Page 62 of What Happened Last Night

In that moment, I was grateful he was here. His rattling orders gave me something to focus on other than what had just happened and was trying to replay itself in my head.

“Call off the rest of the backup. Call the coroner’s office and get Dr. Karloff out here. One of you, stay with Mrs. Alden until the coroner arrives.”

He thrust the baggie out to one of them.

“Get this over to the lab and get it fingerprinted now. Have them run a full analysis on it too,” he ordered.

The officer took the baggie and left. Two of the others ran out behind him, presumably to follow the rest of his orders. The fourth officer approached me.

“Mrs. Alden? I’m Officer Riley,” he said. He reached down a hand to me. “Let’s get you up onto this chair, here, if you feel up to it.”

I took his hand. It was warm against my ice-cold skin. I allowed him to pull me to my feet. My legs held me, not as shaky as I had expected them to be, but I was still glad when Officer Riley deposited me in the armchair beside me. It was soft and warm after the cold, hard ground. Detective Del Rey approached me again once I was seated.

“Carlotta, do you want to go to the emergency room and get checked over?” he asked gently.

“No, thank you, Detective,” I replied. “I think I’m going to have a big bruise on my hip tomorrow, but otherwise, I’m okay.”

“I think you might be in shock,” the detective said.

I shook my head. “I was shocked. I still am. But I’m not in medical shock. Thank you for your concern, Detective, but the thought of going to the emergency room right now is ... too much.”

“Do you have someone who can stay with you?” he asked.

“Yes. I’ll call my friend when all of this is sorted,” I lied.

I didn’t want to lie to the detective, not now, but I knew he would insist that I couldn’t be left alone right now and being alone was exactly what I needed to get my head around all of this.

“Okay.” He nodded. “Officer Riley will stay with you until the coroner arrives, and the crime scene officers will be here any minute. They’ll take some photographs and fingerprints and whatnot, but they won’t bother you. We will, of course, need your official statement about what happened here, but it’s a shut and dry case, Carlotta, and I would be very surprised if you’re called to give evidence. The statement needs to be taken within forty-eight hours, though.”

He said the last part apologetically, and I wondered for a moment if he had ever really believed it wasn’t me who’d killed Candy. If his apologetic tone was about more than just disturbing me while I should be left alone to grieve for my husband. It didn’t matter now. None of it did. I just nodded.

“Of course, Detective,” I said. “I’ll stop by the precinct tomorrow.”

Detective Del Rey turned to Officer Riley. “I’m going to take the suspect in,” he said.

He moved to Morrie’s side and pulled him to his feet. Morrie didn’t look quite so dazed anymore. In fact, he looked positively proud of himself, and I knew Detective Del Rey was right. I wouldn’t need to give evidence because Morrie Xavier was going to confess to this. He was going to take great pleasure in telling Detective Del Rey, and likely anyone else who would listen, just how he had gotten revenge for his daughter’s death.

As Detective Del Rey began marching Morrie across the room, a thought struck me. Morrie hadn’t really been trying to kill William. He had been trying to kill me, even after he had heard that it was William who had killed Candy. Even after William had laid it on so thickly even I felt sick to my stomach listening to him. I had to know why.

“Wait,” I said, getting to my feet.

Officer Riley glanced at Detective Del Rey, who gave a barely perceptible nod. Officer Riley moved out of my way. I stood before Morrie, meeting his eyes, looking braver than I felt in that moment.

“Why did you try to shoot me when you knew it was William who killed your daughter?” I asked, my voice both calm and demanding.

Morrie smiled. He actually fucking smiled. It was a cold smile, one that made me feel my insides shriveling up. Morrie had killed through grief and through some misguided notion that this would help him to move on from losing Candy, but in that moment, I saw the truth. He had enjoyed killing. He had enjoyed pulling the trigger and ending a life.

“Because I wanted William to suffer. I wanted him to experience loss like I had,” Morrie said.

I don’t know what came over me in that moment. It was like a red blanket of anger. I reached up and slapped Morrie’s face. The sound of the slap seemed to echo around the room as Morrie’s head flew to the side. He brought it back to the center, looking at me with that cold smile still on his face. A bright red handprint stood out against his pale skin.

“Go to hell,” I snapped, and then I turned around and walked calmly back to the armchair like nothing had happened.

Detective Del Rey seemed to follow my lead, going back to leading Morrie out of my house, out of my life, as though I hadn’t just assaulted him. I was pretty sure nothing would come of it.

The crime scene officers arrived shortly after Detective Del Rey had left. Officer Riley tried to distract me from what they were doing, but I needed to see. I needed to know they got every little scrap of evidence, just in case. Because I was fairly sure that if Morrie somehow wriggled his way out of this, he would be coming for me next.

The coroner arrived as they left. He introduced himself to me as Dr. Karloff and he told me how sorry he was for my loss. It was a phrase I never really understood. Why was Dr. Karloff sorry? It wasn’t his fault, and he didn’t know me enough to care about me one way or the other. I got it, though. It was the accepted phrase for the situation, one used the world over, one I had said myself on several occasions when faced with someone who had lost someone. I smiled politely and thanked him.

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