Wicked Games: Book Two of The Psychopath Series

Chapter 43

Alex toyed with the raveling thread at the end of his baby blue sweater. He wasn't going to show. He planned to blow it off. It was a text from Malachi that got him out the front door. He thought about heading back home as his car sat along the curb of Emerald Lane. As the A/C hummed and the radio whispered, his head stayed planted on the headrest. He eyed the familiar people pouring in and out of The Nectar Hut.

It was sixty seconds until his appointment and he was fifteen seconds from shifting the gear into drive when a hand knocked on the passenger window. Alex sat up letting the window slide down.

"Dude!" Preston leaned in the window. "Are you about to go into the Hut? Because I'm about to go to The Trout for some lobster Poutine." And just like that, he snapped back into the real world.

"It's been days since your arrest." Sonia clicked her pen, resting her hand on the legal pad sitting on her lap. "How are you?"

Alex sat wedged by the arm of the couch, "Fine, considering." He wondered who was there before he arrived because as of now her office was empty. The secretary with the cat glasses and Mr. Rodger's sweater wasn't even there.

"Have you been back to work?" Sonia fidgeted in her seat. She tugged at the waistband of her black slacks, probably rebounding from a heavy lunch at Rafaela's

He uncrossed his leg and then tugged down his blue jeans. They were becoming a little loose; almost a week of tea, water, and popcorn would do that. "No."

Sonia slid her finger over the gold inscription on the side of the pen, "Then what have you been doing?"

"Playing chess." He stuck the stray thread at the end of his sweater between his teeth and bit it off.

Her eyebrow's bunched, "Playing chess?"

"Yes." He wrapped the thread around his middle finger. "I hadn't played it since I was twelve."

"And who taught you?" She made a note.

He looked past her out the opened window. The sun blazed glowed around her. The glow that leaked through reminded him of the sheen that shone through the library window at the Rhode Island estate where he played his very first game on top of his father's lap. "Constantine."

"Your Grandfather!" Sonia's eyes widen.

"Yes." He looked at her sideways. "Former Vice President Constantine Lemen." He hated the way people got geeked about his Grandfather. He wasn't even that special. It wasn't like he was the President. He was the backup, the second in the command, the alternate.

"Who would win?" She looked behind herself trying to see what captivated his attention.

"He would." Alex scratched the bridge of his nose. "Mercilessly."

"He's you learn-by-losing type?"

Alex placed his elbow on the arm of the couch and his cheek on top of his fist. "He's the 'you only-get-what-you earn type'."

"And was there a lot of pressure to earn a lot in a family with that type of motto?"

"I don't want to talk about my family." He dropped his arm. "My family isn't the problem."

Sonia tilted her head narrowing her eyes, "Then what's the problem?"

"The problem is" Alex scooted to the edge of the couch. "I'm being framed for a murder I didn't commit."

"How does that make you feel?"

"How do you think it makes me feel?" He leaped up. "Like hell but I'll get through because the truth will prevail."

Sonia jotted something down. "I'm glad you think that." She watched him pace in front of the couch. "It's very positive."

"It's not my thought." He stopped in front of the bookshelf. "It's my girlfriend's." The word girlfriend soured his tongue since he hadn't talked to her since he was released from the hospital a day ago.

"Then what do you think?" She turned toward him.

"I think this is a design." Alex pulled out a book with the words, The Psychology of Personality running down its black spine. "The grand scheme of things."

"What do you mean by that?" She tapped her pen.

"I thought Dalton was talking out of his head when he said Lucas going in the Asylum didn't add up." He fanned through the pages; none of the words piqued his attention. "But now looking back at it after everything that has happened...things are starting to eerily make sense."

"Do you care to elaborate?"

He stuck the book back on the shelf. "Lucas and I hated each other." He swiped his finger across the shelf. "I despised him since group therapy but we had one thing in common." He blew the sliver of dust off his finger. "We didn't lie to each other. He knew I couldn't stand him and he couldn't stand me." He fell back on the couch.

Sonia sat the pen and pad on the table. "What does that have to do with what's happening now?"

"A person doesn't change overnight." The fingers of Alex's hand fanned out.

"So what do you think happened?"

"I think all this was a plan."

"All what?"

"Lucas was a murderer. He killed his father out of spite and his mother because her grief sicken him but Brittany didn't know him, she was never around long enough to get to know anyone other than Fiona and Isabeth." Alex walked back to the couch and sat down. "And Kevin could care less about him and Gavin wasn't really in his circle. And in both incidents, with his father and his mother, a gun was used. Ones M.O doesn't change overnight, either. Brittany died from an asthma attack. Her inhaler was conveniently empty." He air quoted. "Kevin fell a flight of stairs, the same stairs he ran up and down, drunk or high and Gavin was stabbed in the back. Do you know what all these incidents have in common with what just happened to Fiona?"

"No. Do you?"

"All those places had cameras that conveniently stopped working like Faith's car that...that mysteriously fell dead in the middle of the street after it passed an inspection just eight days before."

"What are you saying?"

"What I'm saying is we're living a game of chess and he's the only one that knows all the players."

"He who?" Sonia killed the alarm that screeched on her cell.

Alex rose to his feet. "The Hunter." He pulled his hands out of his pocket.