“I have the tapes,” Pie said. “I’ll give them to you. You’re free now.”
She looked at his leather jacket then at him. “Free?”
“He won’t hurt you anymore.”
The tears that had been in her eyes, fell.
“You shouldn’t be telling me this,” she said.
“I am. He’s not going to hurt you anymore.” He pulled out her file and slid it across the table. “Your disk will arrive within the next twenty-four hours. Do with it what you will, just don’t mention me being here.”
“He means that. Don’t mention it to fucking anyone, you understand?” Landon asked.
“Don’t,” Pie said.
“No, I won’t, I promise. I won’t say a word. He’s really gone?”
He nodded his head, and he saw the tears of relief in her eyes. He’d done the right thing, no matter what anyone said. He couldn’t just walk away.
Pie didn’t linger. He didn’t see a reason to.
Leaving her apartment, he made his way downstairs to his bike.
“What the fuck, Pie?” Landon asked. “She could go to the cops.”
“She’s not going to.”
“How do you know?”
“She wanted him dead. Didn’t you see that look in her eyes?”
“Because he was an asshole.”
“Men like Richard don’t inspire loyalty, Landon. After what he did, what I saw, and I didn’t even watch the whole thing—she wanted him dead because she couldn’t do anything. She couldn’t even move on with her life for fear of him coming back into it. It’s why I told her what I did.”
“You know Duke is going to be really fucking pissed with you.”
“Let him. He’d do the same fucking thing.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know that I can’t go around not letting these women have some kind of closure. It’s why I’ll keep doing what I do.” Straddling his bike, he looked toward Landon. “You can either come with me or go back to the clubhouse. I have two more people to see, and I’m going to do it.”
****
Lindsey was so nervous as she opened her locker, placing her stuff back inside. Her makeup was quite thickly done, but it also seemed like she was just trying a new look. Working in a plastic surgery clinic, people didn’t really talk about things that involved a change of look.
Her hand shook as she closed her locker and ignored the pristine-looking staffroom. Whoever Pie had gotten to handle the fine details had done a bang-up job of making it all look normal.
Not for a single second did it look like someone had fought for their life, or been held against their will, struggling.
“Let go of me. Stop!”
She walked out of the staffroom, placing a hand to her stomach to try to calm her nerves. She truly believed she was going to be sick.
At the front desk, she opened up the appointment book and saw lots of black marks, and crosses out, and other stuff.
“Tiffany quit,” Brian said, coming up to the desk.
She looked up to see Richard’s partner.
“Oh, is that why she decided to use the appointment book for a coloring one?” She turned the page, and still, all of her carefully organized notes were crossed out, or heart shapes decorated the page. Even Tiffany’s name in bubble writing was there, and it just annoyed her.
“Yes, around the time that I got a call from Richard. He’d decided to take an extended vacation. Told me it was time I learned to walk on my own two feet. Fucking asshole. I’ve bene running this fucking surgery for years now, and he thinks it’s all him,” Brian said, shaking his head. “I’m pleased you’re back.”
“You rarely stop by the front desk.”
“That’s because I’m normally in surgery. Without you the past week or so, I have missed you.”
Brian was the one that had a family. She’d seen his wife many times.
“I believe Richard kept a spare appointment book in his office. I got to get back. I’ve got a consultation waiting. Marie’s organizing a replacement, and I currently have reached out to some other surgeons to take over Richard’s workload.”
“You’re not going to wait for him to come back?”
“I need help now. This surgery needs two of us here to keep on top of the demands.” He patted the top of the desk.
“Is Richard’s, erm, office, open?”
“Yes. You just head inside. I better go.”
She didn’t want to go inside Richard’s office, but flicking through the pages of the appointment book, she didn’t have much choice. There were always two appointment books because Richard made her fill both out in case of emergencies.
Turning on her computer, she brought up the calendar in the hope of finding all of the appointments collected in there, but alas, nothing.
“Great.”
Leaving the desk, she made her way toward Richard’s office.
She didn’t want to go in there, and her hands felt cold and clammy just at the thought.
“It’s just an office.”
Twisting the knob, she opened the door and waited. The room was bright as he demanded floor to ceiling windows. She wondered how many victims had been in his room and wanted to toss the bastard out of it and see his lifeless corpse on the ground below.