Chapter 27
E verly
A white piece of paper waited on my bedside table when I woke from a nap, and I stretched to collect it, my eyes still bleary from sleep.
MISS ME, it read.
I would, I did, endlessly. After Connor’s stabby show and tell, he’d thrown himself into work. Maybe conveniently avoiding me, too. Whenever I tried to talk to him, he found an excuse to be somewhere else. That didn’t stop him from being inside me at every opportunity, and last night, he’d sedated me again. I’d dozed much of the day while he’d slept, and now he’d left again.
Still without giving me the time to talk to him.
I folded the paper, determination filling me.
Today was Friday, game day. I was going to remain conscious throughout. Whether he liked it or not, we were going to have this conversation.
Leaving our bed, I showered and dressed in a lavender-blue gym set, worked through my yoga routine, then ate granola while I scanned the local headlines. The latter was something I did every day at work, except it was two PM and I was still on sick leave, trying not to think about my job.
The mayoral admin team would manage for a week without me, but longer than that and they’d flounder. The next most senior staff member, Jeff, panicked over anything too stressful. He wasn’t ready to take over from me, even if I decided to quit.
Had I decided that?
I took a deep inhale and focused on the headlines, pushing away thoughts of work until I was ready with a solution.
More information had been released on the latest murder, and I copied the link for Genevieve and Cassie. For convenience, I made a chat group for us, titling it ‘The Skeleton Girls Detective Agency’ then pasted in the article.
Almost immediately, someone was typing back.
Genevieve: I’m finishing up a lecture, then I can read this.
Cassie: Intel! I just woke up but I’m all over it.
Cassie: Love the group name. Can we get stickers made?
With a grin, I cleared away my very late breakfast things, then had another idea and typed a message to Connor, asking if he minded me inviting the two women up to the apartment.
Connor: It’s your home, too. Have your friends over whenever you like.
Another reply came in hot on its heels.
Connor: Just don’t let Cassie touch my knives.
I sent him a heart emoji then wrote to my group.
Everly: Would you both like to come to my apartment this afternoon? I’ll make snacks and coffee, then we can talk all things murder.
Two enthusiastic responses came back immediately, and I got a bolt of happiness at having a friendship group for the first time since school. I’d asked and they’d said yes—a lesson for the day. I needed to take action, in multiple areas of my life.
A couple of hours later, both women arrived, Genevieve coming straight from university with a satchel over her shoulder, and Cassie in a thick hoodie with her hair peeking from the hood. Bleary-eyed, she explained that she’d gone back to sleep after my message having worked until five AM at a bar downstairs.
She kicked off her shoes then padded over to gaze out the window. “People are already queueing outside. Pervy fuckers. Ye should have heard the chatter about the game last night. They are all so desperate to watch a group of women get hunted.”
Genevieve joined me at the counter, nodding enthusiastically at my offer of an iced coffee. “This is a real money-spinner for the club. They sell bedrooms with live stream access to cameras in the basement, and those go for wild sums of money. Like, life-changing amounts that the club uses for all kinds of good purposes. Arran and I are going to make a statement later about our participation and how successful it was.”
I goggled at her. “Is that necessary?”
“He’s the organiser. It’s expected of him, and honestly, I don’t mind. Everyone who’s going to be there already watched us have sex for the first time. Guaranteeing to them that we continue to do so and are now planning the rest of our lives together seems kinda pale in comparison.”
She accepted her coffee, and I admired her bravery. She’d gone into Arran’s game by accident but had come out stronger for her ordeal. Even after, she hadn’t let the club consume her. She was doing her own thing with her degree.
She wrinkled her nose. “I’ve messaged Riordan to make sure he doesn’t watch, just in case. I wouldn’t want to traumatise him.” Her gaze slid over me. “He’s a decent man, our brother. He can be quiet and disappear off the radar, but I’ve learned that’s because he’s tackling problems on his own. He doesn’t share his stress. Like, ever. He keeps it all to himself and handles it alone.”
I nodded, clinging to the information. “I’ve started making a list of all the things he’ll need to know about being related to my father. Family health history, that kind of thing. Sorry if that’s awkward.”
“Not at all. It’ll be good for him to have someone else who cares about him.” She ducked her head. “He shocked me with his secret, but in retrospect, I get how huge a burden that must’ve been for him to carry. He loved our mum, and she adored him. Honouring her wishes would’ve been the most important thing for him.”
Cassie drifted over, taking her drink with a grateful if somewhat distracted smile, and I stiffened my spine, suddenly determined to follow the examples I’d been shown. I wanted to get to know Riordan, but what was there of me to offer in return? I hadn’t managed it so far with the two women I wanted to befriend.
“Remember you asked me about myself?” I said to Cassie. At her eyebrow rise of enquiry, I continued. “I stalled out on the question, and I’ve realised it’s because my father and his career completely absorbed every aspect of my life. But I’m more than that.”
Cassie grinned. “Aye, ye are. Ready when ye are to give us the goods.”
I settled onto a stool and counted off my thoughts. “I like videos of little children who are best friends with animals. I love women trying on dresses with people telling them how great they look, especially if they aren’t skinny or Internet beautiful. I’ll devour videos of driving lessons where the dash cam picks up someone doing something kind, like stopping for a family of ducks to cross the road. But I’m hardline, too. If someone shares a picture of a spider, they get an instant block.”
Cassie’s eyes rounded. “Who needs that kind of jump scare?”
“Right there on your screen.” Genevieve gave a pretty grimace.
“Exactly!” Thoughts built inside me in a storm. “I want to try out hobbies to see which works for me.”
Cassie rocked on her heels. “We can do that together! Like crochet or painting. Or target practice.”
My storm was tinted with happiness. “I’d really love that. I’ve never taken a break from work, not even when I had the flu. I just wore a mask and sat in an empty office with a bucket of hand sanitiser and the windows open so I didn’t get anyone else sick. In winter. Do you know what my father said?”
The two women shared the same pitying expression.
“Nothing, except to comment that my makeup wasn’t up to scratch that day. Why did I do it? Why did I give him a decade of my life for no thanks when he was lying to me the whole time?”
The true answer was for Connor’s ears only, but the overriding point was that I’d never pushed back. Never complained. Never tried .
Genevieve cupped my elbow, her touch warm. “You’re not going back, are you?”
“I’d like maybe to reduce my hours.”
Her gaze intensified. “No, try that again and listen to what you really want. You’re not going to do that thing you’ve always done anymore.”
So slowly, I shook my head, full of wonder at my revelations. “I don’t think I can.”
Cassie stirred her brew, her smile approving in a way that bolstered me further. “Then after you’ve told off your old man, ye get to pick your own life. What does that contain?”
“Connor,” I said immediately. “I’ve been in love with him since I was a teenager, but he was so far off the table it was never going to happen. That doesn’t mean things with him are perfect, so that’s one of the first things I need to fix.”
“Set boundaries, smart woman,” Cassie said.
That was exactly it. He’d hear my explanation, then we’d work out ground rules for how we went on.
Cassie pursed her lips. “Can I ask a question? Is your ma still around? I wondered.”
Old sadness brought an automatic sigh. “She died when I was small from heart failure. Non-hereditary and out of the blue. I don’t remember her much, but the career I always wanted was the one she had. She was an event planner. I must’ve inherited her skills because I’m good at it.”
“Nice that you’re carrying on a part of her.” Cassie’s gaze gentled. “My ma died, and I have no memory of her. I wish I did.”
Genevieve held up her coffee. “Jinx, except mine lived until I was a teenager. I’ve been angry at her this week because she lied and hurt Riordan in the process, but I’ll get over that.” She twisted to peek at me. “What is it you like about her job? I ask because it’s given me an idea.”
“I love tackling a busy calendar and managing dates. Slotting all the working pieces into place and getting people and suppliers to align. It does happy things to my head.”
“How about helping out here?” She gestured to the warehouse with a circle around her head. “Arran has been flat-out running the game, but that has a lot of moving parts, and he’s drowning in it. There’s no one person he can rely on to handle the contestants or to get the warehouse staff doing all the things they need to do. It all falls on his shoulders, and I know he doesn’t find it a natural fit.”
I considered the idea, my fingers twitching with the need to pitch in. “Do you think he’d welcome my help if I offered?”
She gave an enthusiastic nod. “Tonight, watch how it works. See if it interests you then ask Arran if you can manage the next one. I bet he’d jump at the chance to share the load. I won’t mention it in case you change your mind, but it’s a real and present need, and it’s also only one thing the warehouse does. The nightclub has theme nights every month, and one-offs on special occasions. The strip club does the same, and don’t even get me started on the brothel. Alisha is meant to be running regular club nights there, but she hasn’t got the idea off the ground.”
I breathed out excitement. Since Connor had brought me to the warehouse, I’d barely left. It was a world of its own, and I loved it here. I felt safe. I had friends. I had him.
Being able to use my skills to support the place would be the cherry on the cake.
“I’ll think about it,” I promised. “Just like I’ll think about yelling at my father. And finding some way to expose Piers Roache and the councillors.”
Genevieve raised her coffee in a salute.
“Wait, what did the councillors do?” Cassie asked.
Summoning my strength, I filled them in on that nugget while we sipped our iced coffee, ice cubes clinking, and my mind putting together a plan. Telling off my father, as Cassie put it, scared me so much, but at the same time, it had to be done. I didn’t know how I’d get the words out, but the prospect was thrilling and terrifying in equal parts.
“In the spirit of getting shite done, regarding that newspaper article link ye sent,” Cassie said. “Are we down to commence the first meeting of the Skeleton Girls Detective Agency?” At our encouragement, she continued. “I was talking to…someone yesterday and had the idea of making a crime wall, like in detective movies. Ye know, with a big map, clues, and bits of string linking the sites, and bios of information on the victims? I was thinking about it all night while mixing drinks.”
“Oh my God, yes. We should create one.” I peeked around at the living room walls. Connor’s knife display took up the only clear wall space. Beyond that, it was all brick or steel with nowhere to push a pin into.
“Arran has a printer and a stationery cupboard we can raid,” Genevieve said. “I’ve got a couple of hours before I need to go talk about my sex life in public. This sounds like such fun.”
Cassie stood, setting her empty glass on the counter. “We can use my room downstairs. The walls are basically cardboard. Let’s do this thing!”
Energised and caffeinated, we got to work. Genevieve printed a map of Deadwater, and we helped ourselves to Sharpies, string, and pins, then holed up in the bedroom Cassie had appropriated downstairs. In the room next door, two people were having sex in front of a camera, and it showed how far I’d come in accepting the warehouse’s strange world that it didn’t even faze me.
In happy coordination, we got the map up on the wall and marked off the places where Cherry, Natasha, and Amelia’s bodies had been discovered. Then we trawled Cassie’s notebook and the news sites for all the facts we could uncover about the three women.
The dates they died. Who they were. A heart drawn at the bottom of each of their sheets, just to show we cared.
Lastly, we wrote up the suspects list, focusing on the main individuals and not the less obvious ones like Alisha, which definitely wouldn’t have been fair to write up here. From cruising social media, I’d confirmed Piers was one city south of Deadwater on the night Natasha died, so it was feasible for him to have seen my father and gone on to murder someone for his own gratification. But for Cherry’s death, he was in Paris.
Just like Councillor Slaughter had an alibi one night. As did my father.
No single man on the list could’ve killed all three women. Not by himself.
Sitting side by side on the bed, the three of us stared up at what we’d created.
Cassie accepted the last cookie from the plate I’d brought downstairs. She pointed it at the wall. “That is a thing of beauty.”
I nodded, following the city streets and the lines of white string that led from one murder scene to the next, trying but failing to see any pattern we hadn’t already established. “It really is. Except… It doesn’t tell us anything new.”
Rested back on her elbows, Genevieve squinted. “Is it awful that I’m predicting where the next body will be found?”
Cassie choked on a crumb. “I was just doing exactly that.”
I sighed, because I’d done the same thing. “The terrible part is how sure we all think it is another woman is going to die.”
A sober silence fell over us.
“It won’t be any of us,” Cassie announced. “Promise me that the two of ye won’t leave the warehouse alone.”
I reached for her hand and Genevieve’s, too. Squeezed their fingers in a show of friendship I hoped I’d found with them. “It won’t be us. I wish it didn’t have to be anyone at all.”
Cassie’s hand tightened around mine, a shy little cat’s paw but not letting go. “Then let’s fill in these gaps. Do everything we can to find this fucker.”
If only any of us knew how.
How did any woman stop a man in his tracks in the same way he could us? Then an idea came to me, not to catch a killer, but to make Connor listen to me.
It was so perfect, I’d no choice but to put it into play.