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Her eyes widen at that, and I’m sure she’s about to barrage me with more questions, so I avoid it by entering the dining room and closing the glass-paned door behind me firmly.
This room has a wonderful view of the Ljubljana castle that always works to calm me, no matter what. The line rings for a long time before Mark finally picks up. I can hear men talking behind him and the sound of something heavy being moved.
“Are you at the house?” I ask before saying anything else.
“Yeah,” he says bitterly. “And it looks like they’ll have to open and re-do the entire roof. We’re talking months of work.”
“Months?” I ask. “We don’t have long.”
“Tell me about it,” he says. “But they say the problem is present along the whole roof and they can’t guarantee the same thing won’t happen again in some other part of it if they don’t open it all up and fix it.”
“That’s what they’ll have to do then,” I say. “Better that than worrying about the roof caving in.”
“It wouldn’t have been a problem if they’d done it right the first time,” he grumbles. “I’ll be back in a couple of hours. Then we can start looking for an apartment.”
“Actually,” I say. “The police arrested a man for the stabbings last night. I was hoping we could go speak to him today.”
He sighs loudly and takes a few moments before answering. Probably looking for the right words.
“That’s not our case,” he finally says slowly and gently. “If they have a suspect—”
“No, I didn’t explain it well enough,” I interrupt and then proceed to give him the rundown of everything that’s happened this morning.
“So, you see,” I conclude. “His mother is certain he didn’t do it, and so am I.”
“But first we’d have to find out exactly what happened last night, who the victim is, and why they think this Milo is the killer,” he says and there’s only a slight trace of annoyance in his voice. “That means taking on this case and everything doing that brings with it.”
“Exactly,” I say.
He sighs and I hear something rustling through the line. I’m pretty sure it’s him running his fingers through his hair. He does that when he’s upset or out of ideas. Right now, he’s out of ideas on how to keep me from burying myself in this case I think I’ve uncovered, even more than I’m already buried in it.
“Fine,” he finally says. “I’ll call Brina and ask her to try and set up an interview with the suspect.”
Brina is one of the members of Mark’s task force, a good detective, though not the greatest friend in the world. She used to work at the National Police Bureau before joining Mark’s team, so she has a lot of connections in the Slovenian police force. Meaning she can ask the questions I need answers to. And get me in to see Milo.
“Good, thanks,” I say and he sighs again.
“I just hope you won’t be too disappointed,” he says.
“If this killer doesn’t end up being of the serial sort, you mean?” I ask lightly.
He chuckles. “Yes.”
“I won’t, I promise,” I say and then say goodbye.
I have a long history of me traipsing the world and investigating serial killer cases—solved and unsolved ones. I’ve been in danger of getting killed more than once and we both know that. It was all because ofThe Fairytale Killer Ripplesas I’ve lately begun calling my obsession with catching serial killers. But those ripples have finally rippled away to calmness after the case we solved this fall.
The Fairytale Killer was a serial murderer who terrorized Berlin the year Mark and I met. We both worked on the case in different capacities, he as the lead investigator, me as an investigative journalist. The man both brought us together and tore us apart, but he’s history now.
I don’t plan on letting this case consume me as others had done in the past. I’ve learned my lesson on how destructive that can be many times over. The living and life take precedence over the dead. That’s how it should always be.
* * *
MARK
When it rains, it pours. And sometimes the ceiling comes crashing down because of it. For some bizarre reason, that’s been playing on repeat in my head since early this morning as I stood looking at the destruction of Eva’s office. It’s gotten even louder now that I know it’s not just her office, but our entire home that’s been destroyed.
I’d planned on taking the rest of this week off to finish assembling all the nursery furniture, which is the last of the preparations we still have to make in the house.
