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My world flashes hot and pained.
Then there’s only darkness.
36
ASHER
The silence is smothering. My leg jumps repeatedly, becoming an outlet for my building frustration.
Finn has a suspect.
It’s a weak suspect really, but it’s all we have to go on and I want to get my hands on him. I want to shake him until he spills the truth or breaks down because he’s innocent. If he is innocent, we’re back to square one.
Finn sits at the front of his lecture hall, head bowed as he works on something on the desk. I sit at the back, just waiting for our suspect to appear. Caspian’s supposed to be here too, but for some reason, he’s running late and only answers texts with cryptic emojis. Whatever’s caught his attention better be important.
And then the door opens.
Finn’s suspect strides in with a rucksack over one shoulder and a black jacket tucked under the other arm. A black jacket with a blue tag. He approaches the desk and ducks his head slightly to get Finn’s attention.
“Mr. Barlowe? You wanted to see me?”
Finn lifts his head. “Ah, Mike! Glad you could get here on such short notice.”
“It’s no problem. Is everything alright?”
“I wanted to talk to you about your final project.” Finn pulls the papers free of a binder.
As they talk, I watch Mike. He looks like a regular kid. He’s tall and lanky, but there’s definite muscle definition on his arms. He seems at ease, with a polite smile and a face that’s just kind enough to offset the intimidation of his build.
Is it him? Is he the one who’s been terrorizing Emma for months? Stalking her and threatening her?
I can’t tell. Nothing about this guy suggests stalker but what else do we have? His jacket matches the jacket in the video and it’s the only lead we have.
“So in your story,” Finn continues, drawing my attention back to their conversation. “I’ll be blunt.” He slaps the papers down on his desk in front of Mike. “The male and female characters in your story, are they you and Emma?”
Mike’s eyes widen and his mouth falls open. “Huh?”
I rise from my seat and begin walking down the steps toward them.
“The woman you write about that suffers through all of your unnecessary violence, is that Emma? Emma Pierce?”
“What?” Mike shakes his head quickly. “No, of course not. They’re not anybody.”
“Don’t lie to me, Mike. This entire semester we’ve talked about characters pulling from real life and your male character definitely fits you. The woman is Emma, isn’t it?”
“No,” Mike says, shaking his head as he takes a half step back. “I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
“This!” Finn surges forward and snatches the jacket from under Finn’s arm. “Emma was drugged in a club and a man wearing this jacket was seen dragging her away! It was you, wasn’t it?”
Mike pales and looks as if he’s about to be sick. “Oh my God, no! No, that wasn’t me. What the fuck? Is she okay?”
“Don’t play dumb with me; it’s the same jacket!” Finn slams the jacket down on his desk and Mike jumps. From here, he looks alarmed and scared. A far cry from the threatening monster we’d assumed he would be.
“Every—everyone has that jacket!” Mike gasps, waving out one trembling hand. “They sell it in town, honestly! I swear, just take a look the next time it rains; everyone has this jacket!”
Mike finally catches sight of me as I approach.
“Please! I haven’t done anything, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I swear, I swear everyone has those jackets, please!”
