Page 54 of Murder Notes

Love,

Chief Fucking Love.

Transcript

Thursday

12:01 a.m.

This is Kevin Woods. She didn’t have to die but she’s dead now, you assholes. This wasn’t the way things were supposed to happen. I’m not going to let you kill me over this. I’m gone. I won’t be back. If you come for me, I will make a deal with the devil, and see you dead first.

That’s it.

That’s it?

That’s not a confession. He didn’t say he killed her. He said she didn’t have to die. Like he’s talking to the person who killed her. But the message was sent to Alexandra, and if she were involved, she wouldn’t turn over the recording. Exhibit A: The notes in my drawer that I’m not about to let anyone see. That call makes me think that he knows he’s being framed. And that she’s the ADA, married to Eddie, the detective handling his case, and that one or both are setting him up. But if that were the case, I still don’t believe she’d turn over this recording. Unless . . . that’s exactly what she wants me to think.

I shake the thought off and shove aside Kevin Woods for a moment, switching my screen to the security footage, tabbing through screens and timelines. Fifteen minutes later, I find the spot where it cuts off. There’s nothing worth seeing. My elbows go to my desk, my fingers laced under my chin. Why cut the power if the security code was hacked? Unless you knew I had a camera. Which means there has to be a camera somewhere in my house. Somewhere near the cameras I installed. But probably here, too. I start tearing apart the office, looking for bugs. Looking for any kind of surveillance equipment I can find.

Nothing. I find nothing.

I head down the stairs and start searching every room I frequent and end at the sliding glass door. My camera is still in place, and I look for angles that an additional camera would be placed to have seen me install it. But I find nothing. And yet, somehow Junior knew to cut the power. Maybe it’s a coincidence, but per my mentor, they don’t exist. One thing for certain is that Junior is trying to scare me into a corner and onto a plane. And the list of people that fit that profile seems to be growing by the moment.

I decide to give Junior a message of my own. I walk to the sliding glass door, open it, and exit, stepping to the center of the patio, certain Junior is lurking. “You’ve made things interesting,” I call out. “I’m staying. In fact, I might not ever leave.” With that announcement, I start walking, and I don’t stop until I’m standing in the very spot that night happened.

“Challenge issued,” I whisper, lifting my arms into the cold wind, my hair blowing around my face. “Game on.” And now, it seems I’m not the only one that can see where the blood once pooled at my feet. Maybe Junior can even spy my sea of blood. Maybe that sea of blood is why Junior is a coward and stays in the shadows. But whoever Junior is, they won’t be there for long. I’m going to rip him or her from that shelter and strip away those unisex clothes.

I don’t know what happens once I do, but I’ll figure it out.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

I must have fallen asleep on the floor of Purgatory, because that’s where I wake up, lying on my back, staring at the ceiling, with the sound of my phone ringing, my body stiff and cold. I reach for the incessant-ringing beast and roll to my side to grab it, pictures of dead bodies and note cards now crumpled beneath me. Grabbing the phone, I sit up, a note card stuck to my hand that I shake off, and eye the caller ID, only to realize it’s not a call. It’s my alarm. I actually decided to sleep here because I had no energy to find my way to bed. I sit up and put my hand in the remainder of the strawberry pie, which is basically crumbs and whipped cream.

“Fabulous,” I say, licking whipped cream from the side of my pinky finger before checking my phone app to confirm I have no calls, and indeed, I have no calls. Which does not please me, considering I’ve called my brother, Eddie, and Alexandra numerous times about this Woods situation. They’re territorial. I get that. It’s a fairly normal reaction when the feds show up, except that I’m not just any agent. I’m flipping family. I also get that my father now wants to be a big-time politician and that he wants the case closed with as little press as necessary.

What I don’t understand is that phone call to Alexandra that makes me think she knows Woods, or why that call would be grounds for anyone to assume Woods’s guilt. Lord help me, this smells bad, and people I love are in the middle of it, which is why I need to get to Manhattan and try to expand my view before someone tampers with it.

I glance at the time on my phone: 4:40 a.m., otherwise known as too damn early. Unless, of course, you haven’t arranged a chopper and don’t want to drive three hours to Manhattan to investigate a murder, and therefore need to make one of the only morning trains out of this place, and I do. I push to my feet, grabbing a note card now stuck to my sticky hand and reading it: KAREN ADAMS—WOODS’S EX-GIRLFRIEND. Of course, I won’t be the first one to go and see her, but I am the first one who can bond over an ex with an unwanted relationship with law enforcement.

I set the card on the desk and hurry to the bedroom, pausing just a moment in the doorway when the scent of my mother’s perfume touches my nose. It’s crazy, of course, or maybe it’s not. This place feels and smells like her, no matter how long she’s gone, and that’s too long. I think of that night and how the truth of who, and what, her daughter has become would have destroyed her. She couldn’t have saved me. I can’t save me either, but there is always someone else who needs saving, and right now, that’s Woods.

Pushing forward, I hurry to the shower and then dress in all black—black jeans, a black sweater. My Chanel boots again. Because black is not only a Goth thing but also a New York thing, which could be one and the same. I manage to throw on some makeup and flat-iron my hair, the same plain-Jane brown it was yesterday, all in an impressive forty-five minutes. I head back to Purgatory, where I gather my work from the floor, including a stack of note cards with addresses and names of people, places, and things I think might lead me to Woods. Of course, the one of most interest is the girlfriend, and I rubber-band that one on top of the stack. Everything, including the notes Junior left me, goes in my bag, and I’m about to leave when I glance at the white boards filled with more information from last night’s pie session. Since Junior seems to be snooping around, I grab an eraser and clear all my writing.

My gaze falls on my computer, and I walk to the desk and sit down, reaching for the removable drive Kane had given me last night. I’m irritated that watching Samantha enter Kane’s house and exit hours later bothers me as much as it does. I remove the drive and stick it in my bag, then just decide to take my entire computer. The footage showing Junior putting the note on my car had been less than helpful, but I can spend time on the train ride home reviewing the recordings again.

Standing, I survey the office to make sure I’ve left nothing behind before heading to the garage, dumping my stuff in my car, and then hunting for batteries, which I find. They’re old, probably low in juice, but they’re better than nothing. I quickly find my way back inside, install them in the cameras, and decide to be sneaky this time. I stick one camera under a pillow on the couch, with a view of the sliding glass door. It’s not a grand plan, but at this point, Junior has access to the house, and I’m not letting that run me off. Tonight, I’ll find a way to make that work for me and play Junior’s game my way.

I grab my coat, head back to the garage, and get on the road, dialing the NYPD by memory on the way to the train station. “This is Agent Lilah Love with the FBI,” I tell the woman who answers. “I need to speak to Marcus Rick,” I say, a transfer-in from Chicago I unfortunately don’t know.

“One moment,” I’m told, and it’s more like three minutes later when she says, “Detective Rick is on a leave of absence.”

“Leave of absence,” I repeat, finding the loss of the detective on this particular case more than a little concerning. “Who took over the Emerson case?”

“Let me look.” Fingers click on a keyboard before she says, “Nelson Moser.”

And in a moment, Rick is replaced by a detective who hates me. If this is an accident, the universe hates me more than the locals.

“And he’s in the field,” she adds. “Shall I put you through to his voice mail or have him call you?”