Chapter 23 #2
“So the police received a tip that I had a head, of all things, in my trunk. A setup, clearly. The box we took from Jesse’s had books in it; officers have since found the original box with books in it outside of Jesse’s home.
At some point, the killer swapped the box of books in our trunk with the head and then called the police.
So when they implied they wanted to check the trunk, I warned them that this was likely a setup by the killer and if it was, I wanted them to follow through, to pretend like I really was at fault.
I wanted to see what the killer would do when they believed I was out of the equation,” he says, loud enough for Wilcox to hear.
“I wanted to play the part. They want me gone for some reason, or at least distracted while they do something else, so I decided that we would give them what they wanted in the hope that they fuck up.”
I stare at Liam while I piece together the nonsense he’s saying… because what box of books is he talking about?
So he’s telling me that he had a suspicion that he was going to be pulled over, which would have been orchestrated by Whitaker to get Liam out of the picture, at least temporarily.
Because of this suspicion, Liam wanted an alibi of sorts and also a way to reflect this back on Whitaker.
He stated that we did take a box with us but claimed that there were books inside of it.
Only Jesse and I know the truth—that the box held a head all along.
The box of books Liam was pretending to have taken were left by him outside of Jesse’s house and never actually swapped.
When the hell did he do all of this? I guess we did send him in alone.
But… what is he doing all of this for, then?
Once he got here, he should have just been like, “Surprise, it’s all a joke”…
unless he thinks someone here is watching us.
If the police knew it was a setup, why did he ask them to pretend to arrest him?
Who was he hoping to fool with this stunt?
Did he think Whitaker was watching? Or was it for…
I nod for him to get in closer to me. “Jesse?” I whisper in his ear. “You didn’t want Jesse to know, did you?”
“Correct.”
“Fuck. Why did you even agree to take the box if you suspected him?”
“Because Jesse wanted me to,” Liam says.
“No, you volunteered,” I counter. “I can’t believe he fucked us over.”
He smiles at me. It’s a very pleased smile, telling me that Liam has some wild plan in his mind and he’s just let me in on it. “What do you know about Jesse, my dearest?”
“Well… I thought he was nice, funny, and caring, but now I don’t know…”
“You pinpointed the issue with finesse. As to be expected from my favorite person in the whole world.”
“Which is?” I ask, uncertain as he beams at me, like he’s confident I’m going to get this while I’m confident that he should just tell me the issue at hand so we can move on.
“He’s nice.”
“Which is disgusting to you, of course.”
Liam grins, obviously agreeing with me about this fact.
“I don’t get it,” I admit.
“Jesse is nice. Think of the Jesse you know. Would the Jesse you know let others die just for a chance to save himself?”
I think back to Jesse who was sitting in that diner, prepared to throw his entire life away so that Lacey wouldn’t get in trouble for Zach’s death.
“Oh shit. Something more is going on, isn’t it?
Do we have Lacey’s number? He looked so distraught when he came back from unplugging the router.
Do you think someone messaged him then? Can we get in contact with Lacey to see if she’s alright?
You said it before; Whitaker is a manipulator. He’s manipulated Jesse, hasn’t he?”
“That’s my bet,” Liam says. “Whitaker’s going to try to get us out of the picture and alienate Jesse until he feels like he has nowhere else to go and no one else to rely on. So I need you to figure out if there are any fingerprints on the tape.”
“Already did.”
“Oh?” Liam asks, eyebrow arching. “Fuck, that’s sexy.”
“Will you focus?”
“Will you kiss me through these bars?”
“I would prefer not to. I’ve seen guys piss on these bars and a drunk woman vomit through them.”
Liam hesitates before saying, “I doubt they pissed this high.”
“No.”
He looks displeased. Does he really think the cleaning crew cleans these bars that well? They probably smack them with a dustcloth and deem them good.
“You have the name of the person the fingerprints belong to?”
“I do,” I say before slipping the paper through the bars. “What’s your plan?”
“Whitaker is going to try to push all of this onto Jesse at some point; I just don’t know when. If he can’t get Jesse to cave to his whims, he’s going to destroy him. He’s going to punish him for leaving him. So I need you to keep Jesse busy.”
“Doing?”
“Just focus on what Michaels needs pertaining to the head in the trunk, but keep Jesse with you and keep him distracted.”
Liam winks at me, and it’s annoying how sexy it is and how much it makes me want to kiss him through these vomit- and piss-soaked bars.
“Officer, can you get him out?” I ask.
“Out?” Wilcox asks. “I didn’t put him in there. He scurried in there the moment he heard you were coming.”
I stare at Liam in disbelief.
“I thought I’d look more badass if I told you my plans through the bars,” Liam explains.
I sigh and watch him walk out. “I almost kissed you.”
“I know you did,” he says with a grin. “The bars were working. I wonder if I set up a little sex dungeon with a cell—”
“I’m leaving your ass. You hear me? You had me fucking worried and you’re over here fantasizing about a sex dungeon.”
Liam reaches out and cups my cheek gently. “No. What I’m fantasizing about is spending every moment of my life with someone as perfect and loving as you.”
“You are such a sweet talker.”
He smiles at me. “Thank you.”
“That wasn’t a compliment!” I say.
Liam walks over and tries to coax Wilcox into letting him borrow his laptop.
The man heads off to find him one and Liam takes a seat to wait for it.
Meanwhile, I’m standing here questioning what the hell I’m doing.
Once Liam finds what he needs, is he planning on running off too?
Is he going to hunt this Tate Piers down?
But then what? The department now knows we’ve been targeted.
If they connect Tate Piers to the case like I have and he suddenly winds up dead, aren’t we just going to be left investigating his death?
I turn with the intention of finding Jesse like Liam asked and damn near run into Michaels.
“Sergeant,” I say, startled. “I didn’t see you there.”
“I’m a bit concerned about all of this,” he tells me while gesturing for me to walk with him. “Do you really think Paige has a handle on this situation?”
“If anyone does, he does,” I say, which we both know is true… even if Michaels would never admit it.
“For now, we’re keeping it quiet. I don’t know who is watching him, but if it’s someone in this department, I will find them. And I will make them regret ever setting their sights on one of my detectives.”
“I didn’t know you liked Liam that much,” I tease.
He hesitates. “You’re right, I’m heading home and enjoying Christmas. See you tomorrow, Hyde.”
I can’t help but laugh as he heads off. I know he’s joking. We have another body to deal with and a long night ahead of us. What a shitty way to end Christmas.
My issue is that I feel like I’m caught between what I should do as a detective and what I should do as a friend to Jesse and a partner to Liam.
But what happens when this all comes spiraling back down on us?
What happens when someone starts searching and finds something that leads them back to Liam?
I feel like I’ve lost control of the situation and it’s making me anxious.
Yet Liam still looks as confident as ever.
Liam can’t be lucky all the time, can he?
Before I get too far, I get called in by some techs who want to know if I can provide them with any information about the box.
It’s hard when I don’t want to contradict something Liam might have said, but I give them what I can.
I can’t tell them that I know the identity of the dead man, so they’re left questioning who the head belongs to and asking me where Jesse might be since they saw him around here somewhere.
I hurry upstairs to look for Jesse, but I can’t find him anywhere.
While I’m now aware he’s likely the one who contacted the police about Liam, I know he must be feeling pretty desperate at this point.
I wonder if I told him we knew what was going on whether he’d give us anything in return.
Was the whole thing set up from the beginning?
Did Whitaker ask him to pull us in right away?
Or was this Whitaker’s plan B when he saw that we’d found the Christmas present he’d arranged for Lacey?
Did Whitaker find killing Liam too risky, so he instead chose to hide him away until he was done ruining Jesse’s life? I mean, what better way to drive Jesse further from us than to drown him in guilt over getting Liam arrested? Then what about Matthew?
I call Jesse, but my call rings and rings. Then I call Matthew, who is at a friend’s house, but he hasn’t seen him. I ask him to stay there, and when he asks why, I tell him that I’ll inform him later.
I return to the computer I was using and see that the information on Tate Piers’ fingerprints is no longer minimized.
“Well, shit,” I whisper.