Page 13 of Silent Knight

“I appreciate you saying that. Now, I spoke with the hospital staff, and many if not all stated you and Gia Grant were very close and left together after the attack at the hospital?”

“Yes, she was scared and admittedly I was too. Neither of us wanted to be alone so I went back to her place with her.”

He nodded. “That’s when everything gets fuzzy, Mr. Acker. Gia wasn’t harmed at the hospital but shortly after she was found with her neck brutally snapped and you were in the wind. Care to fill in the blanks?”

Yeah, the interrogation room wasn’t a coincidence. I suspected this would happen, though they weren’t wrong to think I did this.

“I was in Gia’s house when three guys broke in. One held Gia and another was asking where someone was, but neither Gia nor I knew who he meant, and I said so but he wouldn’t believe me. He got angry and told his friend to kill her. He…” I swallowed, closed my eyes, and tried desperately not to hear the sound of Gia’s body breaking. “He killed her.”

“So there were three men?”

“Yes.”

“What happened after that.”

“The one who seemed to be the leader, grabbed me and they took me with them.”

“You were kidnapped?”

I nodded. “They kept accusing me of lying, that I knew where some guy was, but he never told me who they were looking for and I thought maybe it had to do with what happened at the hospital, but I was terrified. My best friend was dead, and I thought I was going to die.”

Detective Hurst was scrutinizing me. “You’re an orderly at Legend Hill Hospital and work part time at Crane Comics and somehow attracted lethal killers who killed a nurse and kidnapped you in order to find some mystery man you don’t even know the name of?”

When he said it like that it sounded crazy. “Yes.”

“Mr. Acker?—”

“I get it, it sounds insane. I don’t understand it myself. But I got away from them and hid. I called my boss to take time off and he told me I needed to go to the station.”

“Why didn’t you come here to begin with?”

Frustration and weariness began settling in my bones and I wiped a hand over my face. “I was scared. I hid. Not the best choice but I came here to do the right thing.”

“Did you get a name of any of the men?”

“They kept calling the leader guy D.” I’m a terrible person who lies.

“D? That’s it? A description?”

Fuck my life. “The leader guy was large like over six-one, bald, kind of looked like Thanos from The Avengers movies, you know?”

“Right…and the others?”

“I can’t remember, I’m sorry.”

Detective Hurst sighed. “Mr. Acker, I’m finding a lot of this hard to swallow. Was it possible this had nothing to do with you and everything to do with Ms. Grant?”

Oh wow this was taking a turn. “I don’t understand?”

“The hospital was attacked and then Ms. Grant’s home. She’s the common denominator here. Has anyone been threatening her? Perhaps the someone this D was looking for was someone Gia was working with or something?”

How in the hell did he maneuver over to that theory? “Uhh…I suppose, but if that’s the case Gia never said anything to me. Trust me, I’d have ratted on the guy if it would have saved Gia’s life.”

The detective was silent for a moment then slipped a business card across the table. “Please call me if you think of anything else and in case I have further questions, I’ll need a number to call you.”

I shot off the number and Detective Hurst walked me out to where a very nervous looking Senon was pacing.

“Ready?” Senon glared at the detective and pulled me closer to him.

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