“No,” she snapped and hung up the phone. Fucking Hawk.
The phone rang again.
She glared at it. It was the same number. Oh, hell, was he going to simply keep calling until she picked up?
Groaning, she answered and accepted the stupid charges.
“Little bird,” said Hawk’s voice.
She gritted her teeth together and didn’t say anything.
“Are you there, Wren?”
She remained silent.
“I can hear you breathing,” said Hawk, vaguely amused. “Why’d you pick up the phone if you didn’t want to talk?”
She clenched a hand into a fist, digging her fingernails into her palm. She wasn’t going to speak to him.
“I was only calling to tell you that I forgive you,” he said.
“What?” The word burst out of her. She couldn’t believe he had the gall to say such a thing.
“You were confused, I think, little bird. I think you’ve been through a lot in your life, and I don’t think working for law enforcement has been good for you. I think it’s only served to reopen old wounds. I don’t think you fingered me maliciously. So, I forgive you. I forgive you for putting away in prison to rot, for getting me arrested for a crime I didn’t commit.”
She let out a guffaw. “You can’t be serious.” Hawk had refused to confess to anything, it was true, but he’d never declared his innocence so baldly.
“You always thought it was me. You remember when we were at your father’s wedding, and you got so upset because I was being nice to that little girl?”
“What do you want?” she said. “Why are you calling me?”
“It’d mean a lot to me if you’d tell me that you’d think it over is all. Maybe you could think over what you think happened, and you’d realize that you’re confused. And you retract your accusation about Karen Freeman.”
“Hawk, if you didn’t shoot Karen, who did?
“Terence. Don’t you remember?”
“Terence was bleeding out way up the path. He couldn’t even stand.”
“No,” said Hawk. “No, it wasn’t that way, Wren. Why are you intent on wanting me locked up, hmm? Surely you’ve punished me enough for breaking up with you.”
“Breaking up with…?” She shook her head. “You can’t just make up a story, Hawk.”
“Hey, I was upset about it, too. That’s why I went into the woods.”
“Oh,” she said, letting out a caustic laugh. “Sure. That’s why you went in the woods. And if you didn’t drug Jessica and Natalie, then who did? Was that also Terence?”
“They were delivered from a horrible situation, weren’t they, little bird? Why can’t you admit that I helped save them? Why do you have to make me into a villain? A man can reject you romantically and still be a good man, you know.”
She clenched her fist tighter. The hell of it was that his voice was so damned melodic and convincing, and after listening to him for a few minutes—here, all alone—she was starting to feel confused. It was hard to remember exactly what had happened. It had been such a long time ago.
She shouldn’t be talking to him.
She needed to hang up the phone.
“Little bird, don’t you remember how you used to see me?” he murmured.
She bit down on her bottom lip. Hang up, Wren, she ordered herself. Hang up, now.
“Try to remember,” he said. “Until then, I want you to understand that I bear you no ill will.” And it was him who hung up.
She lowered the phone from her ear and let out a whimper.
Fuck.
CHAPTER FOUR
“HEY,” said Reilly as Wren burst into his cabin. His living room was also a mess of boxes. “You want to call in something for delivery tonight? I’m not going to have any energy to cook.”
“I need to get my number removed from Hawk’s approved number list,” she said.
Reilly stood up, nostrils flaring. “He can still call you?”
“Yeah, I left it because it was still an active case, and I wanted information from him if he had it for me, but I don’t think it’s a good idea anymore.”
“What the hell did he say to you?”
“I’m sure it’s recorded. You can listen to the whole thing. I would bet even money his defense lawyers are going to pull it out as evidence.”
“Did he threaten you?”
“He said he forgave me for falsely accusing him of murder,” she sneered.
Reilly grimaced. “That fucking bastard.”
“You know what I can’t do right now?” she said. “I can’t deal with this.” She gestured around at the packed boxes. “Let’s just put all our stuff in storage and go to California.”
Reilly gave her a funny look. “What? California?”
“You heard Krieger. Couples. We’re a couple. I could use a damned case, couldn’t you?”
“That’s not even… we don’t even do that. We hunt serial killers, Wren.”
“Could be a serial killer,” she said. “Just because there’s no bodies doesn’t mean they’re not dead.”
“They’d never let us is all I’m saying.”
“Currently, they’re paying us to take phone calls,” she said. “We haven’t been sent out on a case in months, and that’s probably because of Hawk too. No one wants to touch us on the off chance we really did send a guy to jail for life because of a lover’s quarrel. I think the FBI probably wants us to go out and do something. They want to get their money’s worth out of us.”
“Well… that could be true.” Reilly rubbed his chin. “What about the thing with Cardinal Falls? We should get our new guy on the lab stuff.”
“Yeah,” she said. “I did go by to ask Trevon if he wanted it, but apparently, he called in to say he was taking a day because he got some communication about an apartment he needed to look at. So, he wasn’t even there. But there’s no bodies there, either, anyway, Cai.”
“True,” he said. “Even so, the date for Hawk’s appeal is looming. You want to miss that?”
“It’s written briefs,” she said. “Not even oral arguments. There’s nothing we can do. No reason for us to be there. Davis keeps saying we need to do nothing.”
“It is… distracting,” he muttered.
“That’s an understatement.” She clenched her hands into fists. “It’s driving me insane not being able to do anything about it.”
“Well, yeah, me too,” he said. “And I think Krieger would welcome the help.”
“Definitely,” she said. “It would be good for us. Change of scenery. Something to focus on. Something to do.”
“Right, right,” he nodded. “Yeah…” He grinned.
“I’m going to call Krieger.”
“Wait,” he said. “You really just want to put our stuff in storage?”
“Why not?” she said. “We can put this whole issue of buying a house on hold. It’s not as if there won’t be houses to buy when we get back.”
“Yeah, that’s true,” he said.
“And none of the houses have been perfect, or we would have been in agreement about them.”
“I’m cool with the deck house,” he said.
“I don’t want you to be cool with it. I want you to love it,” she said.
“You don’t love the deck house?”
“It’s fine,” she said. “But love it?” She shook her head.
Reilly rubbed his chin. “Going to California does sound appealing, I have to admit.”
“So, you’re with me?”
Reilly raised a finger. “Timmy. If I go to California, how do I see him?”
“You can fly back every other weekend,” she said. “Plus, we’re amazing, and I bet we have this tied up in less than a month.”
He snorted. “We’re usually amazing, true, but this is not even a serial killer case, and it’s on the other side of the country, and—”
“You traveled when we were investigating Slater, and it went fine.”
“It did,” he said. “But I had a house to come back to when I traveled, and now I’m going to have…?”
“We’ll get set up in some of the rooms at the FBI facility,” said Wren. “They’re nice, and they’re set up for agents to come and relax or whatever. They have conferences there and people stay in the rooms.”
“Yeah, that would work,” he said.
She grinned. “See, I have an answer for everything.”
He chuckled. “Yes, you do.”
“So, I’m going to Krieger?”
“I’m coming with you,” said Reilly.
“ARE you guys serious?” Krieger said. He was standing in the doorway to the room where he was staying at the facility. “You really want to do this?”
“You’d let us, then?” said Wren.
“Yeah, it would be perfect,” said Krieger. “You’re a couple, so that’ll get you in places I can’t get.”
“That’s what we were thinking,” said Reilly. “And we could use something to do. We think it’ll be good for all of us.”
“This is great,” said Krieger. “I really can’t thank you enough.”
“Do you think the higher-ups will go for it?” said Wren.
“I will make them go for it,” said Krieger, laughing. “I’m going to call right now and lay it out for them. I’ll be in touch, okay?”
“Great,” said Wren.
“Great,” said Reilly.
CHAPTER FIVE
MALIAH Wright poked her head out of her office to see Delacroix and Reilly walking down the hall, chattering and laughing, both looking animated. That was odd. She hadn’t seen them this happy since the last time they’d had a case. She cleared her throat. “Do we have a body or something?”
They both turned to look at her.
“Nothing makes you guys as happy as a body,” she said wryly.
Reilly snorted. “That’s not fair. Take it back.”
She leaned up against the door frame, folding her arms over her chest and raising her eyebrows. It was a fine line that she rode when she was teasing, but she thought she did it well. Too far to one side and it would sound like she was flirting, which she couldn’t be doing, not considering her history with Reilly. Too far to the other side, and it sounded like she was bitter, which she also couldn’t have.
She wasn’t interested in Reilly anymore, and she wasn’t bitter. She thought that Delacroix probably suited Reilly better than she ever had, and the two of them seemed in sync in a way that was frankly a bit disturbing. What couple could work together and live together and still be so ridiculously conflict free? The two of them were freaks of nature and they deserved each other.
Maliah liked being single, she’d discovered.
Men were work. Not just in the sense of having to pick up after their asses (Because men were slobs. It must be in their DNA. She’d heard rumors of neat men, but she’d yet to meet one.) But also in the sense that they were emotionally draining. Men were so freaking needy all the time. They needed their girlfriends or wives to be “supportive,” whatever the hell that meant. In Maliah’s experience, what men mostly wanted was a woman who’s life revolved around them. Anytime that was off, they turned into whiny babies.
Anyway, she was done with all of it, and she’d never felt more free or happy.
And, okay, maybe she was bitter about men, and maybe she was projecting her issues with her ex-husband—there was a reason she’d cheated on the bastard, after all—but regardless, being single was amazing.
“We’re going to California,” said Delacroix.
“What?” said Maliah. “What’s in California?”
“A case,” said Reilly.
“Oh,” said Maliah. “I guess I’m staying here?”
“Well, we’re going to physically infiltrate the place,” said Reilly. “I don’t think we’ll need you to be there, but we might call and ask you to help out other ways.”
“Right,” she said, “I’ll just sit around and wait for you to call me and tell me to drop everything and hack whatever it is you want me to hack. Got it.” She pushed off the doorway and started back into her office.
“Hey,” said Delacroix. “Are you all right?”
Maliah turned back around. “Well, since you asked, I’m bored to tears. I used to think that being paid to do nothing would be a really amazing experience, but it turns out—not so much. Why can’t I come on your case?”
“Well… it’s not really our case,” said Reilly. “We just kind of wormed our way in on it.”
“Ah,” said Maliah. “So, you guys get to escape boredom, and you leave me here with the kid.”
“Who’s the kid?” said Reilly, furrowing his brow.
“She means Trevon,” said Delacroix. “But he’s not here today again either.”
“More apartment hunting stuff?” said Reilly.
“I think so,” said Wren.
“So, he starts a job and immediately asks for time off?” said Reilly. “These Gen Z-ers. Lazy and entitled.”
“I thought that was us Millennials,” said Maliah.
“I think I’m Gen Z,” said Wren.
“No, you’re not,” said Reilly. “I looked into this, and you have to be born after 1997. You’re a Millennial like the rest of us. Now own up to it and eat some avocado toast.”
“Eww,” said Wren. “Way to make me think of Phineas Slater and give me the creeps.” She shuddered.
Maliah looked the both of them over. “Are you two just running away from stuff here?”
“No,” said Delacroix.
“No,” said Reilly.
“Because I know you were talking about being stressed about house hunting, and there’s the stuff with Hawk Marner, and—”
“No,” said Delacroix. “We’re not running away from our problems.”
“Not even close,” said Reilly.
Maliah snorted. “Sure. Well, have fun, you two.” She shut the door to her office on the both of them.
Maybe she was being too hard on them. It really wasn’t their fault that Hawk had done a smear campaign on them and that departments across the country didn’t want to be associated with them. She knew they wanted to be working as much as she did.
The rest of the day dragged on.
When it was finally time to call it quits, she decided to go to Billy’s after work for a drink. She could stand the distraction.
When she got there, she was surprised to see Trevon Aronsen sitting at the bar, nursing a drink. He was wearing a pair of dark glasses, and he didn’t look very approachable, but… well, what the hell? He’d called off work for two days in a row, and now he was at a bar, so maybe he had something to hide.
She sat down next to him and put her purse up on the bar.
He started. “Oh, it’s you. Ms. Wright.”
“You can call me Maliah,” she said. “You going to be at work tomorrow?”
He rubbed his forehead. “What? You think I begged for a job here and that now I’m trying to get out of it? Playing hooky?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Is that not what you’re doing?”
He sighed, and he took off his glasses.
Ooh. That boy’s face was a mess. She cringed.
“I’d tell you that you should see the other guy, but I don’t think I even managed to land a punch.”
“You got in a fight? This is why you called off work?”
He scratched the side of his neck. “Yes?”
“Are you asking me or telling me?”
“Well, I don’t know if you were in the room when I was joking about injecting some drama into the team, but…” His shoulders slumped. “Well, I meant it as a joke, but apparently, it’s not.”
“Who did you get in a fight with?”
At this point, the bartender Judy came over and set a hard cider in front of Maliah. It was her go-to drink. Maliah slid across her card to open a tab, smiling. Judy nodded. Maliah nodded. It had all been wordless.
“Uh, an abusive bas
tard dickwad?” said Trevon.
She raised her eyebrows. “You’re not sure about that either?”
He had a beer, and he took a drink of it, looking dejected. “I may have lied a little bit about why I wanted this job.”
“Really?” She took a drink of her beer, shaking her head at him. “How old are you?”
“Twenty-five,” said Trevon. “Delacroix isn’t that much older than me, you know? I look young, but I’m not that young.”
She shook her head at him, making a mmm-mmm noise under her breath. “Fine, fine. Go on then. Why did you really want this job?”
“There’s this girl,” said Trevon.
“Of course there is.”
“No, not like that,” said Trevon. “She’s just a friend. I’m not a super, um… I don’t know… I might be aromantic? Probably on the spectrum, although I’ve always been too high-functioning to be diagnosed. But, you know, all that interpersonal, relationship stuff…” He shuddered. “Yeah, not for me.”
“Okay,” said Maliah slowly. “I’m not sure I understand half of what you said, but let’s not get derailed. The girl who’s your friend? What’s she got to do with this?”
“Well, we were roommates back in D.C. and then she met this guy. The, uh, the abusive bastard dickwad.”
“So, let me get this straight. This is all about a girl that you’re not interested in other than a friend, but you’re jealous of her boyfriend.”
“No, not jealous.” He shook his head. “No, no, that’s not it. Okay, so she meets this guy, and immediately, she stops sleeping at the apartment, and she’s always with him. Which… whatever. I mean, I didn’t like it because it was a change, and I’m not crazy about things changing? But it was fine. Except that one night, she decided to sleep at home because she had an early shift at work, and she needed to get up early, and our apartment was closer to her job. And the whole night, he’s just texting her constantly.”
“What an abusive bastard thing for him to do,” said Maliah dryly.
“No, you don’t understand.” He laughed, shaking his head. “I’m talking constantly. Every-thirty-seconds constantly. And I ignored it for a while, but then I asked her what he was saying, and she didn’t want to tell me. She, like, could tell that it was weird and abnormal, and she wanted to hide it. But she let me see her phone, and… it was textbook, man. He was losing his mind because she wasn’t there, under his control, or whatever. At first, he was trying to be sweet about it and normalish, and then it became really weird, like he was saying that he was feeling suicidal, and then begging her, and then straight-up ordering her to go over to his house.”
Sky Like Bone: a serial killer thriller Page 4