Page 34 of Unholy Bonds

The detective’s phone rang, and he answered. When he hung up, he gave me a smile.

“Doctor, we found the owner of the storage unit. Millicent Wark. Could it be our MW? Guess who also owns a silver Tesla?” The detective rubbed his hands together, looking excited. “Myers is getting a search warrant for Millicent Wark’s car and house as we speak. I hope we find something.”

“That’s great.” Amy and I smiled.

“I’m going back to the station.” The Detective walked away, leaving me with Amy.

“This looks personal,” Amy said, studying the body, her face pale. “I just can’t get used to it even after all this time.”

“It is personal,” I said. “If you get used to this, you’ll become like them,” I said with a shrug, and Amy nodded.

“You’re right.”

“If you find anything else, let me know,” I said, turning to the dead man, my eyes burning in satisfaction. Amy walked out with a goodbye.

It gave me so much happiness to see him like that, to see that I was the one who had to talk for him. I scoffed, pulling my latex gloves off and throwing them into the biohazard waste bin.

I often used the waste bins at work to throw away the gloves I used during my kill. It was a bit outrageous and brave, but this was the easiest way. I often dealt with blood, and no one would look twice.

“Don’t worry, Victor. Detective Rosario is good; he’ll find your blood in Millicent’s kitchen sink and the knife in the neighbor’s backyard. Adieu, then.”

15

BREADCRUMBS

RYDEN

The lifeless body of a man in his late twenties was discovered in a storage unit in Charleston. The victim was identified as Victor Bane. Victor worked in The Mirage, an underground club notorious for illegal gambling.

Detective Rosario apprehended Ms. Wark, a party girl who was also an alleged madam for the murder of Victor Bane.

“We believe it was a sexual encounter gone awry. Millicent and Victor were known associates, and further investigation revealed they were having sexual relations,” said Detective Rosario, the lead detective on the case.

When asked about the case, the DA was confident that it was open and shut due to the amount of evidence, despite the continued absence of the murder weapon. Detective Rosario remained tight-lipped when asked about the murder weapon, replying that they were still pursuing leads and that he had no further comment.

“Bullshit.”

I still couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that Victor was gone. I had failed in my promise to my mother and my stepfather.

Gritting my teeth, I read the words again, and it still didn’t soften the anger. It had been a few days since Victor’s death, and there were stories and speculations, and the killer was arrested two days ago.

It was, once again, a fucked-up lie.

The killer didn’t do it in a fit of anger, even though everything suggested otherwise. No. I could taste the threads of deception in every piece of neatly planted evidence.

Anyone with a semblance of a brain would know these clues were too meticulously placed to be real. Each breadcrumb seemed to lead straight to Millicent. Only stories had such tidy resolutions.

Even though I was angry, I had to admit it was a stroke of genius.

As someone who had done it before, I could identify the cunning behind these puzzles. The detective wouldn’t see beyond the obvious. I knew the mind of another killer. The one who killed Victor wasn’t new to this.

“Here,” Enzo slid a cup of coffee to me. “And stop reading that.”

“I can’t.”

Victor wasn’t necessarily a good man or an easy man to be around, but… he was still my brother.

“What are we going to do?”

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