Red_Roses_and_Black_Dahlias_-_Macy_T

best and this was clearly not the work of some inbred fucker.” Adam
frowned, sitting up straighter.
“What do you think?”
“I think we have been looking at it the wrong way this whole time.” I
pressed my finger onto the table, driving my point home. “We’ve taken this
case assuming Harold was the lead man, thus looking into some of his old
acolytes, but what if he wasn’t?” I let the file fall down on the desk and got
up, eyes narrowing at the board.
“What if Harold had been meant to be the scapegoat this whole time?
What if he was supposed to be the easy man to find— since his fingerprints
and DNA were fucking everywhere, while the second one got away? What if
we were not even supposed to know there was a second guy?”
I rearranged the murder board where Harold’s photo had been at the
center. I put it aside instead and drew a question mark in its place before
circling it a bit more forcefully than necessary. I knew I had Adam’s attention
then. He got up, looking over the files with a new, vigorous look on his face.
“Only Sofia messed up his plan when she saw him and fought him off.”
It’s like something clicked in his head right then. “She saw there were two
guys, and she killed Harold, so he couldn’t take the fall. Fuck, that would
explain so much! Harold had nothing to do with Lakestone or Mayor
Raymond, so if the real man behind all of this just used him as a scapegoat to
take the blame away from him, that would mean—“
“That would mean the other killer was someone closer to Jack Raymond
than we imagined.”
It was ten minutes shy of one in the morning when I finally got home.
Entering the dark, soundless apartment and locking the door after me, my
keys clinked as I let them fall on the table next to me.
***