Page 63 of The Arbiter
Her voice cracks, jumping an octave.
“I’ve called you twenty times. Twenty! I went to your apartment, I checked the lab... I was ten minutes away from reporting you missing.”
I close the door behind me, the click of the lock sounding like a death knell. I need to be careful. My mind is still echoing with Deimos’s warnings, his obsessive possessiveness lingering in the back of my throat.
“I was at the precinct, I told you when you called me Lucy,” I remind her, my voice sounding hollow even to my own ears.
I walk toward the coat rack, peeling off my blazer with trembling fingers.
“Detective Miller wanted a follow-up statement regarding Jake.”
Lucy springs out of the chair as if it were on fire. She stalks toward me, her heels clicking aggressively on the linoleum.
“The precinct? Alone?”
She grabs my shoulders, her grip bruisingly tight.
“Mali, look at me. You’re white as a sheet. You look like you’ve seen a ghost, or like you’re becoming one. What did they say? What did they ask you?”
I look away, unable to meet her gaze. I can’t tell her about the earpiece. I can’t tell her about the man who watched us through the cameras. If I tell her the truth, I’m signing her death warrant.
“It was just a routine. They found some... inconsistencies at the scene. They’re just shaking trees to see what falls out.”
“Don’t lie to me!”
Lucy screams, the sound echoing off the sterile walls.
She lets go of my shoulders.
“First Jake turns up dead close to this mortuary, then you start acting like a stranger, and now you’re being hauled into interrogation rooms? Who is he?”
My heart stops.
“Who is who?”
“The man!”
Lucy’s voice drops to a frantic, terrified whisper.
“The one you’re protecting. I’m not stupid. I’ve seen the way you look at your phone. I’ve felt the way you freeze up when we’re alone. Is it him? Did he kill Jake?”
The secret becomes too heavy. The wall I built during the interrogation finally crumbles. I grab Lucy’s wrists, not to push her away, but to steady my own trembling hands.
“I can’t tell you his name. Knowing it is a death sentence,” I whisper, my eyes darting to the security camera in the corner.
“But you’re right. He’s the one who did it. He’s everywhere. In my head, in my phone, in this building. But you weren't there that night, Lucy. You didn't see what happened in that private lounge at the masquerade party.”
Lucy freezes, her breath hitching.
“Jake was drunk, he was screaming... he shoved me hard. I thought he was going to kill me right there. But then, my phone buzzed in my hand. It was a message from him.”
A lone tear escapes, racing down my cheek.
“I didn't think. I just ran. I didn't see what happened after the door closed behind me. I didn't see the struggle, I didn't see the blood... I didn't see anything until Jake was found. He saved me by letting me escape the monster I was in the past with, and he took the darkness onto himself so I wouldn't have to. How am I supposed to hate a man who gave me my freedom the second he saw that I was in danger?”
Lucy pulls back, her eyes wide with horror.
“Mali, he’s a killer. He’s stalking you! This is Stockholm syndrome, he's breaking you down until you think his cage is a sanctuary.”
