Last Seen Alive

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Kelsey leaned against Michael's door with her eyes closed and sighed.

So many emotions were going through her right then. From the crushing sadness of Pam's death to anger at Michael's dismissal, and most of all, guilt and shame that the whole time she was with him, she hadn't thought of Liam once, until Michael's cruel reminder that she had a boyfriend.

She sighed again and turned her phone on as she headed for the elevator. A flurry of messages and voicemails came in as she went down from her mum, Liam, and Natasha.

She tapped open the most recent one. It was a link from Natasha, accompanied only by the words, "Did you see this?"

She clicked on the link and it redirected her to a site called Hot Goss. The name sounded familiar but she couldn't remember where she'd heard it before until she read the title of the article and saw the featured image.

The title read, in big bold letters, "A Kidnapping. A Murder. An Affair Of The Heart?"

Below it was a picture of her and Michael standing in the precinct's car park embracing like lovers recently reunited after a lengthy separation.

"Oh no," she groaned, staring at the picture.

She realised then that the lightning she thought she'd seen when she was consoling Michael must have been a camera flash. The elevator jolted to a stop and she stepped out, scrolling quickly through Liam's messages. A few of them were follow ups to her last message about staying with a friend and the last ones were all asking about the article and the picture of her and Michael.

She called him right away and held her breath while it rang. Just when she was about to give up on him picking up, he answered.

"Hey, Kelsey," he said in a solemn voice.

Not "babe" or "Kels" or any of the other adorable names he usually called her. Her heart faltered.

"I know what the picture looks like but I promise, the article has it all wrong," she immediately blurt out.

"I'm listening."

"I was just comforting him. His cousin was murdered in the precinct last night and they were really close."

Liam was silent for a moment, then he asked, "Did you spend the night with him?"

She was tempted to lie, but knowing the guilt would torture her, she decided to confess.

"Yes," she said in a whisper. "But I promise, nothing happened between us."

That part was only half true. Nothing physical had happened, but emotionally, it felt like she'd cheated on her boyfriend with her boss.

"Are you still with him?"

"No, I just left."

"Send me his address. I'll come and pick you up so we can talk. "

"I'm already in a cab on my way to you. See you in a few minutes!" Another lie, but one she felt was necessary because there was no way anything good would come out of Liam knowing where Michael lived.

She flagged down the first cab that appeared and gave the cabbie Liam' address. On the way, she read through the rest of her messages and replied the ones she could, letting her mum know she was fine and would be home later.

When she dropped off at Liam's place, she took a deep breath before knocking at his door. He opened it a few seconds later and her heart broke at how disheveled and distressed he looked.

"I'm so sorry," she said, entering the apartment. "I promise I just wanted to make sure he was okay and wouldn't do something stupid like killing the cop who killed his cousin."