AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He nodded and she could tell he wanted to explore whatshe meant by that, but he remained quiet. As they sat in silence together,another cop came over and handed Morgan a bottle of water.
When the other cop was gone, Morgan twisted the top offof the water and took three deep gulps, nearly choking on it.
“If you believe that, then I say we need to look into it,”Derik said. “But not right now. Right now, I think we need to get you to ahospital. Both of those cuts on your arms might need stitches. I know forcertain the right one will.”
“Yeah, okay. Just…give me a second, will you? I’d reallyjust like to sit and zone out for a second, you know?”
“Do you feel okay?”
She wasn’t quite sure how to answer that. She looked up atthe night sky, speckled with stars and all held together by a moon that was three-quartersfull. Staring up at it, she nearly started to cry again. It made no sense at first,but she then understood that it had been ten years since she sat under a skythis big, this wide. It had been ten years since she’d experienced any sort offreedom on this scale.
“I’m not sure,” she finally answered. “But I think I’mgoing to be.”
“So…awkward question,” Derik said. “You’re clearly goingthrough something right now. Like, in this very moment. Do you want me to leaveyou alone? Maybe see what I can do to help up at the cars?”
She shook her head. She had no romantic interest inDerik, and other than that one kiss had never seen him in that light. But inthe moment, he was all she had. Sure, Skunk was waiting for her back at thehouse, but that was different. For right now, he was still Lora’s. And maybe hewould always be Lora’s.
She found herself getting emotional over the situation,so she shut it down. Not now…not here.
“I’d actually like it if you’d stay for a while. And…andmaybe forgot what I said about another man being there with the fourth victim.I don’t know what I want to do with that yet.”
Startled, Derik asked: “Are you sure?”
“No, not really. But all the same…” She ended the commentwith a shrug.
They sat side by side under the night sky as Morgan beganto get control of herself. The tears stopped, but the stinging pain in herwrists continued. She peered up at the stars, breathing in the night and relishingthe feel of all that space around her.
Morgan felt herself begin to relax for the first time inwhat felt like forever. She was still grappling with everything that hadhappened, but for now she was content to just sit in the grass with Derik andstare up at the stars.
“I’m sorry,” Derik said suddenly.
“For what?”
“For everything. For getting you into this mess. Muellerpresented the idea to me just like he presented it to the others, and I couldhave said no.”
“But he and Yen would have overruled you.”
“Maybe. But still…I don’t feel like it was right for meto agree to it. No offense, but I don’t think you were quite ready.”
She smiled at him and said, “Our killer is in custody. Seemslike I was perfectly ready. Now,” she said, playfully slapping at his knee, “getme to the hospital so I can get stitched up.”
He got to his feet and helped her up. Together, theywalked through the tall grass, back up to where she had parked about two hoursago. There were four police cars sitting there, and lights tearing the nightapart. And in the midst of them, already placed into the back seat of a patrolcar, she spotted Samson.
He spotted her as well and they locked eyes. And evenafter she tore her gaze away from him, she was overcome with the sickeningfeeling that this probably wouldn’t be the last time she saw him.
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
The cuts on both of her wrists were healing well, butthere was still a strange itching sensation whenever she stretched her arms totheir full extent. In the last few days, it had been especially noticeablewhenever she extended her arm to paint.
It had been fifteen days since she and Derik, along with someother officers, had come out of the mines with Samson, the Seven Signs Killer.There were a variety of reasons Morgan had laid low since then, and herinjuries were only a small part of it.
So, while she waited for things to cool down, she decidedto fix up her father’s house. It was tiring work, but she found that she actuallyenjoyed it.
As she scraped off old wallpaper and painted over thedingy yellow walls, Morgan’s mind kept drifting back to the case. She couldn’tshake off the feeling that there was something more to it, something they hadmissed. She was sure that Samson was the killer, but what if there was someoneelse involved? What if she had missed something crucial?
It was possible. After all, nearly everyone hadoverlooked the convenient fact that the husband of the fourth victim had beenaway for work…and that his manager had never been able to fully back it up.Somehow, in the fever of a manhunt for the serial killer, that had goneoverlooked.
She doubted much about the case to come would getoverlooked, though. Derik had texted her yesterday to tell her that the newswas painting her as a superhero. She was a controversial figure (some stillthought she’d somehow had a hand in the killings, though the police wereworking hard to get the word out that the murders for the killer’s fifth signoccurred three days before she’d been released from prison. It was also commonknowledge that she’d been the one to track Samson down in the mines and hadplayed the biggest part in his capture).
