Chapter 8 – The Lie Between Them
When Emily finally collapsed into bed, her body exhausted from pretending to be calm at Alex’s dinner table, her mind refused to shut off. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw the necklace glinting under Lisa Grant’s bedside lamp in those crime scene photos. And every time she rolled over, the phantom buzz of her phone echoed in her ears– Ask him what happened the night she died.
The words coiled inside her like barbed wire.
Alex said it was meaningless. Just a few dates. But if that was true, why hide it? Why wait until she practically forced it out of him?
All these questions floated deep inside her mind all throughout the night.
By dawn, her sheets were tangled around her legs . She pushed them off and stumbled to the shower, where hot water scalded her skin but didn’t wash away the dread clinging to her bones.
\~~~
Sarah’s voice startled her mid-morning.
“You look like hell.”
Emily blinked up from her desk to find her best friend standing in the doorway, two coffees in hand. Sarah set one down in front of her with a frown.
“Thanks,” Emily muttered, wrapping her hands around the paper cup like it could anchor her.
Sarah pulled up a chair. “So? How did it go last night?”
Emily hesitated. Part of her wanted to spill everything, but the memory of Sarah’s doubt from the night before held her tongue. Sarah had a habit of trying to explain things away until proof was ironclad.
Still, she could not keep it all in.
“He admitted it,” Emily whispered.
Sarah’s brows knitted. “Admitted what?”
“That he knew Lisa. That they… went on dates.”
Sarah leaned back, eyes narrowing. “Well, damn.”
Emily’s chest tightened. “You do not sound shocked.”
“Because men lie, Em. They always leave out the parts that make them look bad.” Sarah’s tone was pragmatic, not alarmed. “It still does not make him a killer, though.”
Emily bristled. “but it still makes him look suspicious. Why was he dishonest then."
“Yeah Sure...." Sarah said carefully. “But if every dishonest man in New York was a murderer, the morgues would be overflowing.”
Emily looked away, chewing her lip. Sarah was not wrong. But she was not right either. Not this time.
\~~~
At lunchtime, Emily forced herself to scroll through her messages again. Maybe she had imagined them. Maybe her exhaustion had conjured them from thin air. But there they were, stamped with the same unknown Number.
Her stomach twisted. Whoever it was had eyes everywhere.
She slipped her phone into her pocket just as Alex’s name lit up the screen.
Her pulse spiked. She answered with a shaky, “Hey.”
His voice was smooth and warm. “I was thinking of you. How’s your day going?”
“Fine,” she lied.
“You sounded tense last night. Did I say something to upset you?”
Emily swallowed hard. The question was a trap, and she knew it. “No.... I'm just exhausted.”
He chuckled softly. “Then let me make it up to you. How about Friday? There’s a gallery opening downtown. Thought it might be fun.”
Her throat dried. A public place. Safer. But still with him...
“Yeah,” she forced out. “That sounds good.”
“Perfect,” he said, "I'll pick you up at 9" and he hung up.
Emily stared at her reflection in the darkened phone screen, her own eyes looking foreign.
\~~~
By evening, she could not stay alone any longer. The silence and fear were eating her up. So she went to meet Sarah at her office, the one place that always buzzed with the hum of printers and voices, never truly empty. Emily needed the noise.
“Okay. Let’s say he lied about Lisa at first because he did not want you to get scared and start connecting dots that are not there to begin with. I get it, Men are idiots about that kind of thing. But those texts…” She trailed off. “That’s quite weird.”
“Do you believe me now?”
Sarah sighed. “I believe you saw them. But I do not know what they mean yet. It could be a prank.... Could be someone who is just trying to mess with you.... Could be…”
“Could be the killer,” Emily finished flatly.
Sarah did not answer.
Instead, she opened a folder on her desk. “I asked my friend in the precinct for more of the case files. I want to show you something but do not freak out.”
Emily’s stomach dropped. “What is it?”
Sarah slid a photo across the desk. It was grainy, taken from security footage outside Lisa Grant’s building the night of her murder. A tall figure in a dark coat, face obscured, stepping into the lobby.
Emily’s hand shook as she traced the outline.
“Look familiar?” Sarah asked softly.
The figure’s build. The way he carried himself. Even blurred, it was eerily familiar.
Her voice cracked. “It looks like Alex.”
Sarah exhaled. “Or about two hundred other men in Manhattan. But yeah… it’s not a good look.”
Emily pushed the photo back like it might burn her. “He told me he barely knew her. But if that’s him...”
“Then he lied about more than that.”
Emily buried her face in her hands. “God.... Sarah, what if I’m sleeping next to a murderer?”
Sarah reached out, squeezing her arm. “Erm, we will figure this out together. You would not become the next headline, okay.”
\~~~
On her way home that night, Emily’s phone buzzed again. She nearly dropped it, pulling it out.
Unknown Number: “You chew your lip when you're nervous, makes you look so cute.”
Her breath hitched. She touched her lower lip without thinking raw from where she had been biting it.
Her phone buzzed again.
“Red suits you....Wear it again for me when we meet.”
Emily spun in a circle on the sidewalk, her pulse exploding in her ears. People streamed past, wrapped in their own lives. No one looked at her. No one seemed to linger.
Another buzz.
“Don’t worry Emily, you will see me soon.”
Emily nearly dropped the phone. Her vision blurred, panic clawing its way up her throat.
She broke into a run.
\~~~
By the time she reached her apartment, her legs were shaking so badly she could barely climb the stairs. She locked the door, slid down against it, and hugged her knees to her chest.
The phone lay on the floor beside her, the screen still glowing.
She stared at it, heart pounding, until another message appeared.
Unknown Number: “You locked the door, such a naughty girl but the lock won’t save you. I’m already inside.”