The Wrath Walker (The Wrath Series Book 1) by Matthew Newson (moboreader txt) 📕

other side of the questioning. I waited in the interrogation room for over an hour and a half by myself in an emotional mess as I continued to relive the night’s events. Besides seeing Ron killed in front of me, I was overtaken with grief from seeing Lizzie and the look of pure disgust she gave me. Despair only grew at the thought of her coming through the door and looking at me that way again. I would literally have done anything to have her back, but she had moved on, and I seemed perpetually stuck in my feelings of hopelessness. I wanted to believe things would get better, but it seemed I was destined to be forever tormented for the misdeeds I unknowingly perpetrated.

I pushed it all down inside like I had done so many times before, so I’d be able to function when Lizzie entered the room.

While I sat there, I thought about how much of the real story I would actually tell Lizzie. The officer at the scene recorded a short statement of what happened, but I was in the room where I was supposed to give great detail of the events of the evening. I had to figure out what I would and wouldn’t share, and then I had to keep consistent with that story. I needed to find out who that Wrath guy really was, why he killed Ron, and why he wanted to kill four others and myself.

As Lizzie walked in, it felt like a searing hot knife slid through my heart and then twisted all around my insides. In that moment I decided to tell her everything, except for the part about me being a target on Wrath’s list of death. If she knew, she’d have me locked down in police protection, and I had a killer to find and stop. She sat down at the table with her standard notebook and pen and cleared her throat. I guessed old habits really did die hard, because she started every interrogation like that as a way to make the person feel somewhat at ease so they would let their guard down.

“Look, Brandon, you know how this works. I’m supposed to come in here and make small talk with you, so you will relax and trust me enough to talk and tell me everything you know. How about we cut through all of the gimmicks, and you just tell me what happened, okay?”

As I looked at her, I saw for the first time how she truly hated me as much as I had hated Ron. She hadn’t gotten over the pain I had caused her from when I repeatedly brushed off her attempts to warn me about Ron’s illegal behavior.

“Yes, I agree, I think that would be the best course of action here.”

She flashed a sarcastic smile and readied her pen to write. “Great, so please tell me about all the events of the evening, and exactly how Ron Horn died with you in the room.”

“Ron called me shortly after five o’clock this evening, and he sounded really spooked by something. He said he believed that someone was after him. I could tell from the fear in his voice that he truly believed that someone was trying to kill him, and he begged me to come over so he could tell me in person.”

“Why was he so adamant on you coming over?”

“He said he didn’t have anyone else he could call for help, and he knew that I was a good guy who would actually help him. However, he believed the Riccis had been following him over the past couple of days and were coming after him to kill him. Once they got him then they would come after me because...”

“People think you two are nothing more than a pair of dirty cops who got away with doing terrible and illegal things.”

I nodded. “Yep, that’d be the reason why, but I’m innocent remember? I wasn’t doing the things Ron was, and I’m not going to sit here listening to your passive aggressive comments anymore, Detective Elizabeth.”

She smiled in victory because she knew her comment had hit its intended mark. “You’re right, you were just his dim-witted puppet in his schemes. Please continue, Mr. Farmer.”

I bit my lower lip for a second before I continued on. She enjoyed the fact she was getting to me. “Well, I decided against my better judgement, and I drove to Ron’s house. I constantly checked to make sure I wasn’t being followed myself just in case I was being watched. I brought my handgun to protect myself, and once the people in the lab check it, they will see it hasn’t been fired in months.”

“They already did, and they confirmed your story about it not being shot in a while.” She coldly stated back to me.

“Good. When I got to Ron’s, he continued on with his story about how he felt like he was in danger, and how I was the only one who could help him. Then we heard a knock at the door two different times, and both times Ron confirmed no one was there by using his doorbell camera. Ron thought kids were doing it and running away, and the second time, Ron opened the door and yelled at the kids in the street to knock it off. The next thing I knew there was a man in a red suit standing next to me from out of nowhere, and the moment I noticed him, he threw me into the wall. He had to have been hiding in the house and came out when we were distracted by the knocking.”

“That explains the large hole in the drywall,” she said. “Did you get a good look at the guy, Brandon?”

“Yes.”

“Please describe him in detail to the best of your recollection and try not to leave anything out.”

“He wore a red business suit, with a red vest, white dress shirt, black tie, black leather gloves, and black leather shoes.