Chapter 11 - The Body in the FreezerRichard Was Dead
Police flooded the resort.
I stood in the foyer as six officers approached.
The lead detective showed me the warrant.
“Huy Dawson?”
“Yes.”
“You're being detained for the murder of Richard Dawson.”
My uncle's surname was the same as ours.
I didn't react.
“Where is the body?”
“Your private medical facility.”
“Cause of death?”
“We don't know yet.”
Mara stepped forward.
“I was with him.”
The detective looked at her.
“Then you are a witness.”
Vince moved closer.
“I'll accompany him.”
The detective shook his head.
“Mr. Dawson, you're also implicated.”
Vince's face hardened.
“On what evidence?”
“Security footage.”
My stomach tightened.
“What footage?”
The detective showed me a photograph.
Richard's body.
Blood on the floor.
My jacket nearby.
My fingerprints everywhere.
A knife in Richard's chest.
I looked at Mara.
She whispered:
“They're framing you.”
The detective began reading my rights.
I didn't resist.
Because something bothered me.
Richard's body had been found at the abandoned facility.
Yet we had left him alive.
Someone had killed him after we escaped.
Who?
And why frame me?
At the station, I was placed in an interrogation room.
Four hours passed.
Then the door opened.
Mara entered.
Not a police officer.
A lawyer.
I stared.
She smiled weakly.
“You look terrible.”
“You're a lawyer now?”
“No.”
She put a folder down.
“I called one.”
“Who?”
“Daniel's.”
I sat.
She opened the folder.
“Richard's autopsy came back.”
“And?”
“He didn't die from the knife.”
I looked up.
“What?”
“He was poisoned.”
“When?”
“Approximately six hours before his body was found.”
I frowned.
“So the knife was staged.”
“Yes.”
“By whom?”
She opened another file.
Lab results.
The same biological inhibitor in my blood.
My pulse raced.
“Richard was poisoned with the same compound.”
“Which means?”
“Someone from Project Halcyon still has access.”
I stared at her.
“And the police?”
“Compromised.”
I stood.
“Then we leave.”
She shook her head.
“Not yet.”
“Why?”
She slid a photograph across the table.
It showed Thomas.
Alive.
Sitting in a hospital bed.
The date was two months after the official crash.
I stared at the image.
“No.”
Mara whispered:
“Thomas survived.”
My knees almost gave out.
“Where?”
“The photograph was taken in this building.”
She turned it over.
A handwritten note was visible.
HE HAS BEEN HERE THE WHOLE TIME.
My breath stopped.
“What building?”
Mara's eyes met mine.
“The basement beneath Hollow Pine.”
Then the lights in the interrogation room went out.
May you like
And from the speaker came my brother's voice.
“Don't let Mara take you to me.”
