The Perfect Emma

Chapter Twenty

Grayson Todd

"Oh. And I'm glad you enjoyed the chicken. Teriyaki is one of my favorites."

....The chicken?

....The chicken.

Emma's reactions to Aaron outside had sent up enough red flags in Grayson's mind, but that....That sealed the deal. How else would Emma have known about that if she wasn't there? Listening? If she hadn't....

The door.

Water damage my lily white ass.

Slowly, unbelievably slowly, the pieces fell together in Gray's mind. All the way back from the beginning, fifteen motherfucking months ago things made sense.

Throughout the case, Aaron never seemed to take it as seriously as Gray had. Whenever there was a lead, it ended suddenly. Inconclusive evidence. Tampered evidence. Lily's sighting; she'd claimed Emma had been in the car with a blond man. Aaron was about as blond as they come. Even things unrelated to this case....The evidence planted in Gray's car? He was willing to bet Aaron did that too, to send Gray off his trail.

And then finally something else occurred to Grayson.

"Don't trust your partner."

Emma had been talking to him. His partner.

Aaron fucking Matthews.

"....Detective?" Emma said quietly, staring at him in slight confusion. Grayson had been silent for longer than he'd thought.

He shook his head, returning to reality. His gaze returned to the door, and slowly he felt anger bubbling up inside him. "It was him, wasn't it," he muttered.

Emma didn't respond immediately. "I....I—I can't...."

But that was answer enough. Either it was refuse to answer or say no. There was never a straight yes in these situations. "Trust me, Emma," he said gently. "He's not going to get away with it."

Aaron Matthews was the Ghost Killer.

He'd kidnapped and killed Lara Akers, as well as others. He'd kidnapped Emma Mabel and almost killed her too.

What hit Grayson the hardest was the fact that Aaron Matthews was the man that had, seven years ago, kidnapped his pregnant wife and murdered her three months later, dumping her on the side of the fucking road, only to end up his partner in law enforcement for four years.

Aaron Matthews was a dead man.

Gray got up from the chair and moved for the door again.

"Detective," Emma said quickly, sounding frightened. "Detective, don't, don't please, he'll—" She reached her hands out towards him, but he was far from her grasp.

"It's okay, Emma," Gray said. "He won't hurt you." Clenching his fist around the doorknob, he added, "He won't hurt anyone ever again." Opening the door, he looked upon Aaron calmly at first, before his expression slowly turned into one of anger and disgust.

Aaron was lucky IAB had confiscated Gray's gun.

And he looked like he knew that.

Aaron didn't even say anything. He took one glance at Grayson and made a run for it. Gray immediately went after him, shouting, "Get back here, FUCKER!!!"

For four years Grayson had solved case after case with Aaron. Aaron was a good detective. He was good at his job. And now Gray knew that it was because he knew exactly how killers think. Because he was one.

And now it made sense why Aaron was never caught, because he was always given his own fucking cases. Because Grayson had insisted upon taking the Ghost Killer murders, and Aaron was his partner, and....

Grayson thought Aaron had been his friend. His last friend in this world.

And now he was made aware that his friend had been the one to take his wife away from him. To take half a dozen wives, and daughters, and sisters away from others.

This man deserved to die, and Gray wasn't resting until he did.

Unfortunately, Aaron was faster than Gray—he always had been, the fucker—and it was a block away from the hospital and climbing an alleyway fence later that Gray inevitably lost him. Absolutely seething, Gray paced around for a moment, gripping his hair as if about to rip it out, before punching the wall. It...was a cement wall. And it hurt more than he acknowledged. "Fuck!" he hissed angrily.

Grayson returned to the hospital and got into his car, picking up the radio. "Dispatch, this is Detective Grayson Todd, badge 32521; I need an immediate All Points Bulletin on Detective Aaron Matthews, badge 88586. Blond male, five-foot-ten, last seen escaping on foot, northwest along Seventh Street towards South Alvarado. Suspected of multiple homicides and kidnappings."

"Copy that, Detective, backup is on the way."

With that done, Gray sat back for a brief moment with a sigh, before slamming the dashboard and getting back out. He took out his phone and called Zach. Now that he knew which cop was the bad apple, his faith in the others were restored. "Grayson? Aren't you suspended for the day?"

"Zach, any second now you're about to be informed of an APB out for Detective Matthews."

A few silent moments passed before Zach confirmed it. "Well there it is. Suspected of multiple homicides and kidnappings—What is this about?"

"Did Good Samaritan inform the LAPD of Emma's Mabel's arrival?"

The man paused. "Yes. We...sent Aaron. Since she was your two's case."

Grayson frowned, starting to head back into the hospital now that his temper was under control. "Emma requested upon arrival that nobody be allowed to see her but me. When I went to see her, she told me to the best of her ability that Aaron had been the one to kidnap her. When confronted, Aaron all but confessed—he ran away the moment he saw me."

"Jesus fucking Christ...." Zach muttered, and Gray heard him lean back in his office chair, likely touching his forehead as well. "This whole time....Aaron's the Ghost?"

"It would appear that way, sir." Gray clenched his free fist as he was re-entering the hospital. "And he got away."

"He won't for long, Grayson," Zach replied sternly. "We will find him." After a brief silence he added solemnly, "Are you okay, Detective?"

Gray took a deep breath, allowing a nurse who had noticed his very bloody knuckles to tend to him. "I'm fine."

"I meant mentally."

Well, that wasn't as simple an answer was it? "I'm fine," he repeated firmly, but his tone in itself suggested enough otherwise, and Zach understood. "I left Emma to chase Aaron. I'm going back to her."

"Alright. If she asked for you after all the shit Aaron gave her, you're probably the only cop she trusts right now. Stay with her. And consider yourself reinstated; you'll get your service weapon when you come back to the station. Don't leave that woman's side."

Grayson shook his head, flexing his fingers with a wince as they were all bandaged up, starting to head back to Emma's room. "I won't."

"Good," Zach said firmly. As Gray was about to hang up, Zach added, "And Gray?"

"Hm."

"Great work, Detective."