Chapter 23
TWENTY-THREE
Gabriel
I watch Liam carry the box with the head in it out to my car. He pops the trunk and sets the box inside before coming around to the driver’s seat.
I don’t like this. The more Liam does, the more at risk he becomes. And now he’s going to take the head and simply… store it somewhere until Jesse decides whether or not we should turn this in?
“Thank you both so much,” Jesse says, sounding like he’s near tears while he hugs the small travel cage for his tarantula.
“I don’t like tears or words of appreciation,” Liam announces as he drives off.
I don’t like any part of this. All the phone call from Whitaker accomplished was pissing the man off, and while Liam seems to think it went splendidly, I’m nervous Whitaker will set his sights on him. Liam is confident and cocky, but that will only get him so far.
“I’ll have the fingerprints checked and see if we can find something,” Jesse says.
“I’ll have Gabriel tackle that. Jesse, I want to run through things with you, see what we can pull up.”
“You sure? I don’t mind dealing with the prints.”
“Nah,” Liam says as I notice him glancing in the rearview mirror. I’m uncertain why until I shift in my seat and see a police car pulling up behind us. The moment the sirens flip on, Jesse’s entire body seems to collapse in on itself. He sinks down in his seat and closes his eyes.
“Fuck,” he mutters. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”
“Liam?” I ask anxiously.
“I wasn’t doing anything more than speeding a little and not even six over. He’s not going to just dive into the trunk for fun,” Liam says as he grabs the bag with the wrapping paper and slides it under my jacket.
“You’re right. Jesse, it’s okay,” I assure him.
The officer steps up to the window and knocks on it, so Liam rolls it down. “Good evening, Officer.”
“Detectives,” the man says in surprise. I think his name is Officer Wilcox, but that might be his partner’s name.
His partner looks in at us and then leans back and whispers something to Wilcox, who appears uncertain.
What the fuck is going on? Don’t tell me Whitaker was watching and called the police on us the moment we pulled away with the head in the car?
We’re fucked. We’re absolutely fucked. What the hell is Liam going to say?
That we were just taking the head to the department personally instead of calling it in?
There is absolutely no logical reason why any of this would have happened, yet here we are.
One of the officers peers into the back seat, though there’s nothing but Jesse back there. Jesse seems to be trying to keep it together, but I’m not quite sure it’s enough to fool anyone.
“We got the strangest alert… do you mind if we search the vehicle?” Wilcox asks.
“Search away,” Liam says.
I give him a very pointed look, but he appears as calm as can be. He’s always calm.
Thankfully, we’d taken my car because he’s been known to carry things in his trunk… things he uses to kill people.
My stomach is tightening while my heart feels like it’s trying to race out of my chest. I should never have agreed to help Jesse. I know Jesse is our friend, but I should have thrown him under the fucking bus and left.
“Officers, what is the meaning of this?” I ask, and am surprised when I hear how steady my voice is.
“Just a quick look. I’m sure it’s nothing,” Wilcox says as he pulls away from the window.
“Liam,” I hiss.
He sets his hand on my leg and gives it the gentlest squeeze. There is so much in that touch that it leaves me calmly sitting here while Liam gets out of the vehicle.
“The trunk sticks a bit, let me get it for you. There’s a bit of a trick to it,” Liam says as I sit here and question what the fuck I’m supposed to do now.
Do I run to his defense? Do I throw it all on Jesse?
No, no… I’m panicking. Liam will claim he didn’t know about it.
He’ll act shocked that it’s there, and he’ll talk his way out of this, just like he talks his way out of everything.
But when I look back and see Liam’s confident expression, I realize that all I can do is sit here while they open the box and find a head staring back at them. The shock on their faces is apparent. Someone informed them what was happening, and now, they’ve confirmed it.
“Fuck,” Liam says. “What the fuck… is that?”
I can’t hear the police officers clearly, though it sounds like they say something about his arrest. But how can he be arrested?
All I can do is feign confusion when I push open the door and step out. “What’s going on?” I ask as I see them press Liam against the back of the car. “Hey! What are you doing?”
“Gabriel, get back in the car,” Liam says while I hear them read him his rights.
No… that’s what we’re supposed to do to others. We’ve always been the one to read them… not the other way around.
“Please get back in the vehicle,” Liam says.
“Liam, what’s going on?” I ask as I come closer and make a show of looking at the box. The horror on my face doesn’t even have to be faked. “What the fuck is that? Liam, what the fuck—”
“Get in the car.”
“Where the fuck did the head come from?” I ask.
“Gabriel, now,” Liam barks.
His voice makes me back up until I’m standing in the open car door. I look down at Jesse, who seems absolutely devastated as he buries his head in his hands and refuses to look at me.
I watch while they push a handcuffed Liam toward the car and try to remind myself that Liam can get out of anything. They’re just doing their job. They’re just doing what they’ve been told to do.
“Will someone please tell me what’s going on?” I ask as they help Liam into the back of their cruiser.
“We’re going to deal with this back at the station. We would like you both to exit the vehicle. Why don’t you two ride back to the station with me? There’s no sense in waiting for backup when we know both of you, Detectives,” Wilcox says as another police car pulls up. “Come on now.”
I slowly follow him and get into the back seat next to Liam while Jesse is damn near forced into the front passenger seat, still holding his tarantula.
The officer who just arrived is hovering around that trunk as Wilcox’s partner speaks to him, and I’m left in turmoil.
I look over at Liam, whose face is completely unreadable for the entire drive back to the station.
It can’t be too serious, right? Or Wilcox would never have let me ride back here with Liam.
He’s just doing his job despite knowing that Liam is innocent… right?
The moment I arrive, Liam is escorted out and barely gets anywhere before Michaels is hustling out in a huff.
Liam tips his head toward my jacket, and I remember that I have the bag with the fingerprints tucked into it. Right… if I can figure out who did it, then I can clear Liam.
I hurry off to the department, leaving him behind while I rush up to the elevator and start hitting buttons even though the elevator is taking its sweet time.
It’s Christmas night, so there are few people here.
Only essential workers are present, and someone who would generally do a fingerprint analysis doesn’t seem to be one of them.
I eye the tape firmly stuck to the wrapping paper and quickly stick it in the freezer, hoping to make the tape easier to peel off without taking any paper with it.
Then I begin setting up a kit to show the fingerprints before I see Jesse standing outside the door.
“Can you help me with this?”
Jesse just turns and walks away.
“Jesse, what the fuck?” I snap.
I’m far too impatient to leave the tape in the freezer for too long and touch an edge to see how easily it’ll pull from the paper. It immediately rips the paper with it, making my stomach sink.
“Fuck,” I grumble as I toss it back in. I really hope the print we need wasn’t under that piece. After I feel like I’m going to crawl out of my skin, I pull it out and carefully get started.
The next piece I test peels off with ease and I breathe a sigh of relief.
I’m sure there’s a better way to do this, but I’m doing what I can to get answers as fast as I can.
I set to work on each piece of tape until I’ve revealed every fingerprint that’s on them.
If this doesn’t give me anything, I’ll have to wait for them to analyze the box the head was found in, but who the hell would ever let me take the box that could be what condemns my boyfriend and partner?
Quickly, I set the prints to be analyzed by the computer to see if there’s a match. Of course the first match I get is Jesse, which is no surprise since he was the person who wrapped the original present…
Is there really any way that the person fucked up like this? Then again, if the person who set this up did everything they could to avoid ripping the paper, they probably had to use their nails to peel the edges up.
The computer flashes another match.
And this time… it isn’t Jesse.
Hurriedly, I write down the name and pull up what I can about him. Tate Piers… a man with a record after he was a suspect in his parents’ death. They were unable to convict him, and because of it, he was able to walk free.
“What are you doing?” Michaels asks, and I’m so fixated on the computer that I nearly jump out of my skin.
I shake my head. “Just… trying to figure out what’s going on.”
“Liam wants to talk to you.”
“Okay.” I minimize what I’d been looking at and hurry after him. “You know Liam had nothing to do with this, right?”
“Just talk to Liam,” he says. Michaels takes me down to the lower floor and waves me toward the holding cells, where I see Liam sitting in one, before leaving. When Liam notices me, he quickly stands up.
“Do I look sexy behind bars?” he asks. “I feel like a badass.”
“This isn’t a fucking joke,” I hiss.
“Are you alone?” Liam asks as he looks around. The room appears to be empty besides Wilcox, who is sitting behind a desk.
“Yes.”