The Worst Crime - ZeRoyalChaos

24: Exposed

Ze's POV

"Heads up, Adam coming this way on your right." Minx hissed at me, and I stiffened. I turned, looking to my right, and sure enough, Adam was sauntering over with his hands in his pockets. It had been several days since we last spoke, and I had tried every which way to frame him with no success. Minx had been informed about everything I'd done against the mafia, about Hutch and Adam's secret thing that I ended, about Chilled and how I felt, and more importantly about how Adam and I were in a stalemate to see who would kill the other first. She offered to light him up with Krism, but I knew that the lookout was ever so vigilant, and there was also a new investigator in town. Instead of making her risk it, I told her to keep low. If I couldn't have Chilled, and Adam couldn't have Hutch, then at least Minx could have Krism.

"Well if it isn't my favorite murderer in town?" Adam said, standing next to me. His wore his signature smirk, and seemed to have more confidence about him today than I had seen from him in awhile. I figured that knowing I was the one who killed Hutch sent him into a determined state to kill me, and I knew that he'd been planting evidence just as much as I had. Minx snorted from my other side, and Adam ignored her. "You know, I think today is the day that it all finally comes crashing down."

"Fuck off, Adam. Leave him alone." Minx told him before I could defend myself, and Adam only chuckled. "He's done nothing to you."

"Tell me that when he takes away your little arsonist girlfriend." Adam retorted, and Minx stiffened. "Oh, you didn't think I knew about that, did you? I have eyes and ears everywhere sweetheart, you two are not far down my list. If only I wasn't such good friends with the new investigator."

"That new investigator will soon find out that your being an escort is only a side profession." I told Adam, and he looked at me as though I had said something he didn't understand.

"What, you're saying I'm a whore?" he asked, and I returned a knowing look. Adam laughed in the sort of way that implied being offended, and he shook his head. "After all this time, putting off killing you, and you still insult me. I admire your confidence, Ze. I just hope you're ready to see Chilled after today."

"Well, I'll be sure to tell Hutch that you never loved him, as the player, as much as you loved the game." I said, and Adam stiffened next to me. His stare was ice, and he turned to me in a slow fashion. His mouth was twisted in anger, frustration, and above all sadness. A part of me wanted to apologize, but the bigger part of me told me to own what I had just said, and so I raised my eyebrows as if to question whether or not he would challenge me. Adam turned around, chuckling darkly.

"So that's how it is, then?" he asked, and the executioner quieted the crowd with a wave of his hand. "I hope you don't mind going out by choking then, Ze. I've got it all set up against you."

"Not if I can help it." Minx hissed threateningly, and Adam only shot her a disdainful side look before sniffing as though she weren't even worth his time.

"Please. Trying to help him will only make you look suspicious. But go ahead, you'd save me the trouble." Adam informed her.

"Let me kill him." Minx told me, her hand reaching to my belt where I always kept a secret knife, and I caught her wrist in time. I shook my head, and moved her hand away. "You're going to tell me not to defend you, too. Aren't you?" she asked, and I nodded. I figured that it would come down to this, Adam would trip me up eventually. If I was lucky, I could worm out of it, but that depended on what argument Adam brought against me.

"I have some evidence." a man stepped forward after the executioner had asked anyone to bring forth leads. The man, who I realized was probably newer than most, was named Ritz. I had seen him before, but I didn't think that he'd take up the profession of an investigator. He sought me out with his gaze in the crowd, and cleared his throat. "I have received a tip from an anonymous reliable source that Ze is a serial killer, and after investigating him, he is either that or a doctor."