Page 150 of Obsession

“I broke up with her, Katherine.

I froze on the spot, Shane knocked again, but I ignored it.

Something suddenly changed in my soul, but it didn’t succeed in dispelling the fear.

“I just want to talk and explain everything to you. Just promise me you’ll listen to me sometime, baby.”

I was already crying. I hadn’t cried when I’d seen the blood on my bed. I clenched my fists and leaned against the wall.

“I promise,” was all I said, then hung up because I couldn’t fight it any longer, eventually he would have figured out that I was crying.

My short answers had protected my voice. He couldn’t tell how much I was shaking or how dejected I was.

“Katherine, are you okay?” Shane knocked harder and I opened the door.

He came in immediately.

“I’m fine,” I said before he could ask again.

“No, you’re not,” he almost whispered and I lifted my head to him, my eyes still watering.

“I don’t want him to get into trouble because of me.”

I spoke the first words that were on my lips, combined with the pain in my heart. I tried to be serious and looked at him, even though I was sure I didn’t look very convincing.

“I want to know who did this, but don’t you dare use me to trap Harris again. He didn’t do this, and I’m not going to testify against him.”

“I know,” he spoke quickly, surprising me, “Stone is many things, but not a psychopath. I know he didn’t do this, but thatdoesn’t protect you in any way, quite the opposite. Who else knew he slept here last night?”

I rubbed my forehead. My head hurt terribly, I had a migraine like I hadn’t had for a long time.

“No one, I mean… I don’t know, maybe his friends, but none of them would do something like this.”

Shane put his hand on my shoulder again.

“If you want to find out who did this, the first thing you should do is stop protecting strangers just because they’ve been nice to you a few times. You’re new to this town and you don’t know them.”

I nodded.

“Stone has enemies. A lot of them. Not enemies like me, from the police, but the kind of people who would do the exact same thing in your bedroom. Keep your distance from him, Katherine. I’m not trying to use you to catch him, you do not know enough about him, it’s just that yesterday I had a lead through you. This time I want to protect you.”

“Tell me exactly what you are thinking. What the message behind that blood is, stop protecting me.”

Looking at him, he sighed through his nose.

“If Stone spends one more night in your bed, it’ll be your blood next time.”

***

I was trying to get rid of my headache when two unknown men entered my house. They were Shane’s colleagues. He had asked me to trust him on this case, promising that he wouldn’t make a mess or tell my father, and that he would handle it as quietly as possible. It was exactly how I wanted it. One of them was a CSI, and I was quite relieved when he assured me that the blood was definitely not human. At the same time, he had told me that it appeared to be fresh, probably from a large animal.They all searched my house again, looking for tracks or prints, but they didn’t have much time.

Another shock followed when they pulled out my mattress, it was soaked with blood. At least five liters had been dumped on my bed. Whoever did that wanted to leave a clear message.

They wrapped it in black plastic before taking it away and putting it in the van they came in. I didn’t even know what my neighbors would have said if they had seen three men taking a bloody mattress out of my house. They acted quickly and cleaned everything up. Shane promised to bring me a new mattress as soon as possible.

He also promised that my father and I would be safe.

From the moment I had called Shane, I had thought about my father. I would never be able to forgive myself if something happened to him because of me.

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