Page 21 of The Quiet Witness

Lucien didn’t give her space to think, shrinking into her personal space. She clenched a hand, hiding the tremble within. “Makes one curious.” He whispered.

She wanted to spit in his face, push him away and curse him out. But her limbs froze up in front of him. “You’ve got guts, girl, I admire that.” With that he turned, picking up the sponge to continue his scrubbing.

Kate’s focus fell on the open trunk, him bent below it. If she threw the trunk down hard enough… would it break his spine?

Lucien half-turned in the back of the car, searching her gaze. A weird expression crossed his face… almost like awe.

“I recognize that look. Wanna know why?” He parked himself butt first in the trunk, legs swinging through the air. “It’s the same look I get when I think about a kill.”

So that was why he was looking like a happy clown. They could talk about right and wrong all day. When it came down to it, he loved inflicting pain.

Kate shuddered, but it wasn’t from the cold.

From the corner of her eye… blood dripped onto the glistening ice. “Shouldn’t you be cleaning that up?”

“Worried I’ll get caught, sweetheart?”

“Nope.” She crossed her arms. “Sooner rather than later.”

“Can’t blame you, sweetheart.”

Oh, if only she had the chance to rip that grin off his face. She whirled around before acting on that imagination, letting her feet take her to the house.

“Won’t happen though.”

She stopped in her tracks. “How’s that?”

“Well, for one, police aren’t saints.”

Her throat bobbed. He couldn’t possibly mea—

“Let’s just say the police around these parts aren’t very interested in my coming and going.”

Bluff… he had to be twisting the truth. Maybe one was in his pocket, but a whole police station? Never.

“Also.” He gestured to the pool of blood. “Snow melts, it fades away. There won’t be much to find unless, for whatever reason, a sample is taken in the near future.”

She pried her eyes off the scarlet jackpot. Sample… DNA… Police.

Keep him busy.

“What about the car though? There is bound to be DNA left behind?”

Pride glistened in his eyes. She swore he liked it, this back and forth of theirs. Someone to share his ways with, without the risk of exposure. So far, one thing was clear. Whatever his plans were, she would be getting out of here. In a casket or on her feet.

“Of course that leaves traces. Thank God for hydrogen peroxide.”

“I’m happy for you, Lucien.” Kate crossed her arms, as if they could somehow protect her from the truths shared, and turned to enter the silent house.

“Wait.”

She shifted. Seeing Lucien push past the car, ending up by the rows of roses flanking the driveway. She glanced around the hedge, seeing him peering in between the roses. They had long since withered and died, submitted to winter’s grasp. Although… what was he…

A single black rose stood tall, circled by its succumbed brethren. With a snap, he plucked the rose. A pang of regret shot through her stomach. Why cut something still brimming with such vigor, which was so strongly ignoring the inevitable?

Apparently not bothered by such thoughts, he fished out his pocket knife. Making quick work of trimming thorn by thorn away from the small stalk, he stopped in front of her.

She’d been wrong. It wasn’t black… not entirely, streaks of white mingled with the dark leaves. Almost like… yin and yang.