Chapter 21
ADRIAN
“His visiting privileges have been revoked,” the corrections officer says to Parker and me as we step into the visiting center.
“We’re still seeing him today,” Parker says, not allowing it to be a question. “I know it was arranged.”
“I need to clear it with the warden,” the officer says, eyeing the two of our badges. “The guy has already been sentenced, and you two don’t look anything like the cold case officers that keep showing up.”
“That’s because we’re working an active homicide,” Parker snaps. “And it involves his daughter.”
“His daughter?” The officer pauses, holding the black phone midair. “You serious?”
“Does he look like he’s fucking kidding?” I interject, shaking my head. “We’re not here to just fuck around. Let us in.”
He gives me a look but doesn’t say anything as he dials a number into the phone, and then places it to his ear, his voice low.
Parker’s phone pings with a notification, and he pulls it out of his pocket, swiping the screen. “Might as well check everything before we have to leave this shit behind.”
I nod, taking the moment to look at my own. But there aren’t any notifications at all. The woman I fucked never messaged me back, furthering the point that I was nothing but a method of stroking her ego.
Fucking figures.
“Okay,” the officer says, setting the phone down. “He can see you.”
“Great,” Parker says, tossing his phone down onto the CO’s desk. “Because I just got notice that he had a seven-minute phone call with his daughter this morning.”
I toss my own phone onto the desk alongside Parker’s. Oh fuck.
I follow Parker into the special visiting area, and together we take a seat at a shitty white plastic table. It’s more of an interrogation room, I guess, and it reeks of sweat and ammonia in all the worst ways.
“This should be interesting,” Parker breathes out, his chair squeaking beside me. “I wonder what compelled Liliana to answer his phone call for the first time ever.”
“Circumstances,” I say flatly. “I don’t know.”
“Or maybe they have more in common than they thought.”
“Maybe.” My eyes flicker to the threshold, where two guards escort a small, somewhat fragile-looking man into the room.
He’s in cuffs. I guess they think Richard Longley really is some sort of threat, though he seems fucking puny enough. As I take him in, I see some general resemblance to Liliana, though I have to admit it’s not much—not in the current shitty state of him.
Why did she feel the need to answer you? The question swims in my head as I take him in, feeling a mix of emotions. I haven’t seen Liliana in a while, and somehow, the absence has only caused me more fucking confusion, as if I feel something more than lust toward her.
Like fucking empathy.
Like I’ve walked in shoes so eerily similar, it makes me sick.
“Hello boys,” Richard gives a grin, showing off a pair of what I’m confident are dentures, given their perfect line-up.
“It’s a pleasure to see you this morning.
I heard you were coming. I was just talking to my friend Noah this morning.
He’s a real strange one. He murdered some fella back in Moccasin Cove. That’s where my ex-wife—”
“Yeah,” Parker’s voice cuts the man off and his gaze never leaves Richard as he takes a seat across from us. “How’d you know we were coming?”
“Well, I know a lot of people,” he says with a shrug. “Not everyone stays in the pen, you know. Some get out. Some stay in touch.”
“I see,” Parker gives me a look. “You wanna talk about the phone call with your daughter this morning?”
He raises his gray eyebrows. “You already know about that, huh?”
“We do,” Parker nods. “So why don’t you just go ahead and tell us about it, before we pull the actual audio?”
“Well, I’ll tell you that I’m really proud of her.” He gives me a sick, twisted fatherly grin that makes my stomach sick.
I already hate this fucker. Immensely.
“You’re proud of her for what?” Parker keeps pressing, while I sit in silence, reading Richard’s body language.
Nothing about it reminds me of Liliana.
He sits erect, proud of himself. He’s not antsy and maintains eye contact in a way that tells me he reeks of narcissistic personality disorder. I guess that he probably has been that way his whole life…
And I’m not sure I see those same habits in Liliana.
But she could be masking. She could be a successful psychopath.
Like me.
“I called her this morning for the first time in years,” Richard continues without any kind of push. “I thought it was about time that the two of us caught up. I heard about what happened at her art gallery, and I got a little concerned for her safety.”
“Uh huh…” Parker taps his pen against his notepad. “And why were you concerned?”
“Well, for her safety, of course.” He looks me dead in the eye. “She’s a pretty little thing, isn’t she?”
A fucking chill runs down my spine. What the hell is this man saying about his own daughter?
“She’s a successful woman,” Parker cuts in, his voice sharp. “What did she say to you on the phone?”
“Nothing much,” he shrugs, but something in his voice tells me that’s a fucking lie. “She was just talking about the things she’s going through. I’m sure what happened there at the gallery left her reeling. The past was hard on her, but you know, it made her tough, drove her to success.”
“Are you referring to the murder—”
“Yes,” Richard cuts off Parker and then turns to me. “But I’d like to talk to your partner. You haven’t said a word to me, Detective…”
“Shaw,” I finish for him. “Detective Shaw.”
“You look like you got a bit of evil in your eyes,” he chuckles, that same sick grin casting across his face as he looks me over. “I bet you understand.”
“The only thing I understand is that you’re one sick son of a bitch,” I sneer back at him, my irritation boiling over into rage. “It’s one thing to murder, and it’s a whole other thing to murder a fucking child.”
“Ah, well,” he sighs, his chains jingling under the table. “We all have our sins, I suppose. We all do horrible things in the darkness. Just some of us get caught. I’m sure yours are no worse than mine. All sins are the same—”
“Fuck you,” I spit back at him.
Parker’s knee connects with mine, and I already know he’s glaring at me. I’m fucking up the interview, I’m sure of it.
But I don’t give a shit. I abhor this man more than my own fucking mother.
“She’s just like me,” Richard keeps going, “And like you, I bet.”
“Who?” Parker grits out, giving me a warning look. “Liliana?”
I hate the name on my partner’s tongue suddenly, and the urge to come undone starts to simmer, boiling and building in my chest. I don’t understand it. I don’t understand my feelings toward Liliana. I thought I had rid myself of the obsession.
But I guess I had just suppressed it.
“My daughter is just like me,” Richard rolls his shoulders, his nonchalance like a blade to my nerves.
“She’s cut from the same cloth. She probably has the same sensual fantasies.
Why do you think she paints with blood? My guess is it turns her on.
” He breaks into a manic, insidious laugh, and before I can stop myself, my hand is wrapped around his goddamn throat.
“Who the fuck do you think you are?” I demand, choking off his supply of air. “You don’t even know her. You haven’t seen her in years.”
“Fuck. You.” He growls at me, spitting in my face.
Parker’s firm grip tries to tear me backward. “What the fuck, Shaw? What are you doing?”
But I can’t bring myself to loosen my grip.
I can’t bring myself to do anything other than squeeze a little tighter.
“Fuck!” Parker shouts, shoving at me.
I have no idea what’s come over me, but it’s too fucking powerful to stop, and as the light starts to fade from Longley’s eyes, my head starts to grow clear.
I want this fucker to die. Right here. Right now.
“Hey!” The sound of the corrections officers’ voices is distant, my eyes locked on Richard Longley’s beady little pupils.
Two of the men jerk me backward, shoving me down to the floor.
My head smacks the tile, and my vision turns to stars. I shut my eyes as Parker starts arguing with them. But all I see is the woman in the white mask on her knees sucking me off, taking my cock deep into her throat.
Fuck me, Little Killer. Fuck me so good.
My consciousness starts to fade in that moment, and in the memory, the woman suddenly looks up at me, her eyes just as piercing as Richard Longley’s were.
But it’s not him. It’s his little girl.
And I realize I’ll never fuck Liliana Wilson out of my system. I’ll just fucking project her onto every single woman I meet for the rest of my life.
And that is going to be hard to get used to.