Page 20 of Unholy Masks

“He’ll miss a step, Yara. He has become too arrogant, and it’s going to make him stumble. We’ll catch up with him then.”

My phone rang. I showed my phone to Ryden before answering the call.

“Detective R.”

“We might be wrong about Victor’s death. It might not be Millicent. Come to the storage unit, Doctor West. There’s another homicide.”

Leo Kesler.

It was time to put on another mask, another play.

Too many masks, too many lies!

I hoped all the masks stayed intact until I found the Strangler, that they wouldn’t come undone.

6

THE THINGS WE DO FOR LOVE

TRISH

“That was awesome, right?” I clapped my hands with a giddy smile.

“You sure he’s going to be alright?” he asked, eyes flashing with doubt.

“Of course, Kurt. We’re just scaring him.” I closed my eyes. Kurt wasn’t Logan Jones, but still, he was a man. And men were easy to discard. “I just want to teach him a lesson for being evil. Do you remember Robert Miller?”

“Is this man like him?”

I said yes, It was a lie. Enzo was nothing like Robert Miller. Enzo was, for lack of a better word, perfect.

“But he’d be all right.” I patted his shoulder. “You know I won’t hurt him.”

He smiled. “I know.”

“Are you going back?”

“Yes. Sister Mary Elizabeth asked me to trim the bushes. I found a snake two days ago… It was big, Patricia. The children were scared.” He opened the van. “They thanked me for saving them.” His smile was real.

“Don’t you want to get out of that place?” I asked. There was an innocence in his face… the kind I hadn’t seen in anyone for a long, long time. “Why are you still there?”

“It’s home,” he said softly, looking down at his shoes as if trying to find the right words in the scuffed leather. “It reminds me of you, Tany, and... well, she’d be too lonely if I left too.”

I bit down the bittersweet ache. I missed Tany, but I wouldn’t go back to those days. Not even for my sister.

“Yes, Kurt. You keep her company for now. She needs you. We both need you.” I leaned in, lowering my voice. “Do you remember our promise?”

He gave me a nod, looking at me with a conspiratorial smile. “Yes. I won’t tell anyone I met you. No one.”

“Good,” I said. “It’s a secret, Kurt. There are bad people looking for me right now. People who would hurt me, just like they hurt Tany. I don’t want to die.”

“No, no, no. I won’t tell anyone. Never. You won’t die.”

“Thank you, Kurt. I brought you some key lime pie. You still love it, don’t you?”

“Yes, thank you, thank you,” he chanted, clutching the box like it was a treasure, smiling wide.

When he finally left, I stayed where I was, watching as he walked away.