Chapter 19: He Said I’m Deeply Scheming

Chapter 19: Chapter 19: He Said I’m Deeply Scheming

"This is surveillance footage from near the alley at the end of the street. Cecilia Caldwell was last seen heading into it." Zeke Shaw was warning Brian Morgan that he had better tell the truth.

Brian Morgan grew agitated. "She can go wherever she damn well pleases! We didn’t tell her to go there on the fifteenth!"

"Still lying!" Zeke Shaw slammed the table.

Brian Morgan had a short fuse, too. "This was all Julian Fletcher’s idea! He told us to do it. If you have questions, ask him! I don’t know if he told Cecilia Caldwell to go to the alley on the fifteenth. I have an alibi for the fifteenth. I was at Nocturne, getting plastered. A few of the hostesses there will definitely remember me."

Zeke Shaw glanced at the time and gestured for his colleague to take Brian Morgan away.

"Sir, you don’t think it was that Julian Fletcher, do you? That he assaulted Cecilia Caldwell and then, afraid of being exposed, killed her and tried to pin it on the serial killer..."

Zeke Shaw remained silent. He, too, was now suspicious of Julian Fletcher.

I sighed and listened in silence, wondering what sort of cruel words Julian Fletcher would spew when it was his turn to be interrogated.

Before long, Julian Fletcher was brought in. He sat down at the interrogation table, an irritated look on his face.

"Mr. Fletcher, we need your full cooperation to clarify a few things," the officer taking notes warned in a grim voice.

Julian Fletcher was clearly impatient. "I have the right to remain silent until my lawyer is present."

"If you want Cecilia Caldwell to die, then by all means, remain silent forever," Zeke Shaw said gravely.

Julian Fletcher’s brow tightened, but he remained silent.

I laughed. It was a deeply sarcastic laugh as I watched him.

’He just can’t wait for me to die.’

"On the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth, you had Cecilia Caldwell wear Erin Whittaker’s clothes and walk alone through Hollow-tree Alley and the alley at the end of the street to lure out the killer, correct?" Zeke Shaw’s voice was dangerously low.

It was a risk most police officers wouldn’t dare take, yet Julian Fletcher had thrown Cecilia Caldwell out there to die with a plan that was amateurish in every respect.

Julian Fletcher glanced up at Zeke Shaw but remained silent, clearly unwilling to cooperate.

Zeke Shaw seemed to be the kind of cop who deeply empathized with victims. He slammed the table in a rage. "If the killer targeted and murdered Cecilia because of your damned arrogance, can you even imagine how desperate she must have felt in her final moments!"

I sat quietly in the interrogation room, my whole body trembling.

’Zeke Shaw was right. I truly was... utterly and completely hopeless.’

Pushed into Hell with his own two hands by the man I loved most, the man I cared for most, the very man who had once saved my life.

"Officer Lowell, your attempts to provoke me are useless," Julian Fletcher replied, perfectly composed. "You don’t know Cecilia Caldwell. I’m the person who knows her best in this entire world. She won’t die. I won’t believe any reports of her death until I see a body."

’He really didn’t believe I would die.’

"On the fifteenth, Cecilia Caldwell went into the alley at the end of the street and then disappeared. The surveillance footage shows she never came back out." Zeke Shaw felt a wave of powerlessness; Julian Fletcher seemed like a lost cause.

He also felt that Cecilia Caldwell’s fate was truly pitiable.

"There’s a discrepancy in the timeline. I’m not sure if Officer Lowell is being intentionally misleading, but while we did have Cecilia Caldwell act as bait on the nights of the thirteenth and fourteenth, no one told her to go on the fifteenth," Julian Fletcher said very seriously. "And she was supposed to go to Hollow-tree Alley, not the alley at the end of the street."

Zeke Shaw silently scrutinized Julian Fletcher, as if trying to see right through him to determine if he was lying.

I, too, stood behind Zeke Shaw, watching Julian Fletcher in silence.

’How ridiculous...’

"Tell me about Cecilia Caldwell. What is she like, in your eyes?" Instead of showing Julian Fletcher the evidence and surveillance footage, Zeke Shaw asked him to talk about... me.

’What am I really like in his eyes?’

"Her?" Julian Fletcher let out a cold laugh. "She looks pure and innocent, but she’s actually deeply calculating."

Zeke Shaw leaned back in his chair, watching Julian Fletcher quietly.

"She was my family’s adopted daughter. She’s been obsessed with me for years and was willing to do anything to marry me—she even tried to kill my fiancée." Julian Fletcher’s words were dripping with hatred.

I stood there before him, numb. I wanted so badly to slap him, but I knew it was pointless.

"Erin Whittaker?" Zeke Shaw seemed to have latched onto a key point. "Would you mind elaborating on the bad blood between Cecilia Caldwell and Erin Whittaker?"