Page 61 of What Happened Last Night

I saw Morrie’s expression change, and I knew William had said the wrong thing. I could only watch in horror as, instead of shooting William like I had thought he was going to, Morrie turned the gun back to Carlotta.

Time slowed down in that moment. What happened next only took two or three seconds maximum, but it felt like hours were going by. It was as though everyone were moving through treacle, each movement slow and sluggish, almost heavy.

“Now you’re going to know what it feels like,” Morrie sneered as he turned his gun back onto Carlotta.

I saw his trigger finger twitch slightly and then his hand started to tighten as he pulled back on the trigger. I opened my mouth, to say what, I don’t know. To shout no, or stop, or something, anything. But I knew we were well past the point where that would work. I still didn’t dare shoot. If I missed Morrie, I could well hit William.

Instead, I tucked my gun back into the holster and dove through the air toward Morrie. At the same time, William saw what was coming and he, too, dove through the air, throwing himself toward Carlotta. He collided with her, knocking her flying to one side, out of the path of the bullet. She went sideways, falling to the ground, and then there was a deafening bang that left my ears ringing as the shot rang out.

I saw an explosion of red and then my body collided with Morrie’s body, and we went slamming to the ground, the gun flying from Morrie’s hand and skittering across the ground.

I stayed on top of Morrie for a second and surveyed the damage. Carlotta was still where she had fallen. She had pulled herself into a sitting position. She had her knees pulled up and her arms wrapped tightly around them. She was rocking gently back and forth, her glassy, unseeing eyes staring at William.

I knew from a quick glance at William that he was dead. He lay on his side on the ground, a tiny bullet hole in his forehead, a single dribble of blood coming from it. Looking at just that, it didn’t seem too bad. I could even have allowed myself to believe he could be fixed. But the back of his head was another story.

The bullet had blasted straight through his head, and the entire back of his head was an open maw of what looked like minced up, raw meat. Bits of blood specked with white bone chips and gray and pink bits of brain coated the wall and floor behind him. I had to swallow hard to stop my gorge from rising when I saw an inch-square piece of scalp on the ground with the hair still attached to it. I looked away quickly after that.

I could hear a wailing sound, which at first, I thought was coming from Carlotta or maybe even Morrie, but then I realized what it was. It was sirens in the distance. My backup was finally getting closer, but it was too late now. I knew I had to get a handle on this situation, and I pushed myself up off Morrie.

“Don’t move,” I snapped down to him.

He didn’t even attempt to move, didn’t so much as glance at me. He just stayed on the floor, lying on his belly, his head turned to the side. The eye I could see looked vacant, his skin pasty white, almost gray. A single tear rolled down his cheek, but I swear I could see a half-smile playing across his lips. He knew he was going down for this; he knew he would be sentenced to life without parole, and he didn’t care. He had avenged his daughter. I was curious as to why he’d tried to shoot Carlotta rather than William, but I knew this wasn’t the time to try and engage Morrie in conversation, and any answers he gave me before he was arrested wouldn’t count for anything, anyway.

I pulled my handcuffs from my belt and grabbed Morrie’s right arm. He offered no resistance, and I snapped the cuff into place around his wrist. I grabbed his left arm and dragged it up onto his back. Again, he offered no resistance, but his body was floppy, his limbs heavy. I snapped the second cuff into place.

“Morrie Xavier, you are under arrest for the murder of William Alden. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you can’t afford one, one will be provided for you. Do you understand the rights I have just read to you?”

I paused, although I wasn’t really expecting an answer. Morrie surprised me by nodding his head.

“Yes,” he said.

“With these rights in mind, do you wish to speak to me?” I added.

Morrie pushed himself awkwardly to his knees. I stood close by in case he tried anything, but once he was kneeling, he stopped moving. He looked up at me and smiled, a smile filled with satisfaction.

“It’s finally over, Detective,” he said in a voice barely above a whisper.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Carlotta

My whole body was shaking. I felt as though I was sitting behind a curtain of water. I could see and hear everything that was going on around me, but it was like it was separate from me, as though I wasn’t really there. All I could focus on at first was William’s body. I knew he was dead. I could see the mess of blood and other things I didn’t even want to focus on behind him. It was on the floor, on the wall. His life bursting from his head to leave a lasting stain on the physical world.

I felt as though I stared at William’s lifeless body forever, but at the same time, it felt like only a fleeting glance before I turned away and threw up beside myself. Somehow, throwing up brought me back to myself a little. I was still shaky. I knew just how close I had come to dying in that moment, and I knew William was gone, although in the moment, it didn’t feel real. He was lying dead beside me on the ground, and I knew that, but at the same time, I was still waiting for him to step in through the hole where our front door should be and demand to know what the hell had happened here.

I forced my eyes away from William and focused on Detective Del Rey and Morrie Xavier. The detective had Morrie in cuffs, and he was reading him his Miranda rights. Morrie seemed a little dazed too, perhaps even more dazed than I was. But he didn’t look afraid. He looked almost like he was finally at peace with himself, like he had avenged Candy and he no longer cared what happened to him. That was probably how he did feel. Avenging Candy had given him a purpose, and now it was done, he was just Morrie Xavier again.

I wondered briefly what would happen to him. By rights, he should do life without parole. He had killed in cold blood. But if he got a halfway decent attorney, they would claim he was mentally impaired, that grief had sent him over the edge. He would likely end up in a secure hospital somewhere. I don’t suppose it really mattered one way or the other. Wherever he ended up, it wasn’t going to bring William back.

Detective Del Rey pulled a pair of latex gloves from a pocket and snapped them on. He pulled a clear plastic baggie from another pocket, an evidence bag, I realized, and he moved over to Morrie’s gun, which he picked up and dropped into the baggie. He sealed it and kept hold of it. He approached me.

“Carlotta? Are you all right?”

“I ... I don’t know,” I replied honestly.

Through all of my shock, I had heard sirens getting closer, and now, I could see the flashes of blue through the curtains and I realized more police officers where here. Four of them burst through the missing door and into the lounge. They stopped short when they saw the scene before them.

“Get CSI here,” Detective Del Rey said, slipping immediately into the role of someone who knew how to take charge of a situation.

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