Chapter 16 #2
“The last twenty-four hours will be great,” I say with a heavy sigh, knowing that while that may not give me Gray delivering the body, it’ll sure as fuck give me the stalker locking her in the refrigeration unit.
If it is Gray, we’ll be able to identify him, and then all of this shit can be put to rest. Harper will be safe, and Gray will be well on his way to spending the rest of his life behind bars.
“Okay. Is there anything in particular you want me looking for? A certain time frame, perhaps?”
“Uhhhhh. Probably anywhere from two in the morning through till four. Somebody was able to gain access to the morgue while my niece was working. She hid in the refrigeration unit only to be locked in, so we just want to rule out any foul play,” I tell her, trying to downplay it so as to not cause alarm, not knowing just how far this thing might go.
“Oh shit,” Carly says. “Give me an hour to review the footage. I’ll send you anything I find.”
“Thanks, Carly.”
“Hey, ummm . . . are you still an asshole?”
A stupid smile pulls across my lips. “Yeah, Carly. I am,” I say, glancing up at the boys to find Ace in a headlock with his legs flailing around on the sparring mat while his face turns an unnatural shade of red.
“Damn. That’s what I was worried about.”
“You can do much better than me. Go find someone who’ll treat you like a queen.”
She lets out a heavy sigh before ending the call, and as I put my phone away, I get to my feet and call out to Diesel. “Knock it off. You’re gonna kill him, and then I’m going to have to explain it. That’s a lot of paperwork I’m not down for.”
Diesel sighs and releases his hold on Ace, and as he remains sprawled on the sparring mat, trying to regain consciousness, I step in his place and give Diesel a fight that he’ll actually have to work for.
Thirty-eight minutes later, my phone chimes with an incoming email, and I pull back from Diesel before stepping over Ace, who’s now asleep on the fucking mat.
I sit right back down where I had been earlier and don’t hesitate opening the email.
I don’t bother scanning over the message Carly sent before bringing up the surveillance footage from the morgue last night.
The footage starts a little after two in the morning.
There’s a clear view of the whole morgue.
Harper is situated at her desk, and from the look of it, she’s immersed in her work, though there’s no denying she’s clearly distracted by her phone, and I can’t help but wonder if this is the other guy she was telling me about.
Laith Mitchell. I think that was his name, which also reminds me that on a completely unrelated note, I need to run a background check today.
I scroll through the footage, waiting for something to happen, when Harper’s head snaps up.
Her attention is locked on the door, and even though the footage is slightly grainy, the fear in her eyes is crystal clear.
She rises, hesitates by her desk, then moves, and in a split-second decision, she races across the morgue and climbs straight into the refrigeration unit.
My heart hammers, desperate to see what actually went down last night, and I fast forward through it again, waiting for more movement. When the door finally opens, I bring my phone closer to my face.
A man walks into the morgue, dragging a cart behind him, only he leaves the cart in the doorway to brace the door open. When he pulls cleaning products from the cart, I let out a heavy sigh. It was just the janitor.
I scroll through the footage, watching him make his way around the room, wiping everything down before briefly mopping the floors.
Then when he trails by the refrigeration unit, I watch the very second he realizes one of the doors was left unlocked and casually flips it, having no fucking clue that Harper was hidden within.
The whole thing was nothing more than Harper’s fear playing on her mind because of the bullshit that had happened during her other shifts, and I hate that for her.
Quickly checking the time and seeing I have a few minutes before my shift, I find Harper’s number and hit call before holding the phone to my ear and casually striding away from Diesel and Ace.
It rings twice before Harper’s sweet voice comes through the line. “Is there something you need?”
“I’m gonna need my shirt back.”
“Ha. Good luck with that,” she murmurs. “You’re going to have to peel it off my body with your teeth.”
“That won’t be a problem,” I tell her. “But while I’d love to stand here and do this all day, I’ve got more pressing things to discuss.”
“Oh, and what’s that? You need a list of all my favorite vibrators ranked in order of just how quickly they get the job done? Because that won’t take me long. I’ve already got it written up in my notes.”
My mouth opens as I go to respond, but the words fall flat, and for the first time, I’m fucking speechless. “We’re gonna discuss that list in great detail,” I tell her. “But this is about last night. I was able to get the security footage from the morgue.”
She sucks in a gasp, and I cringe, hearing the immediate change in her mood, even over the phone. “You got it?”
“Sorry, doll. I should have eased you into that, but yeah. I know someone in security and was able to get those few hours from last night, but if we want anything from the previous nights, we’ll have to submit an application, and it could take weeks.”
“Fuck,” she mutters. “Did you find anything?”
“Yeah, I uhhhh . . . It was just the janitor in there last night.”
I can practically hear her shaking her head through the phone, and I pull my phone away for just a second to forward her the email so she can see for herself. “No,” she says, sounding out of breath. “It couldn’t have been. I could sense him there.”
“I don’t know what to tell you, Harper. I’ve reviewed the footage, and it’s clear.
I’ve just forwarded it to you so you can see for yourself, but despite it being the janitor, you did the right thing.
You were scared and you hid, and because of that, you kept yourself safe.
Had that not been the janitor and you just stayed at your desk, the night could have ended very differently. ”
Harper lets out a heavy sigh. “Your email just came through.”
Knowing she’s opening the footage just as quickly as I had, my lips press into a hard line, and despite my shift starting, I wait with her, letting her go through the motion.
“Shit. It really is the janitor,” she murmurs with a pained groan.
“I’m so embarrassed. Who locks themself in a refrigeration unit because they’re scared of the janitor? ”
“Don’t be embarrassed,” I tell her. “Like I said, considering everything that’s happened, you did the right thing.
But at least you can sleep easy knowing it wasn’t some crazed murderer.
Besides, it was worth it to watch you come out of that shower and demand I eat your tight little cunt while laying down the rules. ”
“Knight,” she groans.
“Listen, I wanted to ask you, the night the body came in, you said that it was Gray, right?”
“Yeah,” she says, confirming what I thought. “He came in with that weird coroner and said this one needed to be prioritized, so I got started straight away.”
“Right, okay.”
There is a slight pause. “Why?” she finally asks, an edge to her tone.
“It’s nothing. Just wanted to confirm.”
“Knight,” she demands, that edge hitching higher and taking no prisoners, making it clear she won’t stop until she’s satisfied we’re on the same page.
I let out a heavy sigh. “I spoke to Gray yesterday, and he mentioned that he didn’t pick up a case that night. He was on scene at a house fire. An older man died from smoke inhalation, but he’s adamant he didn’t set foot in the morgue that night.”
“No, that’s not right. A different body came in that matches that description, but Gray was definitely there with the coroner. I saw him with my own eyes.”
“Yeah, I believe you, doll. I just don’t understand why Gray would lie about it,” I muse, none of this makes sense.
“I spoke to him about it again, and now he claims that there’s nothing in our system about a homicide that night matching the victim’s description.
He’s insisting that I’ve got the details wrong. ”
“What the fuck? Is he saying I made it up?”
“I don’t know what he’s trying to say, but it seems suspicious to me. I don’t like it,” I tell her. “I don’t know Gray that well, but I’ve never liked him. Either way, I’m going to keep looking into it.”
“Okay,” she says nervously. “Do you think it might be him?”
“Honestly, I’m not sure. He doesn’t strike me as the stalker type, and from what I know of him, he doesn’t have the extensive medical experience one would need to pull off the shit that was done to the victim. He knows something, but he could be a pawn in a much bigger game.”
“Fuck.”
“My thoughts exactly,” I tell her. “But listen, I have to run, okay? My shift started, but if you decide to go into work, just keep your eyes open, yeah?”
“I will.”
“Alright, Morticia. I’ll see you later.”
And with that, I end the call, more determined than ever to get to the bottom of this shit and figure out who the fuck has been messing with my girl.