Shadow

26 | Discouraging Defeat

There were certain points in Genevieve's life where she wished to simply disappear. To vanish from the face of the Earth for a well deserved break, and come back when she so wished. Currently, she was in a situation which called for such a hiatus.

Her eyebrows knitted together as she watched the chaos that broke out just after the explosion. The crowd had been scattered like a swarm of bees. They all ran in random directions, in search of a place of safety. Their frightened shrieks touched every inch of the square, and the police could do absolutely nothing to calm them down.

Genevieve snapped out of it when Alec removed himself off of her, and she swiftly turned around to look for the two addressors. Her frantic eyes roamed about, and her newfound panic had come to a stop when she spotted Owen. He and the commissioner had their backs turned to her, and it looked like they were watching the burning vehicle.

The van was in complete shambles. Its roof was fully blown off, while the remains of the poor vehicle were still on fire. They continued to burn, and a stream of dark smoke rose from it and flew to the sky.

Only one question played in Genevieve's head, like a cursed chant.

Why would Shadow blow himself up?

It clearly did not make sense for him to bomb himself. The puzzled look on Alec's face as he watched the van told her that he thought the same. He looked away and settled his gaze onto Genevieve, and for the first time, she saw him to be so confused.

"Shadow isn't the type to kill himself if he got caught. He'd find ways to escape, but not die."

Genevieve let out a breathy 'Yes' as a response, because she too agreed with the thought. She took a moment to eye the entire square. Her line of sight grazed every spot, be it the shops, the positioned snipers, or the buildings nearby. But she found nothing suspicious.

Eventually she had to accept the ugly truth. It was the first thing that crossed her mind when the explosion took place, and the more she pondered over it, the more it sickened her to the stomach.

Thomas was not the one they were looking for.

"You two okay?" Owen asked when he jogged up to Genevieve and Alec. A look of incredulity that mirrored theirs rested on his face, and his eyes darted all around the plaza. He too couldn't believe what just took place, and the point was proven when he stated the thought.

"What in the hell, just happened?"

"Turns out Thomas Tryker wasn't Shadow, after all." Alec replied, and it wasn't a sneer. It was a genuine response, and Genevieve was shocked that he didn't gloat about being right. And it didn't look like he would any time soon. Plain bewilderment was written across Alec's features, and his eyes bolted between the other two as if they had some sort of explanation for the explosion.

"Was anyone hurt?"

"No."

A small sigh of relief left Genevieve at Owen's reply. The situation was already distressing as it was, and the death of someone was the last thing they needed. Suddenly, Genevieve felt thankful that the van was stationed far away from the press conference. Had it been with the rest of the vehicles, a handful of deaths would've been guaranteed.

Just a few moments later, the severity of the current situation dawned upon her. She couldn't hear the conversation between Owen and Alec, since the pit of dread in her stomach began its tossing and turning.

Another innocent person had been killed, and Genevieve strongly believed that it was her fault. Had she not doubted him, then recorded him and given that to the police, Thomas would still be alive. It all led up to her, in the end. And once again, Alec was right. Doubting someone because they called you a term of endearment was indeed outrageous, and she realized that but implied no such thing.

"This is brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. He laid a trap and we all fell right into it. He managed to divert attention from him and onto Thomas. Then, his vendetta against the government came into play when he got to kill the second mayor of this city. This explosion was his way of telling us that we are absolute idiots."

"But don't you think Thomas was somehow involved with Shadow? I mean, are we really that sure about him being completely innocent? I-"

"Yes." Genevieve butted into the conversation just when Owen was about to object to Alec's declaration. Her dazed eyes moved over to the DI.

"He purposely killed Samuel at that time and day. It wasn't circumstantial, it was planned. Shadow knew I doubted Thomas. He got Samuel killed when he was on his way to Lily's questioning, to make it look like it was actually the mayor who did it. That way, my point gets proven and all the blame shifts onto Thomas."

Alec nodded in agreement, whereas Owen sucked in a deep breath to compose himself. Genevieve on the other hand, was in a completely different place. She was at the start of what would be spiralling into a hole of misery. The guilt in her was immense, because she had fallen for Shadow's tricks and murdered another blameless individual. She now had the blood of two people on her hands.

Owen could tell she was having an internal breakdown, and he chose to snap his fingers in front of her eyes.

"For god's sake, Genevieve. It's not your fault."

Her senses returned to the present time, but the remorse remained. A small voice in Genevieve told her that if Samuel was here, he would have said something similar to console her.

"Don't do this to yourself. Beating yourself up won't bring their lives back."

"There she goes, another session of 'it's all my fault'. Give me a damn break." Alec muttered in exasperation, which earned him a glare from both Owen and Genevieve. Sure, he wasn't boasting about being correct in regards to Thomas not being Shadow, but he still made her feel even worse.

She had opened her mouth to fire a few profanities at him, but the dinging of the device in her pocket stopped her. As if on instinct, she reached inside to pull her phone out. Surely enough, a message from Alex was displayed on the notification center.

Said Alex was one of the two forensic scientists who had analyzed the pieces of evidence. The dollar bill to be more specific, and a day or two ago, Genevieve had requested him to compare the fingerprints on the sheet of money with those of Thomas. It seemed as though he had just messaged her with the results. The look of disbelief that formed on her face after viewing the text caught the attention of Owen and Alec, and the two tried to peek into her phone.

The guilt that Genevieve felt just doubled, and the idea that Thomas was not Shadow only got confirmed.

'Hello officer. I just finished with the analyzing, and Thomas's fingerprints did not match with the ones on the bank note'.