by S J Sargent
The cut was fiercer than Alex intended. He watched blood take over his hoodie and hands as he dug deeper for a confessional. Alex retreated and examined the now-bloody box cutter. He had no idea it could do that kind of damage. Peter started to get pale and his stare slowly turned to a gaze.
“Peter.” Alex leaned in. Molly stayed back. “You need to shoot straight now. No sudden reaching. Just answers right now. Why were you at Christine’s apartment?”
As his face started to turn as white as the snow outside, Peter stared past Alex. . “Please. Let me show you what I found…” He reached in his locker and rummaged through a bag. Alex held up the box cutter again, but Peter didn’t stop. He pulled out a DVD and threw it on the floor in front of them.
The title spun until it stopped at Alex’s feet.
There it was.
The missing The Matrix DVD.
Amy’s final rental.
Molly jumped back and gasped. She covered her mouth with her hands and stared at the movie as if it were a poisonous snake in the middle of the breakroom floor. Alex did the same. What was the DVD doing back here in the breakroom? What was it doing in Peter’s locker?
Alex looked up at him, knife still clutched in front of him.
“Is this your confession, Peter? Is this your way of showing us that you killed Amy? And Christine? And Sofia?” Alex shook his head. “Why? At least tell us why before you…”
Peter’s face had officially lost its color. His dark complexion was no more. His breathing became irregular as he started to go into shock. Involuntary spasms overtook him. He looked around at the familiar room. Of all the places for his grand finale, Peter never imagined his life would end at Movie Madness. And at the hands of his closest friend.
That’s the power of paranoia.
It’s the same paranoia that caused him to follow Christine home just days before, worried that she was seeing someone else. Her standoffish personality led him to think that the wall was up because there might have been another guy. She was nice to him at work but always declined to see him outside of it. So he had to see for himself what she did after she clocked out. He had to know.
Peter had never been the type to follow someone home, but he’d also never felt this strongly about someone before Christine. He just didn’t know how to handle it. And his parents were worried that a girl would distract him from his career. But he couldn’t turn off the feelings. His anxious mind played tricks on him. Tricks that he had to investigate for himself. Seeing how friendly she had been with other customers that night had stirred him up, and he made the horrific judgment call of following her back to her apartment.
That is the power of love.
What Peter didn’t know was that he picked the worst night of her life to trail her. Naïve to what was about to happen to Christine, his heart was filled with genuine care and a strong sense of protection. That’s what led him there. Peter watched her park from across the complex and go up to her apartment by herself. He texted her for a bit, waiting to see if anyone was going to show up. When Peter realized there wasn’t another guy, he started to drive home.
What happened next was just ironic timing.
As he pulled out of the apartment complex that night, the real abductor had pulled in just minutes after him. They may have even driven past each other on the road. Not that Peter would have noticed. As he drove away from her home, he was just relieved that she was safe.
So he had thought.
“You stalked Christine,” Alex continued. “It went too far, though. She didn’t like you back so your love burned. Into hate. And if she wouldn’t be with you, you didn’t want her to be with anyone.” Alex looked at Molly, then back at Peter. “So you killed her. Then you killed Sofia because she knew. She knew that there was something between you and Christine, something that the rest of us didn’t know about because you hid it. And you knew Sofia was the one who could spoil the whole thing for you. She’d already begun to…”
Peter shook his head. “Please, Molly. Call an ambulance.”
Molly cringed at her even speaking to him. It felt like the dying masked murderer in a horror movie reaching through the screen to ask for help. She sobbed profusely as she watched the terrifying scene of one of her close friends slowly die right in front of her.
“Admit it, Peter,” Alex said through the dim flashlight glow. “So this town can finally go back to sanity. So that we can. Admit what you did. ”
Peter’s eyes barely had any life left in them. Molly had never seen someone die before, and it was far more terrifying than movies showed. She wanted to leave. But she also wanted to hear him confess. She needed it.
“Why are you doing this, Alex?” Peter took a long breath. Why did you do…all of this? What is causing you-”
With another swift, abrupt stab, Alex drove the box cutter into Peter again. This time, just under his heart. Peter’s eyes bulged out of his head. His mind drifted to his parents and what they’ll do when they eventually hear about everything.
What story were they going to be told?
What would be his legacy?
“Peter. Please. Just confess it.” Molly now screamed at him. “Admit what you did! So we can be done with it.” She buried her head in her sleeve and broke down. Alex slid back next to her, caressing her hand as they both watched him take his final breaths.
“The movie…” Peter squeezed out in a whisper. “It wasn’t in my locker.” Alex was ready to jolt forward with a third stab, but Molly held him back. Peter gagged. Then again. “It was Alex. It was in your locker. Alex. What are you hiding?”
Peter gagged one final time and breathed his last breath.
His head dangled down.
His lifeless stare rested on Molly.
With her hands shivering, she shook off Alex’s arms and stepped back from him. Her eyes glared at Alex, who said nothing. Stumbling to her feet, Molly yelled as she grabbed the door knob.
“Your locker? Your locker?”
Molly ran out of the break room and away from Alex. Peter’s final word’s repeated over and over in her head as she desperately sprinted away.
Alex. What are you hiding?
50
Bolin’s Theory
Tuesday, December 21 – 8:22 P.M.
Molly erupted out of the back door as she rushed towards the parking lot. No time to think. No time to process. No looking back. She needed to get back home where her parents could protect her.
As she rounded the corner to the front of the store, she was unknowingly met with a hasty arm grab from Detective Bolin.
“You’re okay,” he said. She collapsed into his arms, looking over her shoulder at the back door. Bolin promptly led her to his police car. She said nothing. “We need to get out of here as soon as possible. I’ll explain on the way.” Within thirty seconds, he was driving off with her in the passenger’s seat. Her heart racing at hyper speed, she looked back at Movie Madness as it slowly got smaller in the back windshield. All she could see was the backlight illuminating the back door. It stayed closed.
Bolin drove quicker than he should have in the snowy conditions. The only radio noise was a random collection of police transmissions that leaked through at different moments. Molly felt like she was dreaming. Just moments earlier she was sitting next to Alex. She felt safe with his protection.
Now she was driving away from him.
“Sorry, it took me longer than I thought,” Bolin finally said. He sipped his coffee as he squinted through the thickening snow hitting the windshield. “Car slid into a curb as I was coming around back to the video store after dropping Ken off with the deputies at the station. Almost screwed up the whole operation.” He force-laughed to try to lighten the mood. “It’s amazing how long two-point-four miles can take to drive in a blizzard, right?”
He finally looked over at Molly’s pale face. She hugged the passenger’s door, clutching the handle. She stared at Bolin like he was speaking Mandarin to her.
�
�We had another squad car go in right after me to bring Peter and Alex back into the station. I asked that I could drive you separately. For your protection. And to explain everything.” Bolin said.
“Did Peter catch you up yet?” She stared out the front window. “Molly, what did Peter tell you?”
As Molly replayed Peter’s final words in her head, it reminded her of an English lit paper she had to write about famous last words. A person’s final moment is when their true heart is revealed. When the thing that matters most to them surfaces to the top. Conspiracies have been debunked by someone’s final words. Love has been affirmed by finals words. Honest feelings are revealed through final words.
Because final words are never a lie.
“Molly.”
She shook her head.
“So, you didn’t know about the bait and the trap?”
Molly shook her head again.
“Okay. I’m sorry, Molly. It wasn’t supposed to go down like this. We made a whole plan with Peter that…just didn’t go like we thought. Peter was supposed to lure both of you in the store until we could…well, it doesn’t matter anymore. You’re safe now.”
You’re safe now.
Something Alex had told her countless times.
“Peter’s dead,” Molly finally said.
Bolin lamented in silence for a moment. He shook his head. “This whole thing…it’s a mess. We knew it was high risk. But we thought with you there, it would keep Alex in line. Peter knew it was high risk. But he was the one eager to do it.” Bolin looked over at Molly. “He volunteered to because he wanted to protect you.”
Molly wiped away a few fresh tears.
“I’m sorry, Molly. I’m sorry about all of this.”
“Can you…” Molly put her hands up to stop him. “Can you just start at the beginning? I have no idea what’s going on right now. And I’m really confused.”
Bolin smiled as he handed her a tissue. She blotted her eyes as he took a deep breath and began to explain.
“We were trying to bring in Alex.” He paused and looked over for her reaction. She kept a poker face. “I know he’s highly skeptical of me. And this department in general. He has not held back in telling me that. And telling me how little he trusts me to find the right suspect.” Bolin slowly pulled into the police station parking lot and parked the car.
“ So I had the idea of luring him with someone he did trust. Peter. In a place familiar with him. Movie Madness. Peter volunteered to be the bait and hook him in. It was either him or you, and I didn’t think you would ever do it. Because of how close you are to him. And how skeptical you’ve been of me.”
Molly put her hand over her mouth. Tears continued to stream down her face. Bolin knew it was hard, but had to continue.
“What I didn’t realize was that Peter actually did have something to show both of you inside. So, he changed the plan. He was originally just supposed to get you into the front of the store, entering from the back door. We were waiting inside. But he took you into the break room. What was he doing in there?”
Before she could respond, her phone rang.
It was Alex.
She looked up at Bolin who shook his head.
Ignored.
“Slow down,” she said. “Why were you trying to trap Alex? I thought you were going after Ken. Or, or Peter. Alex is the one that’s been helping solve the case. He was with me non-stop the past week. I just don’t get why he’s the one you’re…”
Bolin let out a long sigh, realizing how hard it was going to be to convince Molly. He could hear the romance in her voice.
“Why don’t we go inside and get a cup of coffee?”
The two went into the police station. Her unanswered question lingered in their air of the dark hallways as they made their way into Bolin’s office. He poured two cups and gave her the nice chair, while he slid into his office chair in front of her.
“It’s been a long week. So I’m just going to shoot straight with you, Molly. Alex has been lying to you. About everything. About who he is and what he has been doing when he is not with you.”
“That’s not possible.” Molly violently shook her head. “Alex is…the only one that’s…tried to find him. You would’ve never even known about Ken…or Pete-yeah, Ken, without Alex’s help. Alex has been doing your job.”
Bolin paused. “He really did a number on you.”
She shot him a quick look. Heated, like she always got when her parents asked her about her college options. “He’s the one that gave you the clues…”
“What clues exactly?” Bolin moved his head from side to side. “The one about the killer being a girl? That wasn’t a clue. That little detective work of his is what I like to call a Kansas City Shuffle. That’s what a con man uses to throw off his prey. Directs them the wrong way. He tells them to go left. Meanwhile, he goes right. He convinces everyone to look one direction. Meanwhile, he goes out and he kills Christine. He convinces everyone to chase after Ken. Meanwhile, he kills Sofia. He convinces you to not trust Peter. Meanwhile, he kills Peter right in front of your eyes.”
Molly stared out the window as she thought through past conversations. Unsettled by everything. Just as Alex had taught her, she played the hypothetical game and tried to piece together how Alex could be the killer. But she couldn’t get past the warmth and security that she felt with him. She couldn’t get past his protective nature. Nothing in him was violent. He had only served as a protector to the people around him.
He’d gone out of his way to protect her all week.
Her head was spinning. She didn’t even know what to ask. Bolin’s theories bounced right off of her as she wondered where Ken was being held at the moment.
“Where is Ken? Is he still a suspect?” she asked. Bolin ignored her diversion and continued on with his own theory.
“Molly, have you ever seen the movie Psycho?”
She looked at him with an offensive scowl. All types of triggers went off in her mind of the number of times Alex tried to get her to watch it with her. She finally shook her head.
“The movie was revolutionary in two ways. From a film perspective. But also from a crime perspective. The whole idea of the killer being right in front of you the whole time and you don’t realize it…well, spoiler alert, I guess.” He smiled. “It was so horrific for people to watch. Audiences couldn’t handle the fact that the nice person right in front of them was actually living a double life. Are you following?”
Molly took a sip of coffee to hide her real reaction.
He kept going. “When you trust someone, it makes it even harder to imagine them doing horrible things. That’s what a genius does. Not only do they get away with it right in front of you. But then after the fact, we don’t want to call them guilty. Why? Because we trusted them. They hid in plain sight. Right in front of us.”
Molly couldn’t stop her lip from quivering any longer. Bolin noticed. Like unlocking a hatch, all of the feelings flooded in her mind all at once. What if she had been on the run with the killer the whole time?
What if her love was based on a lie?
Molly’s phone buzzed. A text from Alex.
“Who is that?” Bolin asked.
“Just…my parents.” She opened it up.
“Where are you? I hope you don’t actually believe Peter’s lies. It was his last-ditch effort to clear his name. He’s dead. We are safe. I want to be with you.”
Molly closed her phone.
“Do you need to get that?”
Molly shook her head. “So then clarify a few things. If you want to convince me of your theory, give me the motives. What was Alex’s motive to kill Amy? Christine? Sofia? Peter? If you really think it was him, explain that.”
“We already had the surveillance videos that proved it was someone with a key that left the building. I suspected Jonathan. He had the strongest motive. Business spikes when people are scared. But his story checked out. The motive was there, but nothing else. Nothing else ti
ed him to it. And his timeline wouldn’t have matched up with Amy. Or Sofia. His name was clear. Even when Alex had stashed Christine’s body in his store to pin it on him, I could see through it pretty quickly.”
“Before Christine died, she told me it was a coworker. I don’t know why that’s all she said. Why she didn’t give me a name? Unless he was masked. Or she had been blindfolded or drugged or something along those lines. But she was confident in that. Which would leave Ken, Peter, Alex, and you.”
This made Molly shutter. He continued.
“So I started to think through motives. I started with Ken, naturally, because he came in and gave an empty confession. No basis to it. He was clearly drunk. His blood-alcohol level was higher than the legal limit for us to be able to even use his confession as evidence. And was so contradictory when he sobered up the next day, it made no sense.
Ken definitely had motive, though. Probably the strongest of everyone for Christine. But not for Amy. There was no connection between Amy and him. It just seemed too random. I did a ton of digging with my team. We couldn’t find anything that connected him to her at all.”
Bolin stood up to stretch his legs.
“Then there’s you. You were gentle and responsible. Not a disrupter. I could tell quickly that you were the stabilizer of the group.” Molly smiled, just so she could feel some relief. “And all the evidence cleared you quickly, too.”
Bolin took another long sip of coffee. Peter had made the most sense, at least it seemed. He really liked Christine a lot. He was at the scene of the crime. His anxious answers pointed to guilt. Over and over. But then the shot of the surveillance footage threw me off. If Peter were the killer, then who was in the glass? And what would Peter’s motive have been with Amy? That’s when I started to suspect Alex, which I hadn’t before because he was more adamant than any of us to figure this case out. That’s the exact opposite of what a suspect would typically do.” Bolin stopped himself, having an epiphany. “Or exactly what a suspect would do. Stay so close to the crime that they are overlooked. Put yourself right in the middle of the case so your innocence is assumed. Run ahead of the case and the evidence so you can push it in the wrong direction. Which is exactly what Alex has done.”