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“Okay, thank you.”
Rhodes left for work, and I tidied up before heading to the library to discuss details of the case with Piper.
“I can’t believe they just busted the door down like that. And while you guys were fucking!”
“Shh!” a library patron hushed Piper, who motioned for us to go back to the office.
Once we sat, she brought up the news articles of my father’s murder, but I didn’t need to go over the words again. I had other ideas.
“Piper, I think my house is getting broken into because someone left something from the night of my father’s murder. The police never found the murder weapon, or it’s not mentioned in the articles. What if the knife isstill in the house?”
“Holy shit. For real? Would it still have evidence on it, you think?”
I shrugged. “Lucy, the woman I’m shadowing at the DNA lab, she says that it depends on several factors, like how the item is stored. We would also need a match… like from the murderer.”
Piper paused and looked down. “And you think the murderer is…”
“Johnny Davis. Why else would he blame Eli? He was so angry about his ex-girlfriend, Kara, and Eli sleeping together. He seemed to want revenge. He was there that night and he lied about my father getting shot.”
“That makes complete sense. We shouldn’t rule out other suspects, though. Like Leticia.”
I nodded. “Right, but despite being my father’s girlfriend, I’m not so sure she’s a suspect. My neighbor told me that Leticia didn’t want to act in porn, that she was an unwilling participant, and I wonder if that ties in somewhere. Like was she being forced into it for some reason… But we have plenty of her DNA samples in case we need a match. It’s all over the house. I understand Dixson and Kara were also there that night. It may be difficult to get something of Kara’s, but I could try…”
Johnny was arrogance personified, thinking he could just take what he wanted any time he wanted. And what he wanted was revenge on Eli, with me being the means he could do that… If I were to let Johnny think he had me, maybe I could pull a confession out of him. Pretending I was on his side, that we were a team or an item now, that may work. I’d have to set up some defenses, though, to be sure I was safe from his physical prowess. It would be my ultimate retaliation to see the cops take him away for murdering my father, as well as trying to rape me.
The police weren’t looking for alternative suspects, convinced my boyfriend had done this. I was desperate to do anything to get him out of prison, even if that meant going into the lion’s den. I’d do it for Eli, just like I knew he’d do it for me.
Piper’s expression turned to fear as she raised her eyebrows. “What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking I’ll give Johnny what he wants so I can get some samples.”
“What does he want?”
I smiled. “Me.”
I had to attend class since I had missed a few times over the last few weeks. After my two morning classes, I went to the lab to shadow Lucy for the afternoon. All I wanted to do was to go to my house and search for the murder weapon with Piper, but we were going to do that in the evening.
Finally, the day had come to an end, and I rushed to my house. Piper showed up an hour later and brought sushi for dinner. After eating, we started in the living room and moved the piles of stuff to the guest room. We turned over the couch and tables to check underneath. I stuck my hands up in the fireplace until they were black, and I had to wash them.
Before moving to the next room, I looked at the window seat. The painted white wood was covered with wainscotting boxes on the front. I lifted the cushion, but there were no hinges indicating that the seat lifted. The top didn’t budge when I pulled.
I knelt in front of it and felt around. Knocking on the wood, the sound echoed behind the thin walls. When I knocked on the third outlined box, the wood fell inside the hollow seat.
“Piper!” I reached my hand into the hole and felt around. My hand hit something hard, covered with soft paper. I pulled it out. A black-handled knife was wrapped in several rolls of clear plastic. There was a piece of paper taped to the outside. A flowery scrawl was written on it. The note read:
For Pete. For Revenge.
Piper came running over from the back hall. “Whoa! Is that…”
“Yes. I think it is that.”
“You need to call the police.”
After being on hold for a long time, I was finally transferred to the correct detective assigned to Eli’s case. The detective said she was on her way over and to leave everything as it was. During the entire wait, I paced trails into the carpet, biting my shortened nails. What if this wasn’t enough? What if Eli was still stuck in a cell?
When she arrived, Detective Sherrod and a couple of officers took photographs, dusted for fingerprints around the window seat, and took the knife from me. She thanked me for my call and said they would be in touch.
“Will this help Eli go free now?”
