DARLENEWe sat hip to hip for what felt like hours, my husband and me, in the cold guest lounge of the McKenzie manor.“What else? What else did you find?” The man breathed, brushing his palms from his face and turning slightly in my direction.I caught the waft of his scent again, the smell that seemed to pour from every inch of the manor. Lavender and dark roses sprayed with testosterone.I shook my head, trying to clear the lustful thoughts before something seemed to snap into place in my mind.“The day Mary died! You had gone to see Prince Charles right? So if he testifies that you were with him! It's as solid an alibi as we could get! You'll be off the hook for her murder!” I rasped hotly, watching the grimace creep into my husband’s face as I rattled off the words mindlessly.”Prince Charles does not do honest favors, Dar, he wouldn't do it without getting something in return,” Alexander spat bitterly, the hard line of his jaw flexing as he started holes into his hands, but I wa
ALEXANDERI had seen the man hundreds of times, but as he stood broodingly under the gold-lined arch of the entryway, the tall bulk of his muscular frame rigid against the whirl of motion around us, My father looked to me, like a stranger.“We need to talk,” I deadpanned, gritting my teeth when the room dulled to silence around us so that I could hear the loud thud of my heart beating frantically in my chest.I met my father’s icy blue gaze squarely, finding that I had begun to sweat slightly as he met my comment with silence, one hand poised casually over the long walking cane that I was certain he did not need.He heaved a heavy sigh, nodding to the escort protocols behind him who vanished from sight immediately.“Is everything alright, William? Alexander? What's going on here?” My mother's pale, regal face popped up beside my father as her voice floated to my ears, making Darlene shift uneasily beside me.It was all I could do not to rush at my father with my fists as the threads o
DARLENE“What the fuck do you mean by that?” Stephanie Mckenzie screamed as the officers slapped the aluminum band of a handcuff around her husband’s wrists.I fought back a wave of nausea as the whirl of men pushed to shoulder past me, towing the stately looking man who remained quiet between them.“As of this moment, Mr. McKenzie Williams, You are under arrest for the murder of Miss Kayla Storm, You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a law court, blah blah fucking blah, you know the drill, right chief?” The Detective droned, grinning widely as a surge of hatred so deep it dulled the shock running through me rose in my gut.This was all my fault! Saints, if I had just voided Fredrick’s advances and controlled myself, then maybe none of this would have happened!”What do you mean the murder of Kayla Williams?” Alexander’s deep voice snapped me out of my trance so that I turned to look from the angular lines of my husband’s face to the
ALEXANDERDetective Bowler was not a smart man. I could almost see myself in him, more in the way he was obsessive to the point of insanity than in the lack of intelligence.I’d made a couple of calls to the sheriff and some of the elites I found I could use their discretion to find out details of Kayla Storm’s case.“It's a homicide Alexander,” Billie Mason’s voice crackled through the speakers as I dodged the red work of a car speeding past, blinking away the wash of the bright yellow headlights that had blinded me temporarily as the shrill beep of the horn ebbed in my ears.Billie Mason was one of the eyes I had in the system, and I didn't know shit about the woman past the fact that she worked with the FBI, had three children, was twice divorced, with a penchant for hiking lonely roads at midnight.In other words, a good fucking spy.“No traces of sexual abuse or drugs were found in her system. Forensics suggests the killer was left-handed and based on the decomposition Alex, I’d
DARLENEThe wood house that my best friend called home was farther into the forest than I had thought it would be.”Phew!” I exclaimed loudly, glancing about the debris-strewn clearing and blowing out my cheeks as I paused to catch my breath under the loom of the wood.It looked like one of those houses that had character, like a freak of nature, the odd angles and slants of the place puzzling until I couldn't bear to look at it any longer, fixing my gaze instead, on the cherry red of the front door.”Laura? Get your fat ass down here this instant!” I shrieked at the morose-looking palls of the overhead balcony, letting out a bitter laugh when the whistle of a passing breeze broke the silence.No such luck, I watched for movement in the dark windows, disappointed when the house remained still.Goddammit, was she really going to make me come up there? I felt my eyes twitch in their sockets, patting myself on the back when I managed to refrain from rolling my eyes.“A decent woman shoul
LAURA DIEGOI paused at the doorway when the sound of a woman’s voice floated through to my ears as I stood at the door to the wood house I had been living in, a spark of electricity sizzling down my spine when the voice came again.I’d taken great pains to find the cabin, only managing to stake my flag on it and warn off the other hobos because it had been empty when I came, and now someone else had come along to stuff their nose in my turf.The nose that I planned on putting a nice little bullet in as promptly as I could manage it.I dropped to my haunches, slithering along the side of the house and peering through the windows to find the intruder.How had they managed to get past the traps? A woman no less, had she been watching me? How much did she know?I gritted my teeth, remembering that I had forgotten to clasp the padlock firmly over the trapdoor just inches from my head, on the other side of the wall.I hadn't seen the need, since the dungeon didn't have any prisoners, not
ALEXANDER“Darlene?” I puzzled as I sat in the cool air of the dark car, feeling my eyebrows scrunch up when I realized it was she who had been calling me.I pressed to call button, waiting patiently for the ring of the call tune when the automated voice told me that the number was switched off.Had something happened at home? Was my wife calling because she had seen the news? I hadn't thought about what her reaction to my little stunt would be, realizing I wasn't at all certain how she would take it.A beast. That was what she would think of me, displaying the dead woman’s body like that for cheap shock, it was beneath me. Beneath the McKenzies, a man had to do what a man had to do.”Goddammit,” I sighed, realizing I would have to settle for asking her when I got home and deciding it best to shelf the pit of worry that had opened in my stomach.The drive to the manor was uneventful, with news crews overflowing into the asphalt as I pressed on the gas, feeling like each second would b
DARLENEMy mouth felt dry when the static of memory dropped into my head, like the flash of a camera lens going off in the darkroom of my mind and the restive blindness that followed.We had been sixteen, fresh out of high school and setting our sights on world domination when Laura’s birthday rolled around.I'd first seen it at the dollar store, the trench coat. Brown leather that shone through the blue-tinted glass. Laura was instantly in love with it, I could tell by the teary glimmer in her doe eyes, and the sag in her shoulders when we pulled our puffy faces from the squeaky clean window.And later, the way her eyes lit up when I’d hurled it at her head by the cozy fireplace of my father’s cottage house.The same brown trench coat the figure standing quietly in the shadows was wearing now as the beat of silence stretched between us.“L-Laura? I-is that you?” I croaked, willing the shake in my hands to still as the flashlight dropped from my hands to the grass wordlessly, the fluo