"Fox, I need to tell you something," Cash told his partner, guilt and fear eating him alive.
"What?" Fox asked distractedly as he studied Pierce's previous victims, still trying to find something that connected them, to find a reason why Pierce chose these particular girls, to decipher his patterns in hopes it would give them a lead, but the more he looked and studied, the more it looked like chance and the more it looked like he killed when and whomever he felt like killing at any given time.
"Never mind," Cash told him, shaking his head. He knew if he disclosed to him the truth, Fox would want—would insist—to come with him. And, he couldn't let him. Not after everything Fox had done for him. He'd saved his life for God's sake!
"Hmm? Okay," Fox said. Then, he slammed his hands on the table in slight frustration before he asked Cash, "You hungry?"
"Um, I'm actually meeting someone tonight. Actually, it's getting late. You should go home too," Cash advised, underhandedly.
"Yeah, I will in a bit. I just wanna finish this first. I might be close to finding something and we really need to catch this guy, so it'd be better to find it tonight rather than this morning before we've given him another chance to kill. I don't know if I will find anything, so don't get your hopes up because I have yet to find anything relevant, but I wanna keep trying just in case," Fox answered. "And don't worry, I'll call you if I find anything," he added immediately, which, unfortunately, made Cash feel all the more contemptible.
"Thanks," he said, hurriedly standing and pulling on his jacket, before Fox, who essentially knew him better than anyone, saw the deceit in his eyes, which he assumed was plain as day.
"Gray, you okay?" Fox asked, evidently concerned, when Cash faced away from him quickly to hide his expression.
"Yeah."
"Then, why are you in such a rush?"
"You really wanna know? Fine. It's a date, okay? I'm meeting this woman that my sister knows for a late dinner, and I really can't be late on account of how accommodating she was to my schedule. Now, do you wanna pay for my dinner or can I go?" he said as the first thing that came to his mind popped out of his mouth. Cash closed his eyes in self-abasement. In all his thirty-two years, he'd never told such a bald-faced lie, especially to someone he respected, trusted as much as Fox.
"Oh, well, then! Do what you gotta do, man! Now, are ya gonna tap her tonight or is that a little too promiscuous for you on a first date?" Fox asked him, mockery thick in his voice, a joyous smile plastered on his face.
"Oh, you're having fun with this. Okay. And I almost thought you had matured," Cash teased before walking toward the door. "That was close!" he called back.
Fox rolled his eyes in artificial annoyance.
*****
Walking by himself, with no one to back him up, it was safe to say Cash Grayson felt naked. Not in that he wasn't wearing any clothes—he was!—but in that no one was there to cover him if things went south. And it was not a good feeling. In fact, it was possibly one of the worst feelings one could have, and he now had the pleasure of feeling it twice in one year. But, regardless of how he felt, he had no choice. He had to do this alone. No one else was going to get killed.
He walked along the sidewalk in silence, save for the sound of his shoes clicking on the pavement. Click, click. Click, click. Click, click. But, in his head, it was far from silent. He had thoughts and worries ranging from Why am I doing this? all the way to Who's going to find my rotting corpse...and how?
He kept walking, subconsciously, until his feet hit the grass of the destination at which he was to be meeting Pierce: Brickfield Park.
As his heart rate picked up, his feet, as though with a mind of their own, kept walking across the grass.
And, then, suddenly, he stopped at the sound of a voice, a very familiar voice.
"I didn't think you were so foolish, Grayson. Yet here you are."
And Cash froze as an icy breeze blew through him. And it had nothing to do with the ferocious gale of the Windy City.
*****
Back at the Chicago Police Department, focused at his desk in search of an answer, sat Fox Hartley, who was still incognizant to the goings-on in Brickfield Park.
"Detective Grayson!" came a loud voice, which interrupted the man's thoughts.
"He's gone home for the day," he called back, looking behind him. "Can I take a message or help you with something?"
The frazzled elderly face of the Chicago Medical Examiner stared back at him quizzically, clearly not as familiar with Fox as he was with Cash. "You work with Detective Grayson now, yes?"
"Yeah, I'm, uh..." he said, logging out of his computer as he stood up and walked over to the noticeably shorter man. "I'm Detective Grayson's partner, Detective Fox Hartley. Did you find something?"
"The knife," he told him, excitedly. "I took both knives, myself, to Dr. Alton—the forensic specialist downstairs—to save you and Detective Grayson some time."
"Yeah? Did she find anything?"
"Yes. Obviously blood matching the victims', but also...fingerprints!" he told Fox. "They both had prints that matched a man, who by the way has an extensive criminal record," Fox nodded his acknowledgement of this fact as the ME continued, "They matched a—"
"—Shane Pierce," Fox finished.
"You know him?" he asked, curiously.
"Yeah, we know him." Fox took a deep breath before he thanked the old ME.
"Happy to help," he replied before exiting, most likely, to go back down to the building's morgue or perhaps to head home for the night.
After his departure, as Fox walked back to his desk, he muttered to himself, quite apoplectically, "Son of a bitch was too smug to wear gloves? Talk about despicable!" Then, something on the opposite desk caught his eye.
He walked over to his partner's desk. A sticky note lay atop it, upon which was a handwritten place and time. He recognized the scrawl to be Cash's less than neat handwriting.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Brickfield Park? he thought as he read the message. Why would Gray feel the sudden urge to go to Brickfield Park—and at midnight of all times? Suddenly, he had a sinking feeling in his stomach. He wasn't sure what was going on, but he was pretty sure Cash was not on a date. All he knew for sure was that he needed to get down to Brickfield Park. And fast. It was one minute to midnight.
