“Yes, I can. I know where it is. The sooner I give it to him, the sooner this can all be over.”
“Katherine,” Drew pleaded, “think about this for a second. It’s good we know where the dagger is now, but we need to be smart about this. It’s too dangerous for you to just go off on your own.”
“It’s already been dangerous. At least if I give it to him now, I can end this and walk away.”
“What makes you think Adrian will let you walk away?” Drew asked. “What’s to stop him from killing you as soon as you hand over the dagger? You have a history with him, but do you really think he will just let you go after he gets what he wants?”
That made me stop.
Was Drew right? Would Adrian kill me and Pearl as soon as he got what he wanted? I wanted to believe he wouldn’t, but I didn’t know Adrian like I used to. I’d only seen a glimpse of what he was truly capable of.
“What should I do then?” I asked Drew.
“I think we should talk to my captain. I trust him. He could help us. With the police involved, we can come up with a plan that we can all walk away from. And once we have the dagger, we can prove Adrian killed Henry.”
I agreed to go along with Drew’s plan but knew it might not be enough to end this.
Adrian wanted the dagger, but he also wanted me. I betrayed him by running away. He wouldn’t let me go so easily.
I needed to finish this on my own. It was the only way to guarantee everyone’s safety, but I needed a plan. I needed a way to get to the dagger and end this on my own terms without the police.
Without Drew.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
DREW
“Let me get this straight,” Captain Rodgers said sternly from behind his desk the next morning. “Are you telling me you’ve been working on a cold case out of your jurisdiction instead of the cases you were assigned?”
He stroked his white handlebar mustache, awaiting my answer. His arms were crossed, stretching his white uniform across his barrel chest. He was in good shape for a man in his early 60s.
“Yes, sir.”
“That is a serious conflict of interest.” He ran a hand through his short, gray hair in frustration. “You shouldn’t be involved, considering your relationship with this woman. You have no right to this case.”
“I know, sir, but Katherine was scared,” I explained. “She still is. It took a while for her to open up about this. I know I should’ve come to you first, but with no evidence and then the threats, she didn’t trust anyone, let alone the police.”
Captain Rodgers sighed. “If what you say about this girl’s past is true, then I can understand why she’d be cautious.”
I nodded. “I also didn’t want to come to you without all the information, but I’m here now. We have an idea where the dagger could be. With that, we’d have the evidence needed to close this case.”
“That’s just the thing, son,” he said, clasping his thick, callused hands together and leaning back in his chair. “It’s not your case. And how do we know this Katherine girl is telling you the truth about the dagger’s whereabouts?”
“What reason would she have to lie?” I countered. “Look, Captain, she’s terrified of the perp. She wants this all behind her. What’s she to gain from lying?”
The whirr of the air conditioner filled the few seconds of silence between us. Captain Rodgers hummed again and rubbed his closely shaven white beard.
“Well,” he cleared his throat, “this is quite the mess you’ve gotten yourself mixed up in. And all for some woman.”
“She’s not just some woman, sir,” I argued, but a smile pulled at my lips as I thought of Katherine.
I love her.
I didn’t need to say the words for him to understand my meaning.
“The things we do for love.” Captain Rodger’s mustache twitched with the remnants of a matching smile as he glanced at the framed picture on his left, the portrait of his wife. “If this Katherine is anything like my Marie, then she’s sure as hell worth it.”
“That she is, sir.” I agreed, thinking of Katherine that morning, legs tangled in my sheets and wrapped up in my arms. “So, what can we do?”
