Chapter 24 #3
While I’ve never used a thermometer, I find that Gabriel has one in the first aid kit, so I quickly get it out and stuff it in his mouth.
“Hopefully this isn’t the cat one,” I tell Jesse, who gives me a look and tries to spit it out. I force it back in as I call Gabriel.
“How are things going? Did you find them?” Gabriel asks.
“Less than ideal. Do you think you can come home?”
“Right now? Michaels has me doing five million things.”
“Yes, right now.”
That seems to make Gabriel hesitate. “Okay… can you tell me what happened? Now I’m worried.”
“Jesse went for a swim and I’m trying to defrost him,” I say as I check the thermometer and see that he’s not doing too bad. “Your rectal cat thermometer says that he’ll survive.”
“Well, as long as you didn’t get it out of the cat box, it should be the human one. I’m heading there now.”
I kneel in front of Jesse, who is looking a fraction more alive. “What the fuck was your plan?”
“N-No plan,” he says.
“Oh, no, you had a plan. If you don’t want to tell me, let me give it a try.
Whitaker had Tate record you and put the video in your house, which he played for you to make you feel like your privacy had been completely shattered.
Then he put up a camera to watch you to make you feel paranoid, and let’s not forget the head in the Christmas present.
When Whitaker saw that we’d figured out the Christmas present for Lacey, he changed his plans.
He decided that I needed to go since I kept ruining his plans and was the reason one of his puppets got arrested.
When you went to unplug the router, he texted to tell you that he had Lacey and that he was going to kill her unless you called the cops on me and told them that you suspected me of having a head in my trunk.
He wanted to make you feel absolutely horrible about yourself by betraying someone who was supporting you.
He wanted to alienate you, make you paranoid, and make you feel like he was watching you and picking apart your life.
“The look you wore when you came back from the router told me that things had changed. So when I went back into the house to get the box with the head in it, I made an identical box and tossed some of your weird bug books into it that I left outside your house, which the police later found to back up my claim that someone had swapped out the boxes. I told the officers to pretend like I really had put the box back there and ‘arrest’ me, in case Whitaker had someone watching. I also wanted it to seem like you did as you were told so that you can see that no matter what you do, Whitaker is not going to give you what you want. He’s just going to take and take until there’s nothing left of you.
His promise to let Lacey go if you got me arrested obviously got you nowhere.
So what did he ask you to do next in exchange for Lacey’s life? ”
Jesse looks down at the floor and wraps the blanket tighter around himself before taking a deep breath.
“Make something happen to Gabriel. I… I knew it was never going to end. I knew he was lying to me. I knew he was manipulating me. But getting you arrested wasn’t…
the end of the world. I knew we could prove you weren’t involved and nothing would come of it.
But hurting Gabriel? You know I couldn’t go that far. ”
“So you thought if you grabbed one of Whitaker’s pawns, you could do a little trade. Lacey for Tate, right?”
“It didn’t go well.”
“Sure didn’t seem to,” I say.
His dark eyes search mine. “Is Tate dead?”
I watch him for a moment. “He sure is.”
“Why didn’t you call it in? You’re just going to call it in later? Michaels is going to know that body sat out there.”
“How far are you willing to go, Jesse? How far have you gone before? I think I deserve to know.”
Jesse’s quiet while he contemplates his answer, but maybe he realizes that I’m right. I really do deserve to know. “I killed someone. Is that what you want to know?”
“It is.”
“I fucking… I don’t know what came over me.
I thought the man was going to kill me. I convinced myself he was going to kill me if I didn’t kill him first. I just…
” He takes a deep breath. “Later… I thought about all of the ways I could have run. The ways I could have gotten away from him. The ways I didn’t have to kill him. ”
“Whitaker is a manipulator. He drives you into a corner. He makes it seem like there is nothing left for you to do. And then he shows you a different way. The only way out. The only way to protect yourself and those you love.”
Jesse stares at me in disbelief. “I’ve fallen for it again, haven’t I?”
“Not fully. I’m certain Whitaker wouldn’t approve of you trying to take control of Tate.”
“He’s going to be enraged that Tate is dead. He’s going to kill Lacey.”
“What would killing Lacey do?” I ask. “He’d lose his control over you. Do you even know if he truly has her?”
Jesse lets out a sharp laugh. “There’s no fucking way I just tried to ruin your life and got a man killed for nothing.”
“Makes you feel shittier, doesn’t it? Knowing you did something for no reason at all,” I say.
“That’s what he wants you to feel. Honestly, I don’t think he has Lacey.
I’m sure you’ve informed her that Whitaker is back.
You said she was somewhere safe and I know that Whitaker could have found her, but if he had, he’d have sent you real proof.
I’m sure she’s going everywhere with her brother and staying as safe as possible.
You panicked. That’s what you did here. Do you have another way of contacting her?
I wonder if he couldn’t get to her and went after her boyfriend instead. ”
“I know where we were supposed to meet tonight, but I haven’t been able to get ahold of her.”
“Did you check the place or did you immediately believe him?”
“He sent me a picture,” he says. “Can you bring me my phone from my pants pocket?”
After I retrieve his phone that is fortunately water resistant enough that it’s still working, he brings up the picture and hands the phone to me.
I scrutinize it carefully. It really is Lacey, but there’s something off about the picture of the woman taped to a chair. “It’s a fake.”
Jesse grabs it but his hands are struggling to zoom, so I do it for him.
“See that line there? It’s her head, but not her body.
I’m sure you were too distraught to realize it at first. Let’s send someone out to collect her and move her someplace safe.
My bet is he wasn’t able to easily grab her and if she’s somewhere hard to get to, maybe her phone isn’t working.
Hell, with this storm, the Wi-Fi might even be down.
Lacey and her brother might not even realize it yet. ”
Jesse drops the phone and sits in silence for a while. “How can I be this fucking foolish? Am I really this much of a fuckup?”
“Emotions make people fuck up. Now what does he have on you pertaining to this person you killed?”
“The night I killed the guy, Whitaker was following me. Instead of helping me when I thought the man was going to kill me, he took a photo of me killing him.”
“He told you this or showed you?”
“I saw it… back when I was with him. I thought I destroyed it, but I must not have because he… sent it to me just as I was walking up to confront Tate.”
“Do you still have the photo he sent you?”
“Yes… but I don’t care anymore, Liam. This has to end. I can’t just keep dancing around. People are dying. I’d have turned myself in earlier today so no one else would get hurt, but I thought he had Lacey.”
“Exposing him would have solved nothing so far,” I say, truly believing that.
“But more detectives would have been looking into him.”
“Yes, and we’d have had to do things legally.
You really think that even if you’d blurted out the man’s name the day Nadine died, we would have been able to dig up a grave with no true connection to him?
There’s no police report from when you and Lacey tried to get him caught.
There’s nothing to back you up. We have you blaming a dead man who has no criminal record.
And in this line of work, proof is what we need.
So we’re going to give it to them. We’re going to give them a reason to dig up that grave, to look into Whitaker,” I say.
“Do you have anything that belongs to him?”
Jesse thinks for a moment. “I don’t believe so.”
“So when you ran with Lacey, you took nothing with you?”
“Yeah… I stole shit, but I pawned it all. I took a bunch of…” He freezes and looks up at me. “Oh fuck, I was able to sell everything but a class ring. They told me they couldn’t resell it and it wasn’t worth melting down, so they refused to even take it.”
“You still have it?”
“Somewhere.”
“I want it.”
“What are you going to do with it?”
I lean into him. “I’m going to save your ass. Do not forget that. Do you understand? Do not fuck me over.”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
Jesse’s watching me closely. “Sometimes you get this expression that reminds me of him… of Whitaker.”
Before I can say anything, the front door opens and Gabriel takes one look at us before nearly expiring right then and there.
“Fucking hell, what did you two do?” he asks, running over. He has his hands up, but he doesn’t seem to know who or what to grab. We must really look like a mess.
Jesse looks like a beaten dog as his head droops down. “I… was really fucking stupid and went after Tate Piers… he kicked my ass, nearly killed me, and threw me under the ice where I would have died if Liam hadn’t saved me,” he admits.
“Fuck. Are you okay?” Gabriel asks, carefully parting Jesse’s hair to inspect where he’d cracked his head on the ice.
“Yes.”
“We should take you to the hospital.”
“If we can avoid doing so, it’d be great,” I say.
“Why?” Gabriel asks before going, “Where’s Tate?”
“He’s dead.”
“Did you call it in?”
“No. I have a better idea. I just need this ring from Jesse first,” I say. “I’m going to go get the ring and I’m going to plant it on the body. Do you understand, Jesse?”
“Yes.”
“We will draw Whitaker into this and we will get him arrested by doing this, so you don’t need to follow his wishes ever again, okay?” I ask.
“Yes.”
“Gabriel, we need to have someone pick up Lacey and her brother, make sure they’re safe.”
“I will,” he promises.
I head to the bathroom, knowing I’ll have to make sure I’m not bleeding anywhere near the crime scene before I even begin. First, I strip off my clothes, not needing to track any more of Tate’s blood around, and start to clean up.
Gabriel rushes in and sees my arm. “Liam, that needs stitches…”
“It’ll be fine,” I assure him as I run it under the water. It does not feel fine.
“Liam.”
“Gabriel, I don’t have time.”
He shakes his head. “No. What if you fuck up? What if your blood is on him? What if Jesse’s blood is on him? Dammit, Liam, this is so risky. This is how you’re going to get us on Whitaker’s trail?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t like this. Jesse knows too much.”
“Jesse’s in too deep to pull himself out alone and he knows it.
Even if he hands over all of the information he has right now, it’ll just mean we have one less talented person on the case and things will come to a grinding halt.
I’ll be removed from the case since Whitaker seems to be focused on me as well, especially if we alert others that I killed Tate.
I need Jesse, and I just need one more night before everyone will know that it’s Whitaker. ”
“I don’t like this,” Gabriel says. “But we need to end it before anyone else dies.”
I run the medical glue along the cut and Gabriel looks at me like I’ve lost my mind.
“What the hell are you—”
And I squeeze the slice shut.
“Fuck,” I hiss through gritted teeth. “Fuck, that hurt.”
“I bet it did! What the hell are you doing?”
“I can’t get blood on anything, and I don’t have time to get it stitched,” I say as I smack gauze over it and start taping it. I’m tempted to tape it down with duct tape to make sure nothing leaks out, but the glue seems to have slowed its bleeding.
“I’m cringing over here and this didn’t even happen to me. Let me help.”
“Well, I’m done now.”
“I… I see that, but I was so flabbergasted that I forgot to help,” he says as he examines the rest of my arm and notices all of the cuts from Jesse’s nails. “Liam, how did we get sucked in this deep?”
I don’t know. I let it spiral and never meant for it to get this far. This is why I never should have let my darkness win out. I just didn’t realize how risky it would become.
But I’m afraid to admit that to Gabriel, so instead, I say, “Just think about all of the people we’re saving because he’ll never kill again.”
“But if we’d have just reported it at the beginning—”
“He might never have shown himself if we had. He’s eluded the police for this many years.
Avoided even being noticed. But he’s being sloppy because I’m egging him on.
He’s throwing himself into the limelight because he wants to get under Jesse’s skin.
He thinks he’s invincible. I’m about to show him that he’s not. ”
Gabriel grabs my face. “Let me go with you.”
“No, I need you to keep Jesse safe. When he’s feeling better, the two of you need to pick up Michaels’ car that I left there without being seen,” I say as I put the keys in his hand. “Jesse can show you where it is. Then be ready to destroy Whitaker’s miserable life.”
“I am.”
He pulls me in for a kiss, his lips pressing gently against mine, so gently that it’s almost just a brush against them.
“You’re going to be so fucking careful, you hear me?
” he whispers in my ear, and it almost sounds like a threat.
It makes me shiver, and when his hand slides around my back, holding me tight so I can’t step away, I find that I only want to step into him.
“Of course I will.”
“I’m not joking around. If you fuck up, all of this, all of our lives together… it’s all gone.”
“I can’t live without you.”
“Don’t be so dramatic,” Gabriel says as he draws me in for another kiss. “Just don’t make a single mistake.”
I want to taste his lips again, but his eyes are boring into mine. It’s like he wants something but doesn’t believe the words that come out of my lips.
“I’m always careful. It’s others like your drowning buddy over there who mess things up.”
“Thank you for saving him.”
“Yeah… I did it so I can blackmail Jesse,” I inform Gabriel.
He laughs. “No. You did it because you care about him.”
“We’ll pretend that’s the case.” Once dressed, I head out of the bathroom and grab a bag from my closet. I return to the living room and look over at Jesse who I have important questions for because this night is just starting.