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“We need to go back to the studio,” Yara said as soon as I started the engine. “We saw the painting and decided it was his. Maybe he was just a sick asshole, and The Strangler was using him. There must be some other evidence…”
“We can’t go there. Everyone’s watching now and watching closer. We can’t go anywhere near Logan’s studio.”
“We have to,” she said. “I can talk with the detective. He’d let me go.”
“You can’t, Yara. Think about it. We need to be careful.”
She gritted her teeth and punched the dashboard with a frown.
“Of course, but we have to find a way to break in.”
“Once all of this is settled.”
“How the hell was I so wrong? I should have thought about it. He was smug as hell, and he… he looked at me like he wanted to kill me. That wasn’t the love The Strangler was writing about.”
“We were so caught up in that moment, Yara. We made a mistake.”
“I never make mistakes,” she said with a hiss. “I never did. I… I had spent four years chasing him. I should have known it wasn’t Logan Jones. He didn’t fucking fit the profile, but I kept convincing myself because I wanted it to be over. I needed it to be over.” She scratched her face with a growl. “I was a fucking moron. I… I knew it. I knew something was wrong. Something was so fucking wrong.”
The anger on her face, the self-repulsion… I wanted to tell her it wasn’t her mistake, but I knew she was not in the mindset to hear that.
“We’ll correct the mistake, Yara. I promise we will.”
58
STAGING
THE STRANGLER
“Rest in fucking peace, Logan, if you can, you sick, motherfucking piece of shit.” I already knew Logan might mess this up. He was good at other things, like luring women with his charming smile and his eccentric attitude, but he was useless when it came to murder, and now he was dead.
I had no idea how I missed it… but I knew now. Ryden was the same as Yara. I was blindsided by that information, but… no, now I knew why he didn’t even blink when he watched her kill Logan.
It was an unexpected obstacle in my plans, but… I was still ahead of them.
When I knew Logan was gone, I had to act fast. Procuring a police siren wasn’t hard. I had to haul Logan’s body out from the marsh late at night, but I didn’t mind that. This was our game—mine and Yara’s. I loved playing with her, messing with her.
After staging Logan at the ME office—which was really easy, too—I drove Yara’s car back to my place. I would send it back to her soon.
The way she killed Logan… It was pure art. Perfection. I knew she thought it was me, but… I still loved her.
Her anger would go away once she realized how perfect we were for each other.
Logan thought he was in love with me… and well, it made it easier for me to use him the way I wanted. I set him up to take the fall, but the game wasn’t over yet. I took my other phone and switched it on.
Me: Oh, the game’s only beginning, Yara. I hope you are ready.
I waited for her reply, but she didn’t answer me. I knew what she was doing, but these silly tricks would not deter me.
“And then the detective. Men! They’re fucking trouble.”
I didn’t like to kill unnecessarily. It was such a fucking waste of my time. Detective Patel should have stopped digging.
He got so close to finding our truths. Yara’s truths. It would’ve spoilt everything.
I did it for you, Yara, as much as I did it for myself.
Rubbing my hands, I stared at the painted white walls of the funeral home, so in contrast to the stark nature of the surroundings. It looked lonely, big, lost among the wilderness. Desolate. The scent of death lingered around.
