Page 91 of Jon's Helter Skelter Cold Case

Loved how the man was pinning the blame for his screwups all on me. Then again, he wasn’t able to self-analyze or admit to his own faults, so I wasn’t surprised. I just wished he hadn’t come down to this level. Threatening me was bad enough, but two teenage girls?

I had to keep him talking. I had to buy time until Donovan got here. It was the only way I saw out of this mess with none of us dying.

I could read this man like an open book, and I knew what buttons to push.

“So. You think I’m the cause of all this? What did I do, huh?”

Hatred flared in him, hot and fast, and he nearly trembled with it as he spat out, “Don’t you fucking play this game with me! You’ve always been holier than thou. Acting like I’m an idiot!”

Uh. You are? Currently an armed idiot, which was not in my favor.

“The very first day you met me, you almost immediately dismissed me. Just looked me over, head to toe, and I could tell you thought I was an idiot even then!”

Dude. Anyone looking at you could tell you were a moron. Didn’t take a Reader. Man, it was really hard to bite my tongue. I wanted to tell him off, but I also was desperate to get my girls out of harm’s way.

“Then there was that first case you took away from me, where you turned it all up on its head. I swear you manufacturedevidence just to make someone else the bad guy. Just to make sure I looked like an idiot.”

I sincerely didn’t remember which one he was referring to. “Which case?”

“Don’t fucking toy with me!” he screamed.

“I honestly can’t remember, Solomon. I’ve slept since then, so remind me. Which case?”

Solomon had always loved the sound of his own voice, so he was eager to tell me. It was one of those easy-to-push buttons.

“The one with the fraud at the city office! The ninety-thousand-dollar check that was given to the wrong woman.”

It took a second for his words to click. I wasn’t kidding when I said I didn’t remember which case he was referring to. Then it did and I rolled my eyes before I could catch myself.

“Even now you’re rolling your eyes!”

“Solomon. Everyone could see that the woman you pinned the blame on wasn’t at fault—”

“She was the one who issued the check to the person!”

“She was also the one who reported the case to begin with. And gave evidence she thought it was a fraud case. With signatures frombothof her bosses highlighting every single issue with the original filing for the check. It was obvious no one except her bosses—who didn’t want to accept the blame—thought she was the problem. You were buddy-buddy with one of her bosses, and that’s the only reason why you leapt on her as a suspect.”

“So, what? I’m just supposed to believe someone else over my friend?”

“When the evidence is right in front of you that he screwed up? Uh, yeah? I mean, seriously, you’re a detective. Aren’t you supposed to be able to discern truth from lies?”

Solomon laughed. It was a very ugly sound. “You always make me out to be the fuckup. You’ve turned the entiredepartment against me! Captain Olivia’s suspended me, pending an investigation. A fucking investigation! Like I haven’t been on the force for overtwenty goddamn years. Like I haven’t trained detectives through the years! Those same guys won’t even return a phone call now.”

I was pretty sure I knew who he was talking about. And they wouldn’t return a phone call from Solomon even before this all went down. They’d learned quickly his methods weren’t legit or even smart. In fact, one of them had gone to Borrowman and asked to be retrained, which said a lot.

The gun started shaking in Solomon’s hand. He was immensely upset, almost hurt. All that to say, his ego was very hurt.

The girls were behind one of the couches—they’d taken advantage of his preoccupation with me to hide. Hopefully one of them texted Donovan. Called 911. Something. This moment sadly illustrated just how sloppy Solomon was. Who threatened someone at gunpoint but failed to get anyone’s cellphones? Lock down witnesses? Here he was reaming me out because he’d been painted as an imbecile, while simultaneously acting like one. I’d laugh if I didn’t have a gun in my face.

“Every single time you come into one of my cases, you showed me up. And I’m not! A! Fucking! Idiot! I’m going to jail.” He sobbed, tears and snot making a mess. “I’m probably going to jail. And it’s all because of you! My dad’s washed his hands of me, said this is too big, he’s not going to get involved in it.”

Ohhhh. Now this made more sense. The hurt was because of being abandoned by his father. Not anything to do with me directly. I was just the easier target.

“No one’s on my side right now! No one’s willing to help me! They all say I deserve this after all I’ve done. What have I done, huh? What have I done?! I put bad guys behind bars—”

More often than not, you put innocent people behind bars. Hence the problem.

“—and for that I’m ridiculed? I’m shunned?”

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