without me, which wasn’t very gentlemanly of you.”
“We’re sorry, Geena. I’m sure the meeting with your supervisor was worth it.” George marched toward their desks, nodding at all the colleagues shouting their congratulations at them. Tobias and Sandra got up from their desks to greet them, clapping his back and following him through the bullpen.
“Asshole.” Geena overtook George before they reached the desks with the whiteboards. “I did get to snoop through Werner’s house, though, so I’m willing to forgive you.” She beamed at them like somebody had told her she could have all the cake in the world.
George cocked his head. “Why do I have the feeling you have exciting news?”
“Because I do!” Geena stepped aside, making a broad gesture at the whiteboards. They looked a lot more organized, with neat arrows pointing between tidy lines of names, dates, and locations.
“You changed the whiteboard!” George tried for indignant, not fooling anybody. Andi could feel his happiness thrumming in the air, sparkling yellow and turquoise, smelling of apples and strawberries.
“Sorry, not sorry. I had to. It was chaos anyway.” Geena motioned for them to get in front of the whiteboards. “So, we had some loose ends, some questions we couldn’t answer. At his house, I found Zane Werner’s diaries. Yes, you heard right: the man wrote every day, and what can I say? Suddenly it all makes sense. Terrible sense, but sense.”
“Stop teasing us, Geena. Start talking.” George was reading the whiteboards, just like Andi. And just like Andi he couldn’t make full sense of them, as evidenced by the fluctuations in his pheromones. He was mildly annoyed, though not stressed because he knew they would get the explanation now. Next to them, Tobias and Sandra were grinning like loons. Sandra even went so far as to bump Andi with her elbow, but she let Geena do the talking.
“Fine. You’re taking all the fun out of it.” Geena grabbed a black marker to use as a pointer. “Let’s start at the beginning. Zane Werner moved to Charleston in 2018 and started working at House Cusabo in 2019, the year Lori Heller, Ben Los Santos, Joshua Baluyot, and a Joe Doe were killed. We initially ruled him out because while possible, driving down from Spartanburg, where he’d been living before, for the killing of TJ, Celia, and the others who came before 2019 seemed unlikely. As his diaries revealed, he had lived in Charleston before, as a child, and his neighbor was no other than TJ. Shireen didn’t find Werner because back then he lived with his mother, who had taken on her maiden name. Zane missed his father and took on his last name as soon as he turned eighteen and could legally do so. He then spent time in Spartanburg, where he saw TJ regularly. Apparently, they were friends, both working for the same construction company.
“And here’s the bomb. Werner had been obsessed with bees from a young age. We don’t know why he wasn’t a member of the same beekeeper club as Bruce Sprenger and Marcus Kespers, but there were twenty hives in the garden of his house and countless books on bees and beekeeping inside. He mentions quite early on, while he and TJ still lived in Charleston, that the bees wanted to ‘lead TJ to the safety of eternal rest’ and that he hesitated to listen to them because he didn’t want to hurt his friend.”
“Oh man.” George whistled. “Gelman’s second guess was right—religiously motivated but no psychopath. Explains the tranquilizer.”
Geena nodded. “It gets better. TJ was sent to House Cusabo in 2011 to treat his bipolarity. Zane visited him regularly, though under his mother’s last name, which is one reason why Shireen didn’t find him on the guest lists, the other being that they only started having them in digitalized form at the end of 2012. Otherwise he would have gotten on our suspect radar a lot sooner. He wrote in his diary the bee queen told him to use the other name. I can’t tell from his writing if this is him preparing to become a killer or if he was simply paranoid at the time. That’s one for the pros to untangle. In December 2012, Werner mentions Celia, saying he doesn’t think she’s good for TJ and that he was going to try and talk him out of her.”
“He shared this estimate with Reuben McDonald.” George hummed.
“Yes. From then on, the entries get more frenzied, cursing Celia and TJ’s stubbornness, rambling about the bees, how he has to do something. Then at the beginning of May, shortly before TJ went missing, Werner writes he doesn’t want to harm his friend but sees no other way now that he’s found the secret chamber.”
