Page 68 of Unholy Masks

“Expedite it, please,” I said. “I need to know where it came from. This doesn’t look ordinary to me.”

“It’s not.”

I glanced past him, toward the far corner of the lab. Amy’s desk sat untouched by time.

The folder still lay open where Amy had last left it, papers half-slid from their sleeves. A cup of curdled coffee sat next to it. No one had moved it. No one had dared.

Jack followed my gaze. His shoulders stiffened.

“It’s too hard to…” Jack cleared his throat. “We should, but we don’t want to.”

Nodding, I walked out of the room.

Patricia had made it hard for me to walk into rooms without feeling like my heart was being ripped apart. Wherever I went, the ghosts she left in her wake haunted me. There was no way to run from all the dead bodies that chased me. So I let them chase me.

I was walking back toward the morgue when Detective Nia Hall stopped me.

“Hi, Doctor West.”

“Do you need something?” I asked, pushing open the door. The detective hesitated before she walked in.

“I want to talk about Leo Kesler and Victor Bane.”

“And?”

“I think something is wrong with their murders, something we aren’t looking at.” She frowned. “Your report is…”

“Never wrong,” I said. “That much I can assure you.”

“I know that.” She rubbed her head. “The detectives trust you.” A pause. She didn’t say she did not trust me, but the implication was clear. “There’s some missing piece of the puzzle, and I’m going to find it. I have to.”

Detective Hall was good. Too good.

If she kept digging, my stories would come unraveling with my life.

“You better solve that puzzle, then, Detective Hall.”

Detective Hall let out a wary sigh.

“Professionally, your reports are always right. But personally, what do you think, Doctor West?”

“I do think this is a copycat, but I don’t know how to explain how the copycat knew all the details.”

“Exactly. If it’s a copycat…” Nia stared over my head, “it’s someone closer. It has to be.” She stared at me like she wanted to say more.

“It could be.”

“That doesn’t worry you?” she asked, rubbing her temple.

“Everything worries me. I’m constantly in a state of fight or flight,” I said. Her brows furrowed, like she didn’t agree.

“You always look calm and collected. Even when—” Thankfully, her phone rang before she said more. She took a look at it before she gave a nod. “Thanks for your time, Doctor West.”

“Of course. If you ever want to discuss anything further, you know where to find me.”

Don’t find me, Nia. Please.

It wasn’t just the fear of her digging up my secrets that unsettled me, it was the thought that the Strangler might be watching. That she might see Nia as a threat, the same way she had seen Rishi Patel.