Sick bastard, Ness felt sickened looking at the innocent blood that he’d shed. It also dawned on Ness that because of her family, it would only be a matter of time until she came across this information, and Eddie still chose to mentor her. The real question now was why? Why would he go through all of the risk? Unless he was looking for a worthy opponent, just like what Gramps said.
Ness got up from her bed and started pacing her room. She needed to make a plan for in case he came after her, or worse—her family members. But no matter what move she made now, Eddie was going to constantly have the upper hand. This was, after all, his game. He’s always made the rules, and that puts him at an unfair advantage. Unless I change the rules of the game. If I make unexpected moves, he won’t be able to plan ahead, Ness stopped pacing and looked out the window as a cool breeze wafted in. She knew what she had to do to start changing the rules of the game.
She popped her head out of her room and could see that Lindsay was lying on her bed, reading in the master bedroom, which meant that Wyatt was still up. She walked downstairs and saw that the den’s lights were turned on. Ness walked inside and could see Wyatt was working on the desktop. She grabbed a chair and sat next to him. He looked at her and could see that her expression was icy.
“Are you ok?” Wyatt asked with the back of his pen still in his mouth.
“Why did you follow me to Chicago on Sunday?” Ness whispered.
“I didn’t. They needed my help on a case out there.”
“Bullshit,” Ness answered in return.
Wyatt narrowed his eyes at Ness, “I went to Chicago because they found Henry Martin’s body at the bottom of a cliff. The scene was staged to look like an accident, but it was easy to see that he was murdered. The killer left a significant amount of evidence behind, and it's only a matter of time now until they’re caught.”
Ness dropped her gaze to her hands in her lap, “I killed him, Wyatt.”
Wyatt stopped moving in his chair and stared at her. He had his suspicions, but actually hearing the words come out of her mouth still shocked him. “Damn it, Ness. Why?” he rubbed his face.
“Wyatt, I need to tell you something,” Ness leaned forward. “What?” Wyatt asked.
“It gets a lot worse than that.”
Wyatt remained silent as Ness began to speak.
“After I killed Martin, I left his body in the alleyway, but when I returned the next day to see why no one had reported on it, his body was gone, and the scene was cleaned up.”
Wyatt frowned, “By Eddie Rose?”
Ness sat back in her chair, “How on earth did you know that?”
“I placed a tracker on your car last week Saturday night. I followed you to the address after I left the precinct in Chicago. I reverse searched the address and saw who it was registered to, and I thought it was pretty strange that you’d be hanging out with a middle-aged bar owner. After I found out that Eddie’s Bar was one of Martin’s haunts, then it wasn’t difficult to make that deduction.”
Ness looked genuinely impressed. “I know . . . I’m not as stupid as you thought I was,” he grinned.
Ness pursed her lips and then said, “Yes, Eddie Rose did clean the scene, and he helped me dispose of the body at Devil’s Head. But that isn’t the worst part.”
Wyatt crossed his arms as he waited for the next detail.
“Eddie Rose is the En Passant Killer.”
“Fuck . . .” Wyatt uttered. “So, what does he want with you?”
“At first I thought he was wanting to mentor me into becoming a killer.”
“Woah . . .” Wyatt held up his hand which stopped her. “You didn’t actually go and kill with this guy, did you?”
“As a matter of fact, I did. There were these three men that approached me in his bar, and then they raped a 14-year-old girl. Eddie showed me how to kill them and clean the scenes.”
“You idiot!” Wyatt exclaimed. “You know you have to be the stupidest smart person I know!” Wyatt leaned forward and placed his head in his hands. “Ness, he wasn’t doing that to help you. He was doing that to help himself. He wanted to see what you were made of so he could go after you. I spent a lot of time discussing him with Gramps, and I know that’s how he operates. En Passant thrives on the challenge of a worthy adversary, and you played right into his hands.”
“Gramps told me that’s how he operates, but he doesn’t know that I was involved with En Passant.”
“Things are going to get really messy from here on out, Ness. En Passant—Eddie Rose—is going to come after all of us before he goes after you.”
Ness’ heart felt like it dropped into the pit of her stomach: “I don’t know what to do, Wyatt. I’ve been thinking about ways to throw him off guard, but I can’t think of anything.
Well, we need to make it as difficult as possible to get to—” Wyatt was interrupted by his phone buzzing on the desk. “It’s Dad,” Wyatt answered the phone, and his expression became more morbid with every passing moment. “I’m on my way.”
“What is it?” Ness asked, concerned.
“We’re too late. En Passant was at the cabin . . . Gramps has been
