Alek

Chapter 32: Mae Kazimi

Chapter 32: Mae Kazimi

I find Alek leaning against one of the rooms downstairs in the basement, keys in his hands and arms on his knees. His gaze is vacant and his breathing is shallow and I can tell he has not slept all night from the bags under his eyes.

"You took long," he says quietly. "I waited here for you all night."

I swallow, wincing at the pain in his voice, "I got sidetracked."

Don't you dare say sorry, Mae. Don't you say sorry.

"Sorry," I add lamely, taking the keys from his fingertips and flipping them in the air. "How do you want to do this?"

He finally looks up at me from where he sits, the corner of his eyes red, "You talk to her."

"You....you want me to talk to her?"

"Yes."

"But..." I frown, looking back and forth between the keys and his face. "You trust me to find out who killed your brother?"

He blinks at me, slowly licking his lips, "It wasn't you, so yeah."

"Okay."

We hold our stare for a moment longer before Alek climbs to his feet and begins to lumber slowly back up the stairs. He doesn't bother turning around and I stare at the floor a moment longer as I hear a loud bang of the door closing above.

I turn my eyes back to the doorknob before me. It's early in the morning and I hardly slept last night. I wonder what Yan Zhào has been doing since Alek and I kidnapped her and shoved her into one of the bloody rooms in the basement. Secretly I hope Yan Zhào is in one of the cleaner rooms, I don't want her to believe I'm a psycho murderer in case we got the wrong person. I don't have the time to get in trouble.

I grab the mask that hangs off of the wall and place it over my face. I press the sharp end of the key against my skin and press hard. It hurts for a moment, and then before I know it the key is in the keyhole and I'm stepping inside the room.

My eyes land on the table in the center of the room where a single yellow burning light sits, shadows climbing the walls. In the corner on a makeshift bed sits Yan Zhào, my victim. She looks up when she notices me standing in the room and slowly gets to her feet. I watch her from behind my mask, taking steady breaths as Hale had once taught me to. I gently close the door behind me and wait for Yan Zhào's reaction, but she only blinks at me as if waiting for my next move.

"Yan Zhào," I say.

She clears her throat, "It's just Yan."

I ignore her and cross my arms over my chest, "Tell me about the sketch on your notebook."

"There are many sketches in my notebook, you're going to have to be specific," she says, pushing long black hair over her shoulder.

"Stars. Blue."

"I suppose this is the reason you kidnapped me."

I shrug, fixing the mask on my face, "Just answer the question, Yan. The quicker you speak the faster you get to go free."

"You're going to let me go?" her eyes widen, and she steps closer. "Seriously? What if I go to the police?"

"You won't," I smile at her. "You want these people just as badly as I do."

Yan swallows, and her previous bravado seems to have vanished.

"Go on," I urge her. "I don't have all day."