Page 90 of He Sees You
Of course, we do. It couldn't be this simple, this clean.
"Detective Morrison isn't convinced Jake was the serial killer. He's been digging into timelines, patterns. He knows at least three of the murders happened when Jake was on duty elsewhere."
"That's circumstantial?—"
"He also has a witness who saw you near the Mitchell farm the night Patricia Morse died." She pulls out a photograph from the folder. It's definitely me, definitely that night. "Traffic camera from the gas station two miles away. You're usually more careful."
I study the image.
One mistake in five years, and now it might unravel everything.
The timestamp is clear, the license plate visible.
Patricia Morse died within an hour of this photo being taken.
"There's more," Juliette says. "Morrison isn't just a good cop playing by the rules. I did some digging of my own. He's been taking bribes from a trafficking ring operating out of Albany. They use rural properties as waypoints, moving girls through small towns where no one asks questions."
"How do you know this?"
"Because one of my authors escaped from them three years ago. She recognized Morrison when he appeared on the news about Jake's death. He was one of the men who 'sampled the goods' before they were moved on."
The temperature in the room seems to drop.
Another predator, this one with a badge and state authority.
"He's been building a case against you for days," Juliette continues, spreading more papers on my desk. "Interview transcripts, timeline analysis, psychological profiles. He's good, thorough. He plans to arrest you tomorrow night."
"Unless we stop him first," Celeste says quietly.
We both turn to look at her.
She's standing by my desk, holding something I didn't realize she'd found.
My adoptive mother’s engagement ring, pulled from the hidden drawer where I've kept it for twenty years.
"This was hers, wasn't it?" She holds the ring up to the light.
Two carats, emerald cut, surrounded by smaller diamonds.
Worth more than most people's cars.
"You kept it."
"Yes."
"Why?"
I take the ring from her, feeling its familiar weight. "The night I killed them, she was wearing it. Even as she clawed at the windows, as she gasped for air, that ring caught the moonlight. It was the only beautiful thing in that room of monsters."
"But why keep it?"
"Because something this beautiful shouldn't be tainted by someone so ugly. Because I knew someday I'd meet someone who deserved it. Because every time I looked at it, I remembered that even monsters can own beautiful things, they just can't make them beautiful."
"Were you planning to give it to me?"
"Eventually. When the time was right."
Celeste laughs, dark and amused. "The time was right the moment you left that first feather on my windowsill."
