Page 23 of So Twisted

He sat in a pose that looked like a cross between a slump and a sprawl, with his legs splayed out in front of him, his back arched and his shoulders slumped forward. His eyes stared moodily ahead above a petulant frown, and his right index finger tapped restlessly on the table. Turk growled at him, and he stopped tapping, giving the dog an injured look.

Faith and Michael watched him for a moment. He refused to meet their eyes.

“Why’d you run, Alex?” Faith asked, breaking the silence.

Alex shrugged.

“Yeah, that’s not gonna work for us,” Michael said. “We ask you a question, and you answer us. Why did you run?”

“I don’t know,” he mumbled.

"Yes, you do," Faith said. "You don't want to tell us, but you have a reason."

He shrugged again.

Faith sighed and leaned forward. “You need to start talking to us, Alex. We have evidence that you may have murdered two innocent people.”

Alex flinched. He stared at the two agents in shock. “What? You’re kidding me.”

The agents’ stony faces told him that they were not, in fact, kidding.

He leaned back and whined. “Oh my God. What are you talking about? I’ve been home all day.”

“What about last night? Or three nights ago?”

“Home! I… Oh my God. This is crazy.”

The door opened, and a stoic police sergeant handed Faith a piece of paper. It was a report from Cuthbert. Faith skimmed the document, and her eyebrows lifted. “Okay,” she said, setting the paper face up on the table. She spun it around with her thumb and forefinger and pushed it toward Alex. “Now we’re serious.”

Alex glanced at the paper, and his face went white. “Oh my God. Those are the victims?”

The report was a transcript of a few texts and emails between Alex and the two victims. Alex warned Marcus Reeves that he would tear his throat at and told Alison Chen that he hoped she choked to death on her own vomit.

There were some other flowery threats in there, but those were the two that stuck out in Faith’s mind because of how similar they were to the actual deaths.

“You want to tell me what happened?” she asked.

“Nothing!”

“Definitely not nothing,” Michael said.

“Well… I don’t know.”

His lower lip was trembling, and tears were leaking from his cheeks. Faith resisted the urge to curl her lip in disgust. "Let's start with the alibis. Can anyone confirm that you were home?"

He sniffled. “I mean, not at night.” He chuckled bitterly. “Figures those are the only nights I don’t have a girl over.”

“Life’s a bitch, ain’t it?” Michael quipped.

“Okay,” Faith continued. “So you see our problem here. We have two dead bodies, and we have you threatening to kill them in exactly the manner in which they were killed.”

Alex’s eyes popped open. “They tore the guy’s throat out?”

“Yes.”

Forrester looked sick. “It wasn’t me. You gotta believe me.”

“No, we don’t. We have to determine the truth. Right now, it’s not looking very good for you.”

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