“We’re the ones who—”
“Guys, arguing isn’t helping, we need to keep the focus on Grace,” Allina cut her husband off, doing her best to placate both of them, but emotions were running too high for all of them right now.
“Roof,” Jonathon said, the one word capturing all of their attention.
“What?” Matthew asked.
“I see someone on the roof,” Jonathon elaborated.
They all turned their attention toward the house and Matthew saw exactly what had caught Jonathon’s attention. There was a shadowy figure moving on the roof, and immediately he knew it was Jason.
Ignoring the pain in his side, he aimed his weapon at the man who had tormented Grace for so long. If Jason was up there it meant only one thing.
Suicide.
And Matthew knew there was no way Jason was ending his life and not taking Grace along with him.
“Jason Yamagada, it’s the police,” he yelled out.
The figure froze, and in the lights his friends shone on the man he could see that Jason was alone.
His insides turned to ice.
Where was Grace?
There was no way Jason would be up there without her if he intended to take his own life.
“You’re too late,” Jason called out. “It’s already done. She’s an angel now. She’s mine.”
“Where is she, Jason?” Matthew asked, surprised his voice was able to come out strong and confident when inside he was shattering into a million pieces.
“She’s mine, detective, for all eternity. She always was, she was the only one who ever saw me.” There was a peace to Jason’s voice that he didn't like one bit. The man was too confident, and Matthew was terrified that he was right and that they were already too late to find Grace.
“You need to come down, Jason. We can talk about what happened, about what you did, get you help, but to do that you need to come down here,” Matthew ordered.
“I'm sorry, detective, I can't do that. It’s time. It’s my time, I'm finally at peace.”
With that, Jason held his arms out wide like wings and dived off the top of the house as though he were diving into a pool.
A second later the man’s head slammed into the ground.
Matthew didn't bother going to check if Jason was alive, there was no way the man could have survived the headfirst fall. He would have broken his neck on impact in addition to the head trauma. Instead, he ran to the front door. It was locked, but a kick splintered the wooden door and he was inside.
“Grace?” he yelled. There was no way he could accept that she was gone, not until he was holding her lifeless body.
Elijah and Allina were behind him, yelling out her name as they cleared the downstairs and then moved up.
It was the second bedroom he went into when his heart began to stutter in his chest.
There was blood on the bed.
Clothes he remembered thrusting at Grace after he got the text that the safehouse was being shot at were tossed on the floor.
But there was no Grace.
“Where is she?” he demanded to no one in particular.
“She has to be here somewhere,” Allina said, sounding like she was doing as terrible a job at clinging to control as he was.