How to Kill a Man in Thirty Seconds

Chapter 61: Speak

My hairs were standing on end as the song ended. I fumbled for the cassette, yanking it out as my heart pounded fearfully in my chest.

It was a love song. A disturbingly twisted love song.

What did this mean? Was this a threat of some sort? Was someone going to die? Who was going to die?

My thoughts were swimming. Two lines rushed into my mind and my heart stuttered as they did so:

I wish they didn't say we had to part,

Stripped away before we could even start.

I remembered mum's disapproval of him, followed by Colton Hunt's veiled threats.

Adrian.

Was it Adrian?

The air rushed out of me and I'd scrambled to my feet before I knew it.

Terror had already gripped me when suddenly, my phone began to ring, the shrill sound startling me.

"I've been meaning to call you for a while, Charley," Kimberly Hall's voice sounded through the phone when I picked up, "We need to talk."

The detective was waiting outside when I reached Oliver's house. Her face was somber even as she led me through the front door into the silent house.

"Is everything okay?" I was still jittery, my heart still pounding.

She nodded solemnly.

"Thank you for coming, Charley," she only spoke once we had settled down at the dinner table, across from each other.

"I thought you were done with the case."

Kimberly didn't miss the suspicious stare I cast her.

There was a moment of silence before she leaned forward. Her voice was low, and I was taken aback by her purposeful gaze, "This right here is unofficial, Charley. If anybody asks, it didn't happen. If my superiors find out I'm reinvestigating, I'd be fired."

"What made you change your mind?"

Emotion filled the detective's eyes. She swallowed hard before sitting back.

"Five years ago, when I took this job, I was told they would work me to the bone, for little pay. I still took it," her eyes turned steely, "I took it because I believed in the work. In seeking the truth. In protecting. Everything else paled in comparison." Kimberly Hall's face turned grim, "If sweeping the truth under the rug is what it takes to keep it, I might as well hand in my badge tomorrow."

My heart swelled in my chest even as Kimberly sat forward.

"Thank you, Kim."

"Without my team, I'm back to square one, Charley," she announced so intently she missed my words, "I know you've been talking to the suspects. I know you're still looking. I need to know if there's anything I missed."

"Where do I start?"

"With your suspects. Who are they?"

I frowned, my conscious speeding past every person I'd questioned in pursuit of the killer. I found the answer came to me easier than I had thought, "Isaac Evans. Samantha Wilson. Morgan Walker."

In reply, Kimberly fished into a file that sat beside us on the table, that I hadn't noticed before. She retrieved three photographs from it, placing them side by side on the table. They were her suspects.

The detective pointed at the first photograph, "Isaac."

Her finger shifted, "Sam."

"Morgan," the words left our lips in unison.