Declan
"I think I should go," I stood up trying to show that I was unaffected, "apologies for the mix up outside. If there's anything else I'll need I'll make sure to contact you."
Zion looked at me with a torn expression before he stood up as well. "I'm guessing Ian was special to you."
"He was just my partner, nothing more nothing less," I curtly responded.
"You can't be detectives together and not get affected by his death. Malachi mentioned-"
"What you and Malachi discuss is between you both," I snapped, "and frankly I don't think you know a thing about me for you to have an opinion on my life. I'm simply doing my job and would appreciate it if we stayed professional about it."
A frown etched his face before he nodded. "Apologies Detective. I didn't mean to intrude."
"And intruding you have," I lowly growled before I walked to the door.
"Detective," he called out just as I reached for the door handle.
I let out a sigh and turned around to face him. "Chief?"
A small smile spread across his lips and I was tempted to not just arrest him for harassing an officer. "Join me for dinner tonight. Let me make it up to you. I'll be willing to take any of your questions by then and I mean all of them."
My eyebrows knitted together in exasperation and the pure idiocy of this man. How had I just chewed him out and he still offered to have dinner? "What?" I asked dumbfounded.
"I am the chief of the reserve and after all I must show hospitality especially to the detective who is meant to help us figure out who is harassing our community. We started off on a bad foot. This would be a good chance for us to brush over the hatchet," he walked around his desk to stand a few feet in front of me. His height made me uncomfortable.
I looked up to him, eyes to eye, and sighed. "I will see if I am available. We have a lot to figure out with Nina's murder. That will be my first priority."
"Of course Detective, here," he walked over to his desk and pulled out one of his business cards from a small stack he had in a neat holder. "You may give me a call when you feel you are up to it."
I held the card in my hand and eyed it suspiciously but nodded either way. "Very well. I'll see what I can do. Later, Chief."
His smile grew as nodded. "Later Detective."
I pulled the door open and found relief when I stepped out of his study then walked down the hallway. I pocketed his business card in the inner pocket of my blazer before I rushed out the house back to Jason.
The hair at the back of my neck up in attention about Zion's offer. It was textbook. The profiler in me was connecting the dots. Dinner, suspicious behavior, unable to give a definite answer on their whereabouts but wanted to form some sort of hound. He knew mentioning Ian would get me rattled.
He knew it would be my weak point and it sickened me. I had let myself fall for it. Suspicious people knew how to disarm a detective, appear to be friendly that they are overlooked but to them it was all a cat and mouse game. Zion enjoyed the power, it was evident in the kind of man he was.
The woman literally bowed in his presence. As if he was a king, as if he was above her which was something I had never seen before. She seemed to beam under his easy praise which just surprised me more. What in the world was going on in the reserve?
It was such a tight knit community that even I had to single someone out. Even if I tried to get someone who didn't sing Zions praises it would be next to impossible to get anyone who would talk against him. Expose the secrets lurking within the reserve.
I didn't even notice I had arrived at the yellow house until I was up the steps. My steps faltered when I heard the sob of a woman from inside, followed by a man's reassuring words. I had let my need to figure out who Zion was distract me from the important part. Being there for the family in time of need.
I knocked on the door slightly and Jason was quick to let me in.
"Mr and Mrs Simon, my deepest condolences," I knelt down in front of the heartbroken couple who sat on the couch in deep embrace of each other.
"Who did this?" Nina's mother sobbed. "Who would do this to my baby?"
Jason and I looked at each other. "Ma'am I can't answer that right now but I'll turn every tone in this stone upside down until I get to the bottom of this. That I can promise you."
It took a while to calm down the couple before they were willing to take questions. Nina lived an ordinary life and by what we gathered from the rest of the interviews we did throughout the day, there was a fat chance that anyone would want to harm her out of cold blood.
"Another random murder," I clenched my jaw as Jason, Michael and I drove back to the station. "This doesn't make sense. Why the reserve? Is the killer getting bolder or just more stupid?"
"I think they're trying to send a message," Michael commented from the back seat. "There's something that just isn't right about this. Did you see the injuries? What kind of weapons would this person be using? And why the violence now? They always work clean."
"They're becoming desperate for something," I ran the tip of my tongue on the roof of my mouth deep in thought. "We're not leaving the station early today until we finally get a clue."