Blood On Her Hands

Chapter 18

I stared at the words until the light of the pen flickered with warning of its batteries running low. I stared until I nearly had them committed to memory and so tired I could barely hold my eyes open.

I laid on my back, holding it above me as I read and reread.

Something is very wrong. Don't trust anyone. Come find me.

-Adonis.

This was a message meant for me alone and thus he couldn't risk speaking to me in front of anyone else. Because there was no one else to trust. He said don't trust anyone. It had to have been placed in my bag sometime during the party after the reception. Adonis had been so busy being paraded around by guests and I had been so busy trying to be the perfect guest, that he hadn't been able to get a moment alone with me.

I thought of when he asked me to save him a dance at the party. In the wake of his death, I was left wondering what that glint of urgency in his gaze was about and what made him linger. I had thought the answer died with him but it hadn't. This was the answer.

He had something crucial to tell me. He must have realized I never saw the note and was making another attempt at getting my attention. And I had failed him.

If I had seen the note in time and went to Adonis, what would he have told me? Had he suspected that his wedding was going to be ambushed? If that was the case then why would he come to me? It would have been smarter to call the police. That theory also didn't account for why I couldn't trust anyone. The phrase was so unspecific it left me with almost nothing. Did he mean anyone as in any of the extended family and friends who were guests or the workers at the venue or even my own family members?

More than anything, I felt disappointed in myself. If only I had seen it sooner. Why hadn't I seen it sooner?

I left several voicemails on Vincent's phone. What I found out about my aunt and uncle's finances could wait until our next meeting but this note from Adonis felt crucial. I wanted him to work it out for me, to tell me what it meant though, deep down, I knew he couldn't do that.

In Vincent's eyes, the note would probably be another nail in the coffin for Adonis. He might theorize that Adonis knew he had ticked off some of the people he worked with and that they could be coming after him. He wrote the note to help protect me from them.

My next instinct was to go to Nancy. I wouldn't tell her about the note but rather ask her about Adonis's behavior during the wedding and afterparty. Nancy had been by his side nearly the whole night. If he was acting strange or seemed preoccupied then Nancy should have known. Had he tipped off Nancy as well? Did she just not say anything about it because it would make Adonis seem worse than he already did?

It was half past midnight when Vincent called me back. I wasn't anywhere near sleep so I picked up on the very first ring.

I was stunned to find that instead of calling me he had selected the video chatting option instead. it didn't seem like a very Vincent thing to do. I left my camera off at first since I was laying in bed and found that Vincent was doing the very same thing. His camera was positioned down by his stomach, giving him the illusion of a double chin. More bizarre than that, he was shirtless. All his tan skin and lean muscle was on full display.

I gaped at my screen as a blank faced Vincent brought the phone up to his ear.

"You're video chatting with me," I said, trying to keep the wince out of my voice. I was already blushing on his behalf. "I can see you."

The camera panned away from his ear and his mortified expression came into view. The phone bounced around as he presumably tried to figure out how to turn his camera off. I muffled my phone with my hand to hide my chuckle. The second before his camera finally cut, I saw the tips of his ears tinted red.

"I apologize," he said. "You said you found something?"

"Yes." The graveness of the situation returned to me as I forgot about Vincent's amusing blunder. "It's a note from Adonis that he must have slipped into my purse at the after party of the wedding. I sent you a picture of it."

"Let me pull it up." I waited and then heard him suck in a breath. "This certainly makes things interesting. Your family hasn't made any mention of receiving a message or verbal warning of this kind, right?"

"No." I thought of the shredded bills and hidden gun. Would they have told me if they had?

"I'm going to need that note the next time we meet," he said. "It's so cryptic that it'll be impossible for us to decipher what he meant without further context."

"So it means nothing? It isn't helpful?"

"No, it is helpful. Every clue we can find is worth something. We just don't know how this helps now." He sighed again. His voice was husky with exhaustion. "You did good bringing this to me. Keep it up."

"There's also something else." I felt a pang of guilt. Traitor, my conscience hissed at me. "I found out that my aunt and uncle were at risk of losing the house in late June. They had received a final notice saying they owed thousands of dollars on their mortgage."

"Did they pay it back?"

"Apparently but I know my family and I know we don't have a few thousand dollars lying around. They were acting weird about it too. Secretive."

Too secretive to just be trying to protect me from their money troubles. If that was the case then they would have relaxed once the secret was out. It only made them more tense knowing I knew. There had to be something more to it that they didn't want me to find out.

"It could be nothing. It could be something." Vincent didn't waste a beat of time. "Is there any way for you to get a peek at their finances? Maybe one of them has a computer with their email that might receive statements from the bank?"

I thought of Julio tearing his parents closet apart in search of the gun he suspected was there. I could find what I needed if I resorted to the same behavior.

"My aunt is an accountant. She has a book with all her spending and earnings documented and organized. She keeps it in her closet." I squeezed my eyes shut, telling myself that I didn't have a choice. This was the only way to clear Adonis and my family's name. It was to protect myself from getting hurt by getting to the bottom of things.

"I suppose I could try to sneak a look at it when no one's home."

Vincent hummed agreeingly. "That would be helpful."

After saying our goodbyes, I pulled the phone away from my ear. The black screen split to Vincent's face again. This time he was accompanied by what looked like a feather duster. The gray fur caressed his cheek. Then the creature became more visible as it sniffed the phone in Vincent's hand. It was a cat.

"Aw, cute!"

Both Vincent's and the cat's eyes went wide.

"I turned my camera on again?"

I laughed.

Defeated, he let the camera linger on the fluffy creature as he pet underneath its chin. The cat leaned into his touch.

"Her name is Nala. She likes to cuddle." As if to prove her owner's point, Nala nuzzled her head into Vincent's chest.

In the light from his bedside lamp, his features were bathed in warmth. His skin glowed a halo that rested at his nose, making the tip appear shiny. I wished this had been the first picture of Vincent I had gotten. He was far less intimidating with a cuddly cat beside him.

"I'll leave you two to it then." I began to wave and then turned bright red as I realized my camera wasn't on. "Goodnight."

Voice as professional as always despite the circumstances, he replied, "Goodnight, Mickey." 

Author's Note: Feel free to vote and comment! Thanks guys!