Page 52 of Imprisoned

I check the timestamp on my last session with Axel again. The murders happened between three and five p.m. He was with me, but if these tunnels are still accessible...

Someone knocks at my door, and I quickly close the files, my heart in my throat.

"Willow?" Eleanor's voice makes me jump. I quickly minimize the browser window as she steps into my office. "Do you have a moment?"

Her usual warm smile is replaced with concern. "I noticed you've been keeping longer sessions with Morrison daily. Did you run over two hours yesterday?"

I straighten in my chair. "As I stated, he's making progress and opening up about his childhood trauma. I sense I'm on the cusp of a breakthrough."

"The guards found two bodies in Block C." Eleanor perches on the edge of my desk. "They match Axel's signature perfectly."

"That's impossible." The words burst out before I can stop them.

Eleanor's eyebrows raise. "Oh?"

I take a steadying breath. "I had a session with Axel yesterday between three and five. He couldn't have done it."

"Are you certain about the time?"

"Absolutely." I pull up my appointment calendar. "See? We started at five past three."

Eleanor frowns at the screen. "The guards will want to verify this. They're convinced it's him. They'll need your session recordings and the security footage."

My pulse quickens. The recordings. The footage would reveal everything.

"The recording system has been glitching," I say, keeping my voice professional. "I've been using my personal recorder as a backup." A lie, but I'm already formulating a plan—I can create a doctored audio file tonight, which sounds like a legitimate therapy session. "And Martinez was on duty. He can confirm Axel was with me the entire time."

Martinez. I'll need to find him immediately after this, offer him more money to corroborate my story and ask him to help me with the security footage. He's already compromised, but he'll help me again for the right price.

"Eleanor, what if someone's copying his method? Setting him up?" I keep my voice steady despite my racing heart. "Thesemurders are too perfect, too exact. Like someone studied his case files."

She considers this, sitting and tapping her fingers on my desk. "You might have a point. But why would someone want to frame Axel?"

I think of the tunnel system, of escape routes and possibilities. "I don't know," I lie, "but he has an alibi with me. He couldn't have been in two places at once."

Eleanor's scrutiny makes my skin crawl. I shift in my chair, the plug a constant reminder of my compromised position.

"I'll need your session notes," she says. "The police will want to verify everything."

My throat tightens. The session notes. Where my notes are considerably briefer than the length of the session entails since half of it I spend with him deep inside me?—

"Of course." I pull open my drawer, rifling through files. "I'll have them ready by the end of the day."

"Now, Willow." Eleanor's tone is harder. "They need them now."

"I haven't finished typing them up." The lie tastes bitter. "They're still in shorthand."

"That's fine. Give me what you have."

My jaw clenches as I pull out my notebook. I'd written notes during the first fifteen minutes before everything spiraled into... something else. Would it be enough?

"You seem nervous," Eleanor observes.

"I just..." I swallow hard. "I want to make sure I'm thorough. These notes could clear him."

Eleanor stands. "The police will want this information to check the security footage and will be speaking with everyone who had contact with Morrison in the past twenty-four hours. They'll want to speak with you, too. I will go and let them know he was with you during the estimated time of the murders."

Ice spreads through my veins. An interview. Questions. How long will I be able to maintain this facade?

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