“Uh, is everything okay?” London repeated the question, but there was more implication behind it this time. Renn shook his head, glancing back at the car and the other officer sitting in the passenger seat as the worst form of backup I’d ever seen before answering.
“We’ve found another body. We need you to answer some questions.”
Another body?
There shouldn’t have beenanother bodyfor them to find. Not when I’d been so careful, not when—
I think London saw me open my mouth to speak, because he gave a quick nod and stepped out of my arms. “Okay. Any way I can help.”
I didn’t know if he realized I was willing to confess to making all the bodies, or if he was trying to protect the man in front of him. Either way, he threw me a look over his shoulder, his eyes a little wide, the panic clear on his face.
“I’ll be back soon, okay? Just… wait for me.”
Wait for me. I didn’t know if that meant wait for me before you do anything harsh, or if he was still worried I was going to leave. Whatever the question was, I already knew what I was going to do.
There were too many bodies piling up related to London. Maybe they didn’t have any kind of proof, but I didn’t trust anyone not to fuck over innocent people. When I’d been alive, the police were just as corrupt as my adoptive mother had been, and I had a feeling it had only gotten worse over time.
“Don’t worry, London. It’s going to be okay.”
If they needed proof that London wasn’t the one hurting people… I’d give them proof.
As I watched the officer lead London to his car and carefully tuck him into the back seat, my fingers twitched. Yeah, making sure they knew London wasn’t the one killing people wasn’t going to be a problem at all.
Chapter 27
London
Therewerepicturesofa dead man in front of me, and it only took me a few seconds to realize it wasn’t Hudson like I’d thought. I’d assumed maybe Otto had been too confident in his abilities and they’d found him. I was already trying to race around in my head and come up with a lie that would make him sound innocent. I was already wondering if I could show them the cuts and bruises that Otto had left behind and blame it on a dead man so I could plead self-defense and take the fall for him.
I waswillingto take the fall for him if it meant keeping Otto safe… but…
Well, it wasn’t Hudson I was looking at.
It was the man from the club. The one who’d left me the letter. The one who’d put his hands on me and I was pretty sure Otto had probably hunted down and killed while I was sleeping.
It was really the only explanation.
“Oh… oh, shit.” I couldn’t keep the tremble out of my voice as I stared at the photos with wide eyes. I thought they only showed people things like this on the television, not for real. Of course, we were in a little town, with a little police station. I was prettysure there were only a few cops on duty, and the man in front of me hadn’t even bothered to flip on the tape recorder sitting between us.
It wasn’t like this was anything official.
I wasn’t sure if that was better or worse for me. If they were bad at their jobs, did that mean I was more or less likely to be implicated for something that Otto had clearly done?
“I… oh, God.” I swallowed down the sick feeling in my stomach as best I could and turned my head. It was one thing to see Hudson staring at me with wide, dead eyes. It was another to see a man I didn’t even know with the same gash across his throat. “What happened?”
In front of me, Renn paused. “That’s what we’re trying to figure out.” When he blew out a breath and gathered up the photos, I finally turned back to look at him.
“You don’t think I—”
“No.” He cut me off before I tried to figure out if I was going to sound guilty asking… because at the end of the day, it kind of was my fault. Everything Otto did was my fault. “But it’s obvious they had a connection to you. We have this man on the security camera running from Til’s.” Renn only made the slightest bit of a face when he said the name of the club—I wasn’t sure if he was judging me for my job choice or remembering the scene he’d witnessed there. Whatever it was, I kept my expression neutral. “We’re wondering if it has something to do with the club where you work. We haven’t had reports before, but we’re getting quite a few now.”
Oh.
I could use that. I bit my lip and tried to look as innocent as I could. “I don’t know… I mean, we get some weird people in there sometimes.”
“Like Hendrick Caulson?”
My mind flashed to Mr. Caulson. Sure, he’d been a cheater, but he’d always been polite. He’d never made me feel uncomfortable, and…
