“And you realized there were overlapping people,” he notes.
“Yes, a few key figures kept showing up. But not in ways that were immediately incriminating. These were all murders that happened in the Harlan and Salt Valley area. It's not that vague when you really think about it. Having people connected tangentially to other people involved in crimes isn't that out of the ordinary. But there were too many overlaps.”
“Too many coincidences?” he raises an eyebrow with a smirk.
“Just like you say. There are no coincidences,” I tell him. “These things didn't just happen. They were orchestrated. When Millie told me to look at the alibis, I didn't think there was more that I could do. I had already looked at the reports a thousand times, it felt like. I read the interviews and witness statements. I traced locations and followed paper trails, making sure I traced each one of the alibis for everybody involved for every one of the murders. And you know what I found?”
“What?” Sam asks.
“Perfect alibis. Seamless, airtight, heavily publicized, and verifiable alibis. Which immediately said to me they were bullshit. Not that they were made up. Obviously, those people were in those places and doing those things. But you know as well as I do how rare it is for somebody to actually have a firmly verifiable alibi ready to pull out of his hat during an investigation. More often than not, you're going to hear things like, ‘I was at home alone. I was in bed reading. I was driving around.’ Things that these people were actually doing but can't be verified. Unless you're walking around with a video camera strapped to you or keep meticulous records of every single cent spent and the second of the day it was spent, most people have considerable amounts of their lives that aren’t accounted for.”
“But not these people,” Sam notes.
“Not these people,” I repeat. “For every one of those murders, there was at least one suspiciously perfect alibi. And it checked out. Every single time. I couldn't figure out what that meant until I thought about Xavier again. I had to remember this started for him with Lakyn. She only knew him and his situation, which meant that he had to explain to her what he believed happened to Andrew. And that started with The Order. When I thought about his situation and how he was framed, everything else started to fall into place.”
“I'm not the only one who made a web. The Order did, too. They killed for each other and proved themselves by framing other people. That's what Xavier was trying to tell me when he was talking about playing Monopoly. He kept talking about Andrew’s death and his being accused of it out of turn. At first, it sounded as if he meant that Andrew died too young, and he would have to possibly face the death penalty for something he didn't do.”
“But that's not what he was talking about,” Sam says.
“No, he literally meant out of turn. Andrew was murdered by someone who had no reason to murder him, and Xavier was framed even though he had no reason to have committed the crime and did nothing wrong. That's what happened in every single one of those situations. That's what the plaque is for. It commemorates the day a man becomes a member of The Order by committing murder for his sponsor. I can only guess each of the elder members has one of those black balls, and when it comes time to choose a sponsor for a prospective member, they use the wheel. Because it's fair. They keep them with them as reminders of The Order and their importance. They're out in the open, but no one notices. Hiding in plain sight.”
“What happened to Lakyn?” he asks. “No one was framed for her murder.”
"Xavier said it was her turn. Not her time, her turn. And he only knew that because she was hidden after death, not left out to be used in a scheme. She was murdered by The Order, but not as a ritual. She got in the way. She was getting too close to Xavier, and they knew she was going to work tirelessly until she got him out. She understood him. And they also knew as soon as he got out, there was a storm coming. He would destroy them. This time, his conspiracy theory was actually right. In the end, Lakyn and Andrew died for the same reason. Xavier was unraveling The Order. He found out about them and was going to uncover them.”
"Why didn't they kill Xavier? Why did they kill Andrew instead?"
"To protect the integrity of The Order. If they were to kill Xavier, the investigation could uncover what he knew. They had no idea what he had planted or saved and what people would find when they went through his home if he died. Instead, having him go to prison for murdering his best friend would discredit everything he ever said. If he started talking about The Order, people would just dismiss it as another conspiracy theory, and the entire Order would be protected. They could continue their initiation methods, bonding themselves together through blood, and no one would question it. They underestimated Xavier and didn't anticipate Lakyn.”
Sam shakes his head. "What about Lilith Duprey?"
"We aren't done with The Order of Prometheus yet, babe," I tell him. "There's more to
