Page 23 of Relapse

“My brother wants to help find the person who did this to our father,” he interjected. “That’s why we’re here. Not because he’s a suspect.”

Not yet, I thought.

Blake’s pen paused. “We’re just trying to establish clarity, Damian.”

“Deputy Chief Hansen,” Damian corrected automatically.

I pressed my heel into the floor to stop my leg from bouncing. Everything in me was vibrating. I kept seeing the night hit me in flashes—Delane’s pale face at the entrance to the estate, someone screaming, the man in the skull mask running from the property.

The blood.

“You said you saw the perpetrator,” Richmond added. “What time?”

“I don’t know.” My voice cracked. I cleared it. “Ten? Maybe ten thirty? I wasn’t checking the time. I was more concerned that he rammed into my date right as we were leaving. She was scared.”

“Were you with her the entire time?” Blake asked, glancing at his notes.

My stomach dropped so hard I thought I might actually vomit.

“I wasn’t—” I started.

“Your date was pretty clear that you didn’t spend much time with her at all,” Blake continued, answering his own question. “So, could you fill in that timeline for us?”

Damian stepped in before I could breathe wrong. “My brother has been under considerable stress—.”

“Why were you leaving the party?” Richmond interrupted, shifting gears so quickly it made my head spin. She was visibly irritated by Damian’s continuous contributions. “And maybe you can answer this one by yourself?” she added, giving another bitchy little smile to Damian.

Damian stewed next to me, but he remained silent.

I swallowed. “I don’t like crowds. Not at all. My brother…he knows that I’ve been struggling with some things…”

I looked to Damian for confirmation. He nodded for me to continue. “I wasn’t supposed to leave the party, but I was anxious. Feeling closed in. I just wanted to get some fresh air. Delane—my date—she wanted to come with me.”

Richmond and her partner stared intently.

“The man in question. The one who bumped Delane. Did you see him enter the event?”

I thought back—trying to remember. Flipping through the memories of the evening. Starting all the way back to David pushing into my room and me pushing the barrel of the gun against my temple. I shuddered.

I remembered Delane’s voice. How she saved me. Took me off the ledge.

I remembered bringing her inside. I showed her a simple two-step. We danced. We almost kissed.

Then…my search for Silas began. And that’s when the man in the skull mask first appeared.

“I didn’t see him enter the party, but I did see him. Mingling in between some of the dancers.”

Damian sat up a bit straighter. “You never told me about that, Noah. You noticed him before?”

Richmond rolled her eyes, not even bothering to hide her irritation with me any longer. “Okay, so what time was that?”

Before the closet. Before getting my dick sucked.

“I-I don’t know.”

“That seems to be the problem tonight,” Richmond added. “You don’t know. You don’t know a lot of things.”

My chest tightened and the corners of the room blurred. My body was telling me that I needed something to take the edge off. I tried my best to picture the burn of a stiff drink sliding down my throat, and the quiet relief afterwards.