Page 87 of Bloom: Part 2

“We found blond hair in the car. Your fiancé’s a natural blond, isn’t he? I saw his roots were showing when we picked you up.”

I shrugged. “He does. But he travels with me all the time. Of course you’ll find evidence of him being in the car.”

“And you’re sure you want to stick to the story that you were alone?”

I placed my arms on the table and leaned in. “Yes. Next question?”

Murphy nodded at Keyes, who dropped a folder on the table. He flipped it open, showing the body of a man lying on a metal table in the morgue.

“Before we picked you up, we retrieved this body from an alley, a hundred yards from where the shooting took place this morning. Is this the guy you shot?”

“I don’t know. They were both wearing masks, but he has the build.”

“Thanks for that. We’re still trying to confirm his identity. You don’t recognize him as someone working for your father?”

I shook my head.

“Who do you think they work for? Did you piss anyone off recently?”

I shrugged. “My family is always a strong possibility, but I wasn’t the most well-liked doctor at the hospital. Then after the incident, it could be any of the gang members remaining.”

“All right, we’ll verify the deceased’s identity and see if that can give us a clue. Is there anything else you would like to share with us, Dr. Collier? Or do you prefer to go by Agosti?”

“I haven’t been an Agosti in over a decade. I prefer to go by Logan Collier. And no, I can’t think of anything else besides my father requesting I see him in person.”

Murphy frowned. “Interesting. If he wants you to visit him in prison, why would he attempt to kill you?”

Exactly what Joel had said, but I couldn’t imagine a world in which my father didn’t want to kill me.

“I wish I had all the answers. Is that all?”

“Not quite.” Murphy flipped another page to a picture of the bloody body of a man horrifically stabbed to death. A tremor ran up my spine.

“Jesus.”

“Do you recognize this man?”

I averted my eyes as bile filled my throat. “No, I don’t.”

“The image is quite gruesome, but I need you to look again, Dr. Collier. Are you sure you don’t recognize him?”

Taking a deep breath, I steeled myself and leaned in to scrutinize the photograph. There were so many open wounds. So much blood around the body on the floor. His intestines were spilling out from his stomach, his eye socket devoid of its organ,and the savagery of his slashed throat was so grotesque I had to fight back the urge to throw up.

I sucked in a deep breath. The clothes. Oh my god. He was wearing the same clothes when I’d last met him at the Inconnu. I swallowed hard, my throat tight and dry. As if on its own accord, my hand reached out to slowly trace the edge of the photograph. Sweat pooled at the base of my neck as realization sunk like a cold stone into my chest.

Bloom did this?

That night he’d had so much pent-up anger when he attacked Joel. He’d even stabbed me, and he’d confirmed he’d killed the marshal. I’d just never expected anything this gruesome, like a bloodthirsty killer who’d been biding his time for the right person to cross him.

“Dr. Collier?” Murphy’s voice interrupted my spiraling thoughts.

“That’s… that’s Marshal Livingston,” I finally managed to say, barely above a whisper. “He was working on relocating me in WITSEC.”

“He was found stabbed to death in his motel room last night. I can see his death has come as a shock for you.” Not his death but the way he’d been mutilated, yes. “The US Marshals are sending someone to work with us to investigate the case. They’ll want to speak to you, so don’t plan any trips in the near future.”

“Understood.”

“Dr. Collier, we’re understaffed at the moment, so we can’t assign you protection. Do you have anywhere safe to stay?”

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