“There you are,” Butcher said.
He still had a hand under Mia’s chin. She looked at him now, not at me.
After a moment she asked, “How long have you known?”
“Long enough.”
“Then why bring me here?”
He let go. Mia dropped onto the edge of the couch, wrists still bound in front of her with my zip ties.
Horseman immediately shifted farther away. An hour earlier he’d been bragging that he murdered her sister. Now he couldn’t meet her eyes.
I stayed near the coffee table and tried to make myself irrelevant.
It didn’t work.
Sooner or later Butcher would come back to me.
I only needed Mia to give him something else to think about first.
“Who are you?” she asked.
Butcher said nothing.
“No,” Mia said. “You don’t get to do that. If you know me, I get to know you.”
“You still think this is about what you get?”
She went pale.
Butcher reached behind his head.
Click.
The mask came off.
I already knew. Still, when the man from Lena’s beach photo appeared under the living-room lights, my stomach tightened.
Older now. Thinner. Eyes hollowed by a month of not sleeping enough.
But unmistakable.
Mia recognized him immediately.
“Daniel.”
Her voice dropped.
He set the mask on the table.
“Hi, Mia.”
Horseman stared between them. “Wait. What?”
Nobody cared.
Mia said, “When did you get back?”
“The day my wife died.”
She lowered her eyes.
Daniel pulled a chair across from her and sat.
“You went to Lena’s condo that night.”
Not a question.
Mia said nothing.
“The building cameras caught you.”
“The police know.”
“They know you arrived. They don’t know what happened inside.”
Mia looked down at the red marks around her wrists.
“I told them.”
“You said you dropped something off and left. You said there was no fight.”
Silence.
“Was that true?”
Still nothing.
Daniel waited.
I knew that kind of silence now.
Mia flexed her fingers.
“What do you want me to say?”
“The truth.”
“Would you believe it?”
“Try me.”
She closed her eyes for several seconds. When she opened them, she didn’t look at him.
“Dad was in the hospital.”
Nobody interrupted.
“I needed money.”
“How much?”
“Does it matter?”
“It mattered to Lena.”
Mia’s mouth tightened. “She said if the bills were real, she’d pay the hospital directly. She wouldn’t give Dad cash. Not a dollar.”
Daniel showed no reaction.
“You knew how much she hated him.”
“Go on.”
“I heard it as her judging me. Like I was asking for a handout instead of trying to keep him alive. I wanted her to help once without making me feel dirty for asking.”
“And you still heard her answer as no.”
“Yes.”
I remembered the line in Lena’s journal. I hate Dad, but Mia isn’t Dad.
I’d used that sentence to build a lie. Now the real woman was sitting in front of me, turning that lie almost true.
“We fought,” Mia said.
“About money?”
“At first. Then everything else. Dad. Our mothers. Who abandoned who. Who owed what.”
Her voice began to shake.
“I called her selfish.”
“What did she say?”
“I don’t remember.”
Daniel stared at her.
“You remember.”
Mia looked up.
“She said I was just like him.”
Daniel didn’t move.
“Then you hit her?”
“No. She shoved me. I shoved back.”
“Then?”
Mia stopped. Her fingers locked together until the knuckles went white.
Daniel said her name softly. “Mia.”
She let out one breath.
“I put my hands around her throat.”
Horseman looked up. I didn’t move. Neither did Daniel.
“How long?” he asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Did you know if she was breathing?”
“I didn’t check.”
“Why?”
For the first time, panic showed in Mia’s face.
“Because she stopped moving. I called her name. Shook her. She didn’t answer.”
Daniel’s voice stayed level.
“So you decided she was dead.”
“I thought she was dead.”
The sentence seemed to lower the temperature in the room. Not I killed her. I thought she was dead.
I looked down before anyone could read my face.
Daniel asked, “Then you called 911?”
Mia closed her eyes.
“No.”
“Police?”
“No.”
“What did you do?”
A long silence.
“I panicked.”
“What did you do?”
“I thought if the police came, my life was over.”
The sentence sounded familiar in a way I didn’t like.
Mia continued. “There had been stories about attacks on women around the area. I thought if the scene looked like something a stranger had done…”
Daniel cut in.
“You staged it.”
She nodded.
“Balcony?”
“Yes.”
“Writing on the glass?”
A pause.
“Lena’s lipstick.”
Horseman lowered his head. Nobody needed to look at him. His confession had just died a second time.
“Then?” Daniel asked.
“I left.”
“What time?”
“Close to eleven.”
“She was still on the balcony?”
“Yes.”
“Did you come back?”
“No.”
Daniel watched her for a long time.
“You’re sure.”
“I’m sure.”
My throat went dry.
Mia looked at him.
“You wanted the truth. That’s it.”
“Not all of it. You joined the board.”
She stiffened.
“A new account called Fox appeared eleven days after Lena died,” Daniel said. “You thought if someone on that board claimed the murder, police attention might move?”
“No.”
“Then why join?”
“To find whoever knew things they shouldn’t.”
“Or to find somebody willing to take the blame.”
Mia’s eyes flicked toward Horseman. One glance. Enough.
Horseman swore under his breath.
Daniel continued. “Then he showed up.”
“I didn’t create him.”
“But you let him keep talking.”
“I needed to know if he had really been there.”
“And when you realized he hadn’t?”
Mia said nothing.
I finally saw the full shape of the room.
Mia joined the board because she was afraid. Horseman joined because he wanted to be feared. Daniel joined because he wanted a killer.
Three people arrived at the same place carrying three different lies.
And me? I had only picked the wrong house.
At least that was still the story I preferred.
Mia asked, “How did you know Fox was me?”
“At first I didn’t. Fox kept asking about one murder and never posted anything believable about her own. Then I found the board administrator.”
I looked up. So did Horseman.
Daniel went on. “He kept admin logs, contact information, old message records – more than users thought he kept.”
“Where is he?” Mia asked.
Daniel looked toward the stairs. No explanation necessary.
I pictured the safe on the third floor. The plastic bag. The open eyes.
Mia understood too. Her face drained of color.
Horseman whispered, “The head.”
Daniel looked at him. “Homeowner. Board admin.”
That was enough.
The house wasn’t random. The head wasn’t a trophy brought here for the meetup. Daniel had found the man behind the board, taken access to the administrator account, and used the man’s house as the trap.
“You killed him?” Mia asked.
“He sold people like you a place to turn dead women into entertainment.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It’s the only one you’re getting.”
I didn’t want more detail. Knowing too much had not improved my night.
Daniel pointed toward Horseman. “I had a man claiming he killed Lena.” Then Mia. “And someone who spent months asking questions only family would care about. So I invited both of you.”
“To kill us?”
“To find out who was lying.”
The empty gun. The questions. The locked door. Everything fit.
Then Daniel looked at me.
“And I got an extra guest.”
I knew the moment had come. He stood and walked toward me.
“Burglar.”
I said nothing.
“You said you were inside Lena’s condo that night.”
“Yes.”
“Mia says she left around eleven. What happened after she left?”
The wall clock ticked. Once. Twice.
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“I was stealing.”
“You remember the water, the towel, the bedroom, the lipstick.”
“I saw them.”
“After Lena was dead?”
“Yes.”
Daniel stopped in front of me.
“You’re sure?”
“What do you want?”
“I want to know whether my wife was alive when you saw her.”
I laughed. It sounded wrong even to me.
“You’re inventing this.”
“Answer.”
“No.”
“No, she wasn’t alive?”
“I don’t know.”
Wrong.
Two different answers. I heard it the moment the second one left my mouth.
Daniel heard it too.
“What did Lena do when you saw her?”
“Nothing.”
“Where was she?”
“Balcony.”
“Position?”
“Don’t remember.”
“But you remember a lipstick tube.”
I stayed silent. He didn’t give me time.
“Where was her phone?”
The question came fast. My answer came faster.
“She couldn’t reach it.”
The entire room stopped.
I heard my own words as if someone else had said them.
Daniel didn’t blink.
“Couldn’t reach what?”
No answer.
Horseman stared at me. Mia raised her head.
Daniel repeated it.
“Couldn’t reach what?”
There was no good sentence left.
Because Daniel had never said Lena tried to reach her phone. Mia hadn’t said it either. That detail had never entered any story tonight. Except mine.
Daniel stepped toward me. I stepped back.
“After Mia left,” he said, “my wife was still alive.”
“No.”
“Then how do you know she tried to get her phone?”
“Guess.”
“No.”
He came closer. The front door was too far. The hallway gave me nothing.
Daniel reached for me.
Then, from somewhere beyond the house, came a thin rising sound.
A siren.
We both froze.
Another followed. Closer.
Mia turned toward the front door.
And I remembered my phone in the bathroom.
Her fingers moving across the screen.
CURRENT LOCATION –
I’d thought I’d grabbed it back in time.
Apparently I hadn’t.
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