Chapter 4 - THE TANGLED WEB
Z
The world seemed to spin on a sickening axis. The air in the tiny, concrete room grew so thick I could barely draw it into my lungs. I pulled my hands away from Daniel’s ropes as if the fibers had suddenly caught fire.
"Daniel..." My voice was a fragile whisper, pleading for him to deny it, begging him to tell me that the monster with the gun was lying. "Daniel, look at me. Tell him he’s lying."
Daniel kept his head bowed, his shoulders trembling with silent, jagged sobs. "Amber... I was twenty-two... it was dark, it was raining so hard... she ran out into the middle of the road from the woods. I didn't see her. I swear to God, I didn't see her..."
"You hit her?" I stammered, backing away until my spine hit the cold concrete wall. "And... and my father?"
"I called Thomas," Daniel sobbed, lifting his bruised face, his eyes wild with ancient, festering guilt. "I was terrified. I was going to call the police, but Thomas... Thomas said it would ruin everything. He said if the public found out his future son-in-law was involved in a fatal hit-and-run, the press would tear our family apart, and the investigation into the Rose Killer would be compromised. Thomas took care of it. He took her body. I never asked where he put it. I was a coward, Amber! I was so scared of losing you!"
I covered my mouth with both hands, stifling a scream. My father—the legendary, unyielding homicide detective, the moral compass of my life—had covered up a fatal accident for the man who was about to marry his daughter. My entire life, my memories, my marriage—everything was built on a foundation of buried bones and systemic corruption.
"Touchingly tragic, isn't it?" Amos chuckled, the sound dry like rustling dead leaves. "Your heroic father compromised his integrity to save his precious daughter's wedding. But Thomas wasn't a professional at disposing of bodies. He made mistakes. And when I found out what he had done, I held it over his head for twenty-two years. That’s why your father never arrested me, Amber. It wasn't a lack of evidence. It was blackmail. As long as I kept his dirty little secret, he kept my secret."
"You monstrous bastard," I spat, turning my terror into pure, unadulterated venom directed at Amos. "You used my husband's mistake to keep murdering innocent women!"
"Self-preservation is a powerful instinct," Amos said smoothly, tapping his wooden cane against the floor. "Everything was perfect. A comfortable, quiet stalemate. Until Thomas died. With your father out of the picture, Daniel suddenly grew a conscience. He found Thomas's hidden journal detailing the cover-up, and he realized that with Thomas gone, I was the only witness left who could destroy his life. He came looking for me to silence me."
"That's not true!" Daniel shouted, straining violently against his bonds, the metal chair creaking under his weight. "I went to him to make him confess! I was going to turn myself in for the accident if it meant finally bringing you down for the murders!"
"A noble rewrite of history," Amos scoffed, lifting the revolver and aiming it precisely between Daniel's eyes. "But it doesn't matter now. The past is catching up to all of us tonight. The yellow roses were always my signature, my way of marking the end of a cycle. One hundred roses for the three women I took... and three marked with red for the three people who know the absolute truth: your father, your husband, and you."
"My father is already dead!" I cried out, stepping between the gun barrel and Daniel. "And I didn't know anything until five minutes ago!"
"Ignorance isn't immunity, my dear," Amos said softly. "You carry Thomas's blood. As long as you and Daniel are alive, the truth remains a threat to my legacy. When the police finally break through those chained doors, they will find a tragic murder-suicide. The guilty husband, wracked with remorse over his past crimes, killed his wife and then himself in a burning warehouse. The narrative is clean. It fits."
He cocked the hammer of the revolver. The mechanical click sounded like a death knell in the quiet room.
"Move aside, Amber," Amos ordered cold-bloodedly. "Or you can die first."
My mind raced at hyper-speed. Outside, I knew Detective Kellan and the police units were coming, but they didn't know the exact layout of this maze. They would be too late. If Amos pulled that trigger, Daniel was dead, and I would be next.
I looked at Daniel. Despite the monstrous lie he had kept from me for eighteen years, despite the betrayal that tore my heart to shreds, looking into his terrified, weeping eyes, I knew I couldn't watch him die.
"You forgot one detail, Amos," I said, my voice suddenly deadly steady.
Amos frowned slightly, his milky eye twitching. "And what is that?"
"My father didn't just teach me how to spot a lie," I said, slowly taking a step toward him, forcing him to adjust his aim away from Daniel. "He taught me how his partner operated."
With a sudden, explosive motion, I kicked backward with all my weight, slamming my heel into the heavy iron flashlight I had dropped on the floor minutes earlier. The flashlight rolled violently across the slick concrete, striking Amos’s bad leg right at the knee.
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Amos let out a sharp howl of pain as his compromised leg buckled. His gun hand jerked upward, and a deafening gunshot shattered the air, the bullet ricocheting off the concrete ceiling in a shower of yellow sparks.
Before he could regain his balance, I threw myself forward, tackling the old killer with everything I had.
