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Going back to the station to question Mari.
“Hey,” Gawen said, catching me before I hitched my ride to the hospital. “I was thinking,” he added.
“About?”
“About how I should question Mari,” he said.
The insinuation was hanging right there, better left implied than expressed.
“That’s a good idea,” I agreed, nodding.
We didn’t need to discuss the finer details. We both understood. It was best for me to be detached from this. For the sake of the trial. Even though there was no question about his guilt when he’d literally been caught with a kidnapped woman in his rental house.
It was just better to be safe than sorry.
He had to go away.
We couldn’t risk anything getting in the way of that.
All we could hope for was that he got a brand new baby lawyer public defender. One who would be overworked, underpaid, and really not all that interested in getting a serial killer free.
“Hey,” he said, giving me a nod. “It’s done,” he said. “He’ll never do this again.”
The weight I’d been carrying the past few years fell from my shoulders at that.
He was right.
It was done.
It wouldn’t bring back Madison or Ashley.
But it would bring their families closure.
And it was taking a monster off the streets, protecting any of his future potential victims.
“Yeah,” I agreed, exhaling hard.
The rest of the night moved in a bit of a familiar blur.
The updates from the medical team, meeting with the captain, the attorney general, and the forensics team when they got back.
Meanwhile, the one thing I wanted, was the one thing I couldn’t have. Access to Mari.
It wasn’t until the earliest hours of the morning that I saw Gawen leading an exhausted and bruised Mari out of the interrogation room.
“Wells!” Gawen called, waving me over. “Any chance you could drive Miss Yates to her friend’s house?” he asked, voice loud enough that he wanted others to overhear. “She doesn’t want to go home with the news zoo that is sure to be there again.”
“Yes, of course,” I said, giving Mari a small smile. “Whenever you are ready,” I added.
“I’m ready,” she said, voice small.
Sheseemedsmaller. Like she was shrinking into herself.
Gawen gave me a meaningful nod, a silent assurance that things had gone well. I gave him one back, a thank you for what he’d done for me, for us.
Then I led Mari out of the building, keeping my hands curled into fists, so I didn’t touch her.
It wasn’t until we were in the car, and I had driven down the block, and pulled into the lot of an unopened convenience store, that I reached for her, pulling her close over the top of the center console.
