Reluctant Suspicion

by Finn, Scarlett

  ‘Ok,’ he said, her thoughts mirrored those of his own.

  Lowering the phone from his ear, he slipped it back into its cradle, and stared down at it. Whistling shakes crept across his shoulders. Something wasn’t right. He had built his career on his hunches. He had one now, but this one wasn’t good. He grabbed his jacket from the back of his chair and began to head out, determined to track her down. He couldn’t leave her on the street. Not today.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Molly had gotten out of her home in one piece without any sign of Harry. She caught a cab into the city, then wandered around perusing stores and keeping her head down in the streets. She knew what Harry was like, just as he knew what she was like. He would know that it was her plan to leave as soon as he was off the phone. She didn’t want to risk looking around too much, for fear that he would drive past and catch her unaware.

  Tingling on her hip alerted her to her phone ringing. She threw open her bag and dug in it for her handset. When she found it, the name on the screen made her frown.

  ‘Belinda?’ she asked.

  ‘It’s Melissa,’ she said. ‘They took her in. Blake showed up here today with some guy. They said they wanted to take Belinda in for questioning. I didn’t even know he was a cop… What’s going on Molly? Why have they got my sister? Why did the cops take her in for questioning?’

  ‘Calm down,’ she said. The panic in Melissa’s voice was very apparent and was heightened by the whistling wind deafening the line. Melissa wasn’t uptight under normal circumstances, but Molly could understand why her sister being carted off by the police would be unnerving. ‘It’s ok, it’s just routine. They need information about things, that’s all.’

  ‘Information? What kind of information? Belinda won’t know anything. How could she possibly know anything?’

  Something else lingered in Melissa’s voice that made Molly stop and frown. ‘Are you ok, Melissa? You sound… scared.’

  ‘I’m fine, but… can you meet me?’

  ‘I’m on my way to Cupid’s,’ Molly said. ‘I’m just two minutes away, can we meet later?’

  ‘No!’ Melissa said. ‘I’m not far from there. Can I meet you outside?’

  ‘Sure,’ Molly said. ‘Are you ok?’

  ‘I’m ok,’ she said. ‘But we need to talk.’

  The line went dead, so Molly drew the phone from her ear and continued her walk toward Cupid’s. Glancing at her watch, she realised that she’d be a good twenty minutes earlier than Blake. Ideally, she would call him and let him know what was going on, but after searching in her purse she didn’t find the scrap of paper with his phone number on it, which meant she’d left it in her other purse.

  Dropping her phone back in to her purse, she told herself that it didn’t matter. The extra time meant she could talk to Melissa about what was bothering her. If Blake arrived while Melissa was still here he could either join them, or he could sit nearby and give them privacy; he wouldn’t mind.

  Turning the last corner towards Cupid’s, she saw that Melissa was already outside. Her small form paced back and forth in front of the window, wringing her hands. Molly quickened her pace and reached out to touch Melissa’s shoulder.

  Melissa pounced away and whipped around, revealing dinner plate wide eyes. ‘Melissa?’ Molly said. ‘What’s wrong?’

  ‘We have to walk,’ Melissa said. Snatching Molly’s arm, she pulled her down a side alley, away from the bustle of the street. ‘Can I borrow your phone? My battery died.’

  ‘Sure,’ Molly said, Melissa didn’t turn around, she just reached back to fumble for the device.

  ‘Thanks,’ Melissa said, but she only held it, she didn’t use it.

  ‘What is it? Where are we going? Why are you so tense?’

  ‘Here!’ Melissa said.

  They broke out the other end of the alleyway into an equally bustling street. Melissa didn’t falter. She dragged her to a cab parked at the side of the road, and pushed Molly into the backseat before she got in herself.

  ‘What is going on?’ Molly asked.

  ‘Baxter Hill,’ Melissa said.

  The taxi started to move and Melissa slid as far down in the seat as she could, then covered her face with her hands and took in long, shaking breaths.

  ‘What is going on?’ Molly asked.

  ‘You’re in danger, Molly,’ she said, and turned her head in her hands. ‘We both are.’

  ‘From who? Why? What do you mean?’

  ‘She’s angry,’ Melissa said. ‘You’ve ruined all her plans.’

  ‘Who?’

  Melissa bit her bottom lip. ‘Choker,’ she whispered.

  Molly couldn’t believe the words coming from the mouth of the quietest woman she had ever known. How could Melissa possibly know who Choker was? How could she possible have anything to do with such a callous killer?

  ‘How do you know that?’ Molly demanded.

  Molly saw Melissa’s lips squeeze together and her eyes brim with water. ‘It was never supposed to be like this. She promised it wouldn’t be like this. She’s out of control and I… I don’t know how to control it.’

  ‘Control what?’

  ‘Her,’ Melissa said. ‘She is so angry… I can’t stop her anymore.’

  ‘You knew? You knew who she was all this time? You knew she killed them? You let her?’

  ‘It wasn’t like that,’ Melissa said. ‘But now they have Belinda in the police station, and if they hurt her… if they suspect her… This is all my fault!’

  Her head fell into her hands again. Ignoring her increasing anger, Molly took Melissa’s hand to try and lower it from her face. ‘Tell me what happened… from the beginning.’

  Melissa sucked in a breath. ‘They left town when she was a kid, but… they fell apart. The whole family fell apart and… she blames you… she says it is your fault.’

  ‘Who? Why?’ Molly asked. ‘How did you get involved?’

  ‘I didn’t,’ Melissa said. ‘It was an accident. We were talking and I said… some things… I was drunk and… I always felt left out by you and Belinda.’

  ‘What?’ Molly snapped. ‘Men are dying because we didn’t play with you enough as kids?’

  ‘No!’ Melissa said. ‘No! That’s not it. I didn’t know who she was. I thought she was my friend. Then she gave me this speech. She told me that if we let people walk all over us all our lives, then we will never be happy. She said we were going to teach you a lesson.’

  ‘Oh well, that’s alright then,’ Molly said with inappropriate sarcasm, but it was all she could reach for to hide the anger, at least some. ‘Great lesson, well learned. Play with all kids equally or risk every man you’ve ever known being murdered!’

  ‘I didn’t know they were going to die. She said that Belinda had always overlooked me. Our parents had too. She spoke to me like she understood. She wanted to help. She said she could help make me happy.’

  ‘By killing people?’

  ‘No,’ Melissa said. ‘I was jealous and I got sucked in. I thought we would maybe start a rumour or maybe set you up with an asshole. Show you that life isn’t perfect.’

  ‘You think my life is perfect?’ she snapped.

  ‘Your family loved you,’ Melissa said. ‘I’m sorry that you lost them, but at least you knew how they felt. My family despised me! Everything I did was secondary to Belinda. I was invisible for most of my life.’

  ‘Isn’t that your issue with your sister?’ Molly said. ‘Why did people have to die?’

  ‘The only person that Belinda loved more than herself was you. You were perfect to her. You were the sister that she always wanted.’

  ‘I’m sorry you had problems, but everyone has problems… You said that you didn’t know they were going to die?’

  ‘No,’ Belinda shook her head. ‘I had no idea. She told me that Andrew was back in town. I didn’t even know that she knew him. She said that I should see him, that I should get in touch with him and see if he wanted to meet.�
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  ‘And he did,’ Molly said, and slumped back in her seat.

  ‘I thought we were just going to try and make you jealous. I met him and we went for a drive. We ended up back at his place. I did everything she told me to. My phone rang when I was in his apartment, and I told him my friend needed to see me for something. She came over to join us and stayed for a drink. I didn’t think anything of it. I knew she was going to seduce him, but I thought that was it.’

  ‘You didn’t kill them?’

  ‘No,’ Melissa said, and swallowed her discomfort. ‘I said goodnight not long after she arrived. I said I was tired and had called a cab. When Andrew looked out the window the cab was already there waiting.’

  ‘You left them alone, and she killed them. When did you know?’

  ‘Paddy happened the following night. I told him my car had broken down and I’d called a cab, but I was near his work so I wondered if he’d wait with me. We knew it was the end of his shift and he’d be walking home as he always did. We went back to his place in the cab.’

  ‘When did you find out what she did to them?’

  ‘In the papers,’ she said. ‘With everyone else.’

  ‘And it took her six weeks to convince you to do it again,’ Molly said. ‘They trusted you!’

  ‘I know.’

  ‘And you just disappeared in a cab, but there were no taxi records of people arriving at or leaving the scenes, the cops checked,’ Molly said. Melissa had said that there was a cab outside Andrew’s when he looked, but she didn’t say that there was anyone in it.

  ‘No there weren’t,’ Melissa said.

  ‘A taxi,’ Molly muttered, and examined the car that they were in. ‘She used their trust in you… Shit.’

  ‘Melissa did not turn out to be the protégé that I thought she would,’ a voice drawled from the driver’s seat. ‘What did you do with her phone?’

  No one noticed the identity or features of a cab driver when they were distracted by the passenger with them in the backseat, just as Molly was, and the men must have been. Except now Molly looked. The driver was wearing a beanie hat that covered all of her hair and a black turtleneck, but there was no mistaking that she was a woman. Leaping toward the door, Molly yanked at the release, but it didn’t budge. She tried to roll down the window, but saw that it was glued shut.

  ‘I dropped it in the gutter before I got into the cab… I’m sorry, Molly,’ Melissa said, taking a silk scarf from her purse.

  ‘Melissa, you don’t have to do this,’ Molly said.

  ‘Oh, but she does,’ Choker said. ‘You see, right now all of the evidence required for a conviction for my work is in Belinda’s bedroom, stashed in a box under a cabinet that Belinda never uses. Melissa knows it’s there, and I know it’s there. Now you do, too. Melissa knows how this has to end.’

  ‘How?’ Molly snapped. Melissa took her wrists and began to bind them together.

  ‘If Melissa doesn’t get to that box before the police do… Belinda will be prosecuted for the murders of six men and the fire at your beloved bar.’

  Molly lowered her gaze to the scarf that cut deep into her wrists, but the pain vanished as she processed the words. ‘Six… six men?’

  ‘Yes,’ the disgusting joy in Choker’s voice churned bile in Molly’s stomach. ‘I expanded my portfolio last night.’

  Molly stopped breathing. Her eyes darted to Melissa, who averted her tear-stricken gaze all too quickly. ‘I’ve spoken to Harry today,’ she breathed. ‘Joel went home with Vanessa… Oh my God…’ Her body collapsed back against the seat and then crumpled in two. Her stomach cramped, and she wanted to scream with the agony that consumed her.

  ‘Ironic isn’t it… he wanted to be with you so badly, and you had your chance. If you had reciprocated his feelings, or at least been selfless enough to allow him one night with you, he would still be alive.’

  ‘You bitch!’ Molly screamed.

  Springing forward, she hooked her now-tied arms around Choker’s neck and pulled with all of her might, digging her feet into the back of the driver’s seat. The car swerved all over the road. Melissa shrieked and tried to pull Molly away.

  ‘Don’t!’ Melissa screamed. ‘Please!’

  Melissa wrestled Molly’s arms from Choker and struggled to tie another scarf to Molly’s waist, she then tied her hands to her waist. Molly struggled as much as she could, but the overwhelming pain of the loss weakened her.

  Choker coughed, but it quickly turned into a laugh. ‘Thrilling what my subjects go through… I had no idea it caused such a rush.’

  ‘You bitch! How can you sit there so callously disregarding life?’ Molly barked.

  ‘You disregarded mine… your mother disregarded mine. Those men died because of you. It is your fault, not mine!’

  ‘Me?’ Molly argued. ‘I don’t seem to remember killing anyone.’

  ‘Really?’ Choker said. ‘If it hadn’t been for your new bit of stuff… you would have stayed with Mason last night. Wouldn’t you? But while you were upstairs having the time of your life we were below, contemplating existence… It’s funny… I would almost swear he knew exactly who I was… He didn’t say it, but… there was less fight in him than the others.

  ‘I always thought he would be the hardest nut to crack. As it turned out, all he needed was a rejection from you, and boom! There was the death wish I needed.’

  ‘How can you do this?’ Molly shrieked at Melissa. ‘How can you just sit there?’

  ‘She needs to help her sister!’ Choker snapped.

  ‘She’ll kill you anyway… don’t you get it? If you get to that box, then all the evidence will point at her. She’s not going to incriminate herself. She wants them to think it was Belinda!’

  Melissa began to shake her head. ‘She won’t incriminate herself.’

  ‘Yes,’ Choker said. ‘Not all of us can walk out of this alive… Once the work is done, someone must be sacrificed.’

  ‘You want them to think it was me?’ Molly scoffed. ‘They have already eliminated me.’

  ‘Because you seduced the lead detective,’ Choker said. ‘He can’t refute it if the evidence is laid out in front of him.’

  ‘I was with him last night and last Saturday when you killed Joseph. He knows it wasn’t me.’

  ‘Joseph was clumsy, we assumed you were alone. We had seen Blake leave before we jumped to action. Of course we had no idea he was a police officer then.’

  ‘He’s a detective,’ Molly snarled.

  ‘And it was very wise of you to seduce him. Of course, when you don’t go home tonight… or tomorrow… he’ll be just as inconsolable as Mason was last night. Once again, you will deliver us a prime candidate.’

  ‘You think that Blake would sleep with you?’ Molly said with a condescending amusement in her voice. ‘He might be heartbroken, but he won’t be desperate.’

  ‘Mason was desperate enough. So were Alex and the others. Men are very simple creatures. They are very easily persuaded.’

  ‘I was with Blake last night,’ Molly said. ‘I couldn’t have done anything to Mason.’

  ‘Oh contraire,’ Choker said. ‘You were alone with Mason for almost an hour before you found your detective. My work doesn’t take that amount of time.’

  ‘Why?’ Molly breathed. ‘Why would you do this?’

  ‘Because you deserve to know how it feels. You need to be taught how it feels to deal with devastation. What it is to know that you are the cause of so many people’s pain.’

  ‘I didn’t cause you any pain… Why on earth would you be doing this?’

  ‘Pain!’ Choker barked. ‘You have no idea the pain you have caused me. You and your disgusting slut of a mother devastated our lives and ripped my family apart… I only wish I had succeeded in killing you ten years ago.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘I have to admit, witnessing your father’s demise and your own torture had its satisfaction… but your brother took your place. His death showed me what
it was to you to witness the pain of those around you. It was then I knew what I had to do.’

  ‘You,’ Molly breathed. ‘You caused the accident.’

  ‘My brother,’ she said. ‘He drove the car that hit your brother’s.’

  ‘But… Blake was looking for him. He was investigating—‘

  ‘He would find it very difficult to find me,’ she said. ‘My brother tragically died of a drug overdose only two years ago, and me… who I was then doesn’t even exist anymore, on paper at least.’

  ‘You are an animal,’ Molly snarled.

  ‘No!’ she snapped. ‘Your mother seduced my father and killed my mother… you live as the only evidence of their sordid union! You are the reason my mother couldn’t live anymore! You are the reason she threw herself from that bridge… Your mother and you, her bastard offspring!’

  ‘No,’ Molly said. ‘None of those stories were true!’

  ‘Why did my mother kill herself, then?’ Choker barked. ‘Why did your father drown himself in that foul alcoholic mist? Your father wasn’t your father! You’re just lucky he took you in after your mother’s death. Her comeuppance came to her quickly, quicker than she deserved. She should have known the torture she caused our family. She drove us from the only life we had ever known and caused my mother’s death.’

  ‘Your mother was obviously unhinged,’ Molly said. ‘It’s no leap, all you have to do is look in the mirror to know that.’

  ‘No!’ Choker asserted. ‘No! You are wrong! You know nothing of the truth! Nothing of the agony you have caused everyone I have ever cared about! Melissa!’

  Melissa’s apologetic expression met Molly’s, and another scarf materialised. She wound it around Molly’s head and tied it in her mouth. Another was produced to cover her eyes. It was tied so tight that her head began to ache almost immediately, and red light was all she could see flashing before her vision.

  ‘Everything is going to plan,’ Choker said. ‘We will be there soon, and all of this will be as it should always have been.’

  Molly couldn’t believe the situation she found herself in. She was travelling along in a car with a woman she had known for most of her adult life and a crazed criminal. She could only hope that Blake had reached the restaurant on time. She could only hope that he knew something was wrong.