29. Kara
29
KARA
E ven without uniforms on, the police were so out of place in the Slayers’ clubhouse. The rumpled suits made from cheap material weren’t the only giveaway. It was the uncomfortable glances at the club members lingering around the room.
The men pretended to have a reason to be there, busying their hands by playing pool or reading magazines. But they were all terrible actors.
They were there for War, who sat across the table from the cops, his arms folded over his solid chest, his gaze narrowed on the two men and their female colleague. He glanced up when we entered and waved us over. “Rebel. Kara. The detectives here would like a word.”
Rebel twisted her neck to one side, cracking her neck. “This should be good,” she muttered, sliding down into the seat beside War and glaring at the trio across the table .
I knew there was no love lost between my sister and the police after what she’d been through with her mother’s murder. War’s expression made it clear he was about as interested in being at this little tea party as he was in waxing his legs. A mug of coffee sat in front of him, but he hadn’t touched it.
I took the seat next to Rebel.
A second later, Hawk slid into the seat on my other side.
I searched for Hayley Jade. “Where’s—”
“Kiki and Amber are playing Barbies with the two girls outside.” He leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table and eyeing the cops as distrustfully as War and Rebel were. “Figured they didn’t need to hear whatever rubbish these jerks have brought here.”
The female detective sighed. “We aren’t here to start anything.”
War raised an eyebrow. “Really? So I don’t need to go call my lawyer?”
The woman shook her head. “No, you really don’t. This isn’t an interview. If we had wanted to do that, we would have had Kara and Rebel brought into the station. Instead, we came here. Are we good?”
Hawk gave a rumble under his breath. He didn’t like that they were here.
But I was glad they’d come. Rebel had called the police station a few times, trying to get information about what was happening with Alice, but each time she’d been told it was too early for them to give out any information, and we just needed to wait until the detectives had made their initial round of inquiries .
It had been days without any news, and I was desperate for information.
“Did you arrest them?” I asked, too impatient to wait for whatever they were going to say.
The female cop cocked her head to one side quizzically. “Which ‘them’ are you referring to?”
Rebel kicked me beneath the table, a warning to be quiet, I assumed.
But I didn’t care. I need to know. “Josiah Turnbull.”
The woman stared down at her notes. “Leader of the Ethereal Eden group, right? Formerly known as Ridgemont Homestead. Where Alice lived?”
I nodded quickly.
The woman shook her head. “He has an alibi. As does every other member of the group.”
My mouth dropped open. “They’re lying. They came after us when we ran. I know they did. They wouldn’t just let us leave with no repercussions.”
One of the male cops raised an eyebrow. “They say you all left of your own free will. That nobody tried to stop you.”
“They’re full of shit,” Rebel argued. “She was terrified when she came to my place that night. They were sure they were being followed by Josiah and his posse.”
“Did they actually say you couldn’t leave, Kara?” the female detective asked. “Did you see any of them following you?”
I opened my mouth to answer but shut it abruptly, not sure that in five years, Josiah had ever actually said the words, “I forbid you to leave.” I racked my brain, but it was hard to remember. My days after Hayley Jade had been taken from me were so full of sadness and grief, beatings, and abuse, that it was all a blur.
Could I have left?
But I instantly knew the answer was no.
Even if he’d never come right out and said it, our marriage vows bound me to Josiah. He’d cut me off from my family, he’d made me weak and reliant on him. Even if he’d left the gates wide open, there was always an unspoken threat, that I was his, and he’d come for me if I ever tried to walk away.
That wasn’t all in my head, even if he’d never said the words out loud.
His actions spoke louder than his words ever had.
But I had to tell the police the truth. “I didn’t see any of them following us.”
“So you have no proof Josiah or any of his colleagues were in Saint View the night Alice was murdered?”
Reluctantly, I shook my head.
Except I knew in my heart they were. I knew with every fiber of my being that Josiah hadn’t just watched us drive away, shrugged, and decided to carry on with his life.
That wasn’t the sort of man he was.
I’d wronged him, and there would be punishment for it. Josiah never left a sin to go unpunished. My chest tightened at the memory of all the punishments I’d received from him. My leg bounced uncontrollably beneath the table, adrenaline flooding my system at the memories.
The room felt too small. I wanted to get up and run. Or stand and scream. But I couldn’t do either. So I concentrated all that feeling into my leg instead .
The female detective jotted something down on her pad. “Good. Because that checks out with their alibis as well as some other information that has come to light about Alice’s death.”
“What information would that be?” Hawk asked the cops. Beneath the table, his hand came to rest on my leg.
I sucked in a breath at his touch, the heavy weight pinning my leg so it stilled.
The male detective cleared his throat. “That’s what we came here to discuss. We have other persons of interest in this case.”
“Who?” Rebel demanded.
The detective folded his hands on top of his paperwork and directed his attention to my sister. “Kyle, the young man who left with Alice and Kara for one. We haven’t been able to locate him.”
“Kyle?” Rebel asked. “That kid was so in love with Alice, I could see it from the moment he stepped foot out of the car.” She looked at me. “Do you think he had it in him? He seemed like a nice kid.”
“Unrequited love is often a motive for murder,” the female cop explained. “The boy’s parents told us he’d been quite infatuated with your sister for some time. That she’d been found in his room a few times.”
I shook my head. “No. I don’t believe that.”
“They’ve said she was quite promiscuous. They believe she lured him away from their community.”
“What?” I shouted. “That isn’t true! We had to leave. Kyle helped us. Alice never forced him to do anything. How could she? She had nothing! Women aren’t allowed anything of their own.”
The detective looked up at me. “We’ll get to the bottom of that when Kyle is located. It’s not something you need to worry about. We just wanted you to know we don’t believe it was anyone from the Ethereal Eden commune, and they’ve assured us they have no interest in where you are or what you’re doing. The message from Josiah was…” She flipped open her notebook once more to read from the scrawl written across one page. “The Lord has many paths to His kingdom, and Kara is on her own journey. We wish her all the best on her spiritual quest.”
War groaned and rolled his eyes. “Excuse me while I choke on that bullshit.”
Rebel argued with the cops, questioning where they’d searched for Kyle and how they could have no leads on a kid who had no money and no resources to survive in the world by himself. “Josiah and his cult of freaks have to be hiding him. You do know that, right? Josiah is probably the one who sent him with Alice and Kara in the first place! What if that was his plan all along? For Kyle to stay with Alice just long enough for him to report back to Josiah and—”
“Ms. Kemp,” the female detective interrupted. “Like I said, we’ll explore all those possibilities when Kyle is found.”
Rebel kept arguing, as was her nature. She was a dog with a bone when it came to the people she loved.
Hawk kept rubbing my thigh. His touch was all I could concentrate on. It was the only thing that focused me long enough to consider the words the detective had actually said. “Persons,” I said quietly.
Everyone paused mid argument and stared at me.
Hawk squeezed my leg. I wasn’t sure if he meant it as a sign of encouragement, but I took it as one and cleared my throat. “You said you had persons of interest. Meaning more than just Kyle. Who else?”
The detectives grimaced at each other, and then the woman turned back at me. “Due to the way your sister died and the marks on her body at her time of death, we have reason to consider…other suspects.”
I shook my head. “I don’t understand. What does that mean?”
The detective pursed her lips together. “I’m sorry, at this time we cannot comment further on the matter. All we have right now is circumstantial evidence, and nothing is set in stone.”
I squinted, trying to make sense of what they were saying, but I couldn’t. “The police won’t release her body until further investigations have been completed, but she needs to be buried. Our religion believes in reincarnation and that Alice’s soul will be kept captive in her body until she is buried. Her sins can’t be forgiven and she can’t enter Heaven until her soul is released. She isn’t at peace until then. So please, tell us what you know. I need to know you’re getting closer to working this out so I can bury my sister. Who do you think the other suspect is?”
The officers wouldn’t answer.
My stomach twisted into knots. What if they thought it was me? I knew they’d targeted Rebel for the murder of her mother and stepfather at one point, what was stopping them from doing the same to me?
Absolutely nothing.
I turned to Hawk in terror. “They think it was me, don’t they?”
Hawk glanced over at the police and then back at me. Slowly, he shook his head. “No, Little Mouse. What they’re refusing to say is they think there’s a serial killer out there.”