“Donnie tried to take her. She crushed his skull.”
“Fuck.” Knave laughs and I realize that I’m not exactly upset that Maddie did this.
“I don’t want to know where you are, but I need you to track down someone for me.”
“You mean the nurse, Crystal?” How the fuck did he know?
“Yes, how …”
He interrupts me with a scoff. “Because I’m sitting in her house watching her write a note telling the whole story of how she became The Mad Hatter.”
“Um …” Alright, I’m dumbfounded.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered. You’ll need to know she’s implicating Donnie in helping her with the murders.”
“Knave, that isn’t what we need.”
“You wouldn’t be calling me unless you knew Maddie was the real killer. You also wouldn’t allow Maddie to take the fall for wanting justice. Was it wrong of her? Yeah, it was, but she did it and I stick behind her a thousand percent.”
Damn, he’s loyal, I’ll give him that. “Man, I …”
“I get it. She went from this innocent, sweet girl to this mad, vengeful mission-oriented person. You can’t let her kill herself. That is her actual last kill. Not her father or Donnie.”
“She won’t kill herself. Not on my watch.” Shit, maybe I shouldn’t have left her alone. Panic rises but the anger flowing through me as I make my way down to where they are taking care of Donnie, overshadows it.
“Look, I know I dropped a lot of bombs on you, and I’m pretty sure you are wigged out, but we can work this so no one ever has to know. I’ll take care of Crystal. You take care of Maddie.”
He hangs up and I, as a policeman, should know better than to do this. I should know to turn Knave and Maddie in. Right now though, I have to take care of Donnie.
I walk around the floor and find Donnie’s room. Two police officers stand outside his door. Doesn’t matter though. I’m a detective and they let me in, no questions asked. There’s no outside window so no one can see into the room. Donnie’s awake but not talking. His mouth is wired shut. How the hell did the officer hear anything from Donnie?
“Hello, Donnie.”
He holds up a piece of paper. “Go fuck yourself.” Ah, so he’s able to write his messages. Son of a bitch should have had his hands cut off.
“Nah, Donnie. You’ve fucked yourself. Crazy how that works.” I glare at him right before I unplug the monitoring system and then I bend down so he can hear every word I am about to say.
“For years you’ve acted like you were God’s gift to the world, fucking everything up—who knows how many women you’ve assaulted.”
I realize my anger has reached its boiling point. Betrayal from Donnie, the Chief, and Maddie are warring against one another. There’s no wrong here though. Or at least that’s what I’m telling myself. My mind believes I need to walk away from this. Turn them all in and be done with it. It’s my heart that refuses to let it go. If I kill Donnie, it’s one less thing I have to deal with. And that scares me.
What keeps me moving is that Donnie hurt Maddie and if I can save a sliver of her soul, I’m going to do it. He’s writing something on his paper. I watch him intently, hoping it’s a confession for everything he’s done.
“You’re just like Maddie—weak.”
“And you’re a dumb fucker who thought he could get away with hurting his sister, hiding evidence, and murder.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” He scribbles and holds it up, looking at me with cold eyes, and for the first time, I’m really seeing him. The true psychopath that he is.
“The man at the school. You remember how you tried so hard to make me believe it was the same M.O. as The Mad Hatter?”
I sit down in the chair and smirk. “Forensics had a hay day with the evidence they found at the house. The murder weapon had your fingerprints on it. Funny, how it matched your service record prints almost 100 percent.
“Bullshit.” He tries to move but stops. A tiny wince comes from him. I laugh and pull out the fucking syringe I found on the floor in the stairwell.
“Epinephrine. Looks like this one is for you, Donnie boy.”
“You don’t have the guts.”
