A/N: I'd like to apologize to anyone who was expecting a full-blown trial, while that would have been nice, I don't have all the information that comes with that so I decided to stick to my area of expertise and take the safe way out. I could have written the trial, but I'm afraid the results of that would have been mediocre at best. Anyway, there are a few more chapters to go, it's not over yet! I... I'm not sure if you guys will be satisfied with the conclusion, the story ended in sort of a rush, but hopefully I'll be able to wrap everything up nicely in the last chapter.

Credits: This is written purely for fun, rights to all things Bloodlines related go to Richelle Mead. I have no affiliation with the author whatsoever.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

To Catch A Mocking Girl

He was leaning against the doorway when I opened it, and he had his arms crossed over his chest. He was also carrying a few files in his left hand. Thankfully, Adrian wasn't with me at the moment, unfortunately, I was pretty sure I smelled like him.

Not that it mattered. It wasn't like Brayden knew his scent, despite the fact that he had the nose of a bloodhound. I took a deep breath, suddenly feeling cheap and disgusting and…I couldn't believe that I was about to use this term, but vulgar.

"Brayden!" I exclaimed in false excitement, "What are you—you doing here?"

I was asking the question as a formality, I was already pretty aware of what was going on. Keith was the puppeteer in all of this, and the only practical reason that my boyfriend was standing in front of me. Brayden's voice was tinged with animosity, "Keith Darnell, your partner and I spoke on the phone. He was worried about you."

I knew it. I'd known that psychotic jerk was going to do something to ruin this for me. Just when we'd been making solid progress! Suddenly, my throat got all dry and my voice came out in a stutter, "W-What did he tell you?"

Maybe this is a good thing, Sydney. You can break-up with him face-to-face.

Brayden sighed, "May I come in, Sydney?" I nodded vigorously, biting the nail on my index finger. I shut the door behind him as he stomped over and perched himself on the edge of the bed. I wasn't sure how to react, I didn't even know what to expect out of him.

The inevitable confession was here. Now, I'd played it out in my head a couple of times, but nothing had prepared me for this. There were numerous ways this could go, of course, and my mind couldn't help but scour out the worst possible scenarios. I took a deep breath, really wishing that I had a cup of coffee or at least an aspirin at hand right about now. No matter how I spun it, at the end of the day I knew that I was at fault here. It didn't matter if it was love, I had cheated. I was wrong. That however, could not and should not affect Adrian's case, Brayden was a nice person at heart, I just had to believe he wouldn't tell my superiors.

"Brayden I—" He cut me off, raising his hand to shush me and then took another deep breath. He put the file he was carrying on the table for me to view. My eyes widened when I saw what was on them. There…There were pictures of me, with Adrian. There were pictures from the night at the frat party, there were pictures from when we made the impromptu visit to the scene of the crime—pictures from the outside of Mr. Donohue's house. We weren't kissing or anything, but you could tell just by the expressions on our faces and body language in several of the pictures that we were comfortable around each other.

I gulped, feeling bile rise up my throat. I was going to be sick. This…This was it. This was the end of my career. This was the end of our lives, both of us. I…I was done for. My hands were literally shaking and I had to lean against the coffee table to keep from stumbling.

Somehow, after five long minutes of absolute silence—I found my words.

"Keith… showed you these? He… How… I…"

How did one react after being caught red-handed for such a thing? On one hand, I could deny that this was anything more than a regular client-lawyer meeting thing. There was no hard proof that we were more than friends, after all. Unfortunately, I had a moral compass. I couldn't fabricate more lies to him, he… he deserved the truth.

To my surprise, though, Brayden shook his head no. "No, Sydney, they are not. Why would you say that? I have a friend, she is a private detective—" At that, I cut him off, finding my words. The sick feeling inside my gut worsened.

"You hired a private eye to spy on me? That's…That's horrible, Brayden!" I would have added 'how could you not trust me?' but that would just be ridiculous, considering I clearly was the one at fault here, in whichever way you twisted it. That didn't mean that I was okay with some stranger taking snapshots of me and Adrian while we were on business, though. I didn't have tons of romantic experience, but I was pretty sure 'hiring a professional to spy on your girlfriend' was filed under the Don'ts list.

"It wasn't like that. You've just been so distant lately. I wanted to make sure you were alright, you are hanging about with someone who has been accused of a homicide, after all."

"Oh, I get it. You hired someone to nose their way into my personal life because you care about me. That makes it alright." I taunted, sounding harsher than I'd intended.

Brayden winced, "I was insecure. I'm sorry, but I guess I had good reason—didn't I? You do know that consorting with a client is considered a federal offense?" I didn't hear the rest of what he was saying; the gist of it was Brayden listing all the punishments that came with committing the crime of fooling around with a client and elaborating on them in gruesome detail. I couldn't take it anymore, I wanted to scream, cry, throw things. I had to constantly calm myself down and count to ten in order to relax. I just felt like it was all a little too much to take.

All kinds of emotions came hurtling at me. Anger. Resentment, Disappointment. But most of all? Fear. When he finally stopped blabbering, I spoke up.

"Does Keith know?" I muttered tentatively. It wasn't like I could offer him solace. I'd done him wrong; I deserved the hate that he threw at me—more so than he even knew. I'd cheated on him, and now I was going to pay the price.

Again, Brayden looked perplexed by the accusation. "No, not at all. You'd be glad to know, Sydney, that I don't plan to let him know, either. I won't tell anyone. That's why I brought these papers over to you. Burn the evidence if you'd like. I just wanted to warn you about what you're getting into. I don't want you getting into trouble or going to jail simply because I'm upset. I'm much too mature for that, I'd have you know."

And I was grateful. So, so, very grateful. I wanted to hug him at that moment, it was instinct—but I held back. Suddenly, I felt the guilt of the last few weeks wash over me and my throat closed up again. It was strange. I was feeling both extremely relieved and overly reprehensible at the same time, if that was even possible.

I was overjoyed that this had nothing to do with Keith, but slightly sad that I'd betrayed Brayden in such a way. On the other hand, it made it a little difficult to sympathize with him knowing that he had someone scouting me and on my tail for who knows how long.

"Thank you, Brayden. I really mean it." He simply nodded, looking disinterested in my apology, "Look, Sydney. Fraternizing with this guy is going to get you into trouble. I don't know what you see in him, you and I are quite literally a perfect match. He isn't even on the intellectual level that you are on. However I realize that this is an…experimental phase in most late adolescents lives, so I will excuse your behavior. Just… think about how far you are willing to go simply to satisfy a childish romantic whim."

I smiled. I knew that I shouldn't be smiling. All this had been told to me before, by my father, by the inner Alchemist in my head, but none of it phased me…Not anymore. I could see it all quite clearly now. Brayden was pretty much a Jared Sage in the making, and one of them was enough to sustain me for a lifetime. He was full of himself, and very robotic, too. I wasn't sure he even had the word 'romance' in his vocabulary. He thought just like my father did, and behaved quite like a bigoted idiot. I realized that I was just like that too, not too long ago.

But Adrian… He'd let me in on the secret to a good life. Things were so different with him. He'd saved me from falling into my father's footsteps, from turning into an impassive robot like Brayden over here. I never even knew I could feel so much until I'd met Adrian. And that's when I knew it. Brayden had faced me with an ultimatum; he asked me how far I was willing to go for Adrian. The truth? I'd walk to hell and back if that meant I could keep him from having his entire life snatched away from him.

I was in love. I was Sydney Katherine Sage, and I was in love.

When I didn't respond to Brayden he just sighed, "Take care of yourself, Sydney. Goodbye."
I let him make his way towards the door; I caught his arm as he made his way out. "You promise you won't tell a soul?" He rolled his eyes, clearly exasperated by my behaviour—I didn't care. "Yes." I smiled at him, trying to muster one as genuine as possible, "Thank you, Brayden. And… I really am sorry about the way things turned out." The truth was, I really was sorry about it, Brayden may act like Jared Sage, but he still had a little heart left in him. He deserved a girl who'd spend all night writing algorithms with him. I just wasn't that girl.
He nodded, and I turned around to go take the file. Brayden spoke up one more time before he left, "And Sydney?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm breaking up with you."

"I know."

He left. I smiled to myself like a lunatic as I looked for a matchbox to burn the files.

xxxxx

"Good Golly, Miss Sage! You broke up with your boyfriend right after cheating on him." Adrian mused.

The next day, Adrian and I were having lunch together—after which we were going to get our poorly constructed plan in action. He had taken me to a beautiful picnic spot only a couple of miles from where we were supposed to go afterwards. We sat on a lush green lawn that was surrounded by sprinklers and a few tourists with cameras. There was a plummeting stream of crystal clear water with a raging battle at the bottom that broadcasted a dense layer of foam and spray for miles around the waterfall. Adrian definitely had a magnificent eye for scenery and an exquisite taste for romance.

Perks of going out with an artist, I guess.

Other than a few people scattered here and there, the area was quite secluded. "You vixen." He added mockingly. "Technically, he broke up with me. I know I didn't tell you much about him, but it never came up." I argued as I licked some peanut-butter off my finger. "Plus, you never told me about the adorable step-sister." Adrian scoffed, "Will I ever live that one down?" I grinned."Not in this lifetime." He picked a juicy purple grape and tossed it at me; he missed my mouth by quite a few inches.

"I was pretty sure that grape feeding is on the list of boring couple things to do," he grumbled, trying to justify his actions. I chuckled lightly, "It's alright. I don't like grapes anyway."

We were both quiet for a bit after that. It was nice, being here, under the sun with him and having a normal person date. Refreshing, somehow—unfortunately, it was far from the reality of our lives. I suspected the looming danger of the plan that we were about to put into action was dawning on him as well. I wasn't even sure if it was going to work. We were planning on confronting Lilah, to see if she budges and recording it on my phone so that we'd have proof against her in the court of law. I wasn't sure how good I was at persuading a murderess to come clean but I was sure about one thing, I was the only one suited for the task. Being able to have a way with words was a fundamental aspect of being a Lawyer, and she would never confess to Adrian—the guy that she was framing. I was the only viable candidate.

Adrian was less than pleased, of course. He kept going on and on about how dangerous it would be and that he couldn't see me risking my life in such a way. I told him that it wasn't his decision. This lady, she was going to pay for what she did. Adrian suddenly spoke up, as if reading my thoughts and only rehashing my growing concerns.

"I get it. You're the one-woman justice league but you'll need back-up. You are confronting a crazy person who's killed two, probably more people. I'm not letting you get hurt, I'd never forgive myself. Plus… I don't like feeling useless. It's a slap to my man-ego and all that."

I was quiet for a few minutes, watching the ducks picking at the bread crumbs at the artificial lake in front of us. "I wish I was a duck," I mumbled pensively, Adrian frowned. "Huh?"
"No responsibilities, no fears, no worries. And I'm sure ducks don't have to worry about what would happen if the other ducks found out they were in love. In a way… they have more freedom than we do as human beings."

Adrian thought about this, "Yeah. How dare the ducks go on living their happy duck lives while we're stuck with longer life-spans and the ability to speak?" I rolled my eyes at him, and sighed. "Don't worry about me, Adrian. I know how to handle myself in drastic situations. Most likely, I don't even think she'll try to hurt me. If she does…"

There was a crazy glint in Adrian's eye. "If she does… then what, huh? Get killed, end up like Lee? She's already done it twice! Third time's the charm, huh?"

"Adrian…" I said gently, suddenly alarmed—pretty sure that he was having one of his moments.

"No! Don't say my name like that! Look at me—Look at me!" He leaned towards me, grabbing my shoulders and forcing me to stare into his green eyes again. His breath was warm on my face, I cringed.

"You might be alright with getting killed—but me? I'll be devastated…okay? If you die, I'd literally go out of my freaking mind, do you hear me? Death doesn't only affect you, Sage. It affects everyone around you."

I tried to calm my racing heartbeat. The butterflies were going wild, and they were ready to multiply like bed bugs but I managed to get a hold on them for now. I sighed, "Where is this coming from? You…You're over-analyzing this. I'm not going on a suicide mission, I can hold my own."

He seemed to realize he was taking his frustrations out on me; he leaned back and bit his lip sheepishly. "I'm sorry," I sighed, brushing the back of my hand over my forehead in exasperation. "I'll be alright, I promise."

Unfortunately, I thought that neither of us believed that.

We were quiet for the next few minutes, until something struck me. "I wanted to tell you something," I told him quietly, he nodded; urging for me to go on. "You remember Keith and his eye, don't you?" I asked, and he smirked, "I doubt I can forget. The guy bothering you again?" I shook my head, although somewhere at the back of my mind I did wonder what Keith was now up to. Apparently, he'd only urged Brayden on, he hadn't told him anything about our relationship. Which meant that he didn't know, I wasn't sure whether that was a good thing or not. With Keith, it could mean anything. He could be sitting in his evil libratory right now, formulating a diabolical plan. Somehow though, I doubted even Keith was that insane. On the other hand, he'd sexually assaulted my sister, so maybe he was. Adrian was snapping his fingers at my face, "You just blanked out, Sage."

"Sorry," I began again, "No, it's not that it's just... Keith did something very bad to my older sister, Carly. And I-I found out about it. I was so mad, Adrian, I just had to do something. I couldn't sit back and... watch. It was so sick and twisted and wrong. So I made a deal... with someone very dangerous. Someone who dealt with the mafia and the underworld, I paid him money to hurt him and they... they destroyed his eye. Yeah, I didn't do the damage directly but I was the brains behind the operation." I explained, Adrian frowned just a little bit, his green eyes calm and calculating. He tilted his head, "Why are you telling me this now?" I shrugged, a little unsure myself. "I just thought you should know."

Again, he was quiet. "Are you mad?" I squeaked, when I couldn't stand the silence. "No," he muttered, "No, I think he deserved it."

xxxxx

I was standing at a killer's doorstep.

My mind didn't let me forget that. It kept reminding me how terrible a plan this was, and a voice that sounded suspiciously like Adrian's was begging me to turn around. I held my ground. I could do this, I had to. It's not like I didn't bring any back-up. Unlike the night when Adrian and I had been brusquely attacked, this time, I was prepared for anything. I was carrying pepper spray, a pocket knife, a stun gun that I'd procured from a friend on the force and a recording device inside my purse. I also had both the police and Adrian on speed dial. I could call for help if things went wrong; at the push of a button.

Yes, it's that simple.

Adrian had given me a languid kiss before we parted ways at the park, he'd told me that he would be close by because he couldn't stand the thought of being far away if I needed to call for help. He was stubborn that way. My lips still tingled from the dizzying kiss that he'd planted, every part of my body insisted that I turn back but hey, I was stubborn too.

I knocked on the door. Planning out my strategy inside of my head.

Lilah opened the door, she was wearing a casual grey t-shirt and jeans, and listening to music on her iPod. She pulled the earphones out of her ears and gave me a strange smile. "Sydney?" I fabricated a smile as sweet as possible, "Hey, Lilah! Mind if I come in?" I asked. She thought about this, but then simply shrugged and left the door open for me, sauntering back into her home. "Not to sound rude or anything, but I don't remember giving you my address." She wondered aloud. I took a deep breath, hoping that she couldn't hear my heart thumping loudly inside my chest out of extreme nervousness.

"Yeah, I know. I'm sorry for barging in like this. I hope it's not a bad time. I got your address from my friend Clarence Donohue, I had no idea you worked for him. That's pretty cool." I mumbled, keeping up the calm and composed facade. She straightened at this as she led me into her living room. I stood still as a statue until she gestured for me to sit. I could tell she was feeling a little confused. "Yes, I do work for him..." her tone was dubious. "You didn't mention it when we met," I pointed out, trying not to squirm under her gaze; I managed to glance around the house. It was spacious and quite neat, actually. It certainly didn't look like the house of a murderer, on the other hand, Lilah didn't look like one herself. It didn't change the truth. "Yeah, it must have slipped my mind," she sighed, finally giving up on the cold shoulder act. "Why are you here, Sydney? Do you... Are you looking for something?"

I shook my head no. "I just thought we could bond. Clarence Donohue's a very good man, you know. I thought that, you being his secretary, must care for him deeply. There's very few people the man trusts." Lilah was eyeing me again, an unreadable expression on her face. "He never has mentioned you." I frowned innocently, "Of course he has. You even sent me a message from a blocked number with his address details. It's funny, really, because at first I thought that maybe he just likes to keep things private, and that's why you had the number blocked but... That wasn't the reason, was it, Lilah? Or is it Sheila? I'm sorry, I'm just a little confused. Which one are you going by these days? The name on your birth certificate or the name of the girl you killed?"

I knew how many risks I was taking here, confronting her like that. The plan that I'd just come up with was a little bit different from the one I'd discussed with Adrian. But seeing her here like this, looking so casual and pampered, it made my blood boil. She didn't deserve it. Instantly, Lilah began to stand, her face pale. "I don't know what you're talking about," she was backing away now. I stood up, as well. "Eh!" I made a buzzer-like sound, "Wrong answer. Try again."

She continued to back away, a scowl appearing on her face, "You don't want to mess with me, Sydney. You don't know what you're getting yourself into." Her voice was dripping with menace. She backed herself right into a vase of flowers on the cupboard behind her and it fell to the ground, shattering into a million tiny pieces. She winced. I took a step towards her. "See, Lilah, there are two ways this conversation could go. The first way is that you could confess; turn yourself in and maybe we could work out a strategy for you to get minimum jail time, I'd even recommend you a good lawyer. Now, the second option isn't as nice," I said, pulling out my stun gun and waving it at her.

She blanched. "You don't understand." I sighed, "Then why don't you explain and make this easier on the both of us?" She rubbed her palms over her face. "You... You're right, I've done things I am not proud of but I did not kill Lee. I... I loved him. Even after he went ahead and broke my heart!" She explained. I shook my head, unable to believe how good she was at feeding people lies. "You led me to Mark on purpose, that day at Shaggy's Seafood Shack. You knew, didn't you? All along. You must have found out from Clarence Donohue, the final straw was when he asked you to schedule a meeting with us." I went on, her expression was pained, but she didn't disagree. I shook my head in utter disbelief, "It's disgusting. You were working for the man whose son you murdered in cold blood. I don't know how you live with yourself. Now, the question is... Why did you do it? Was it some kind of revenge because he cheated on you? Did you decide that if he couldn't be with you, that you wouldn't let him be with anybody?" She was quiet for a minute, her back was pressed up against the cupboard.

"I didn't kill him you stupid bitch!" She cried out, furiously. "And god, I wanted to! I really, really wanted to. I wished the worst torture in the seven hells for that bastard! But no, I did NOT kill him! You're getting it all wrong." I shook my head at her in disgust, adrenaline replacing my earlier anxiety. "How did you do it, huh? How did you kill him? What did you use? A baseball bat? A hockey stick? His skull was beaten in. It's exactly the same way the real Sheila Donovan was killed, head trauma, face beaten to a pulp. And what was with the music, huh? Do you think that taking someone's like is a joke?" My pitch had become dangerously high as I finished my sentence, my palms were bawled into fists and my voice was bursting with vehemence.

"Fine!" She exclaimed, "I killed Sheila. The bitch had it coming. And to be honest, so did Lee Donohue! I hate to sound like a broken record but for the millionth time, I didn't kill him!" She cried. I didn't believe it. Not for one second. I inched a little closer and she whimpered, I took a step back in surprise at her next words: "I can prove it."

I took a deep breath, debating whether or not to listen to her. I thought about the voice recorder that was still turned on inside of my purse and I nodded. Even in the unlikely odds that Lilah did not actually kill Lee, I had the feeling that she would know who did. "Alright," I replied, still flashing my stun gun at her. "Prove it."

Lilah heaved a sigh of relief. "I'll go get it. I'm not lying, okay? It's in my bedroom." She started to walk towards her bedroom and I followed, she turned on her heel. "What are you doing?" I scoffed, "You really don't think I'm going to let you out of my sight, do you?" She shrugged and continued to walk into her bedroom with me right on her tail. Now, I could feel my cell phone vibrating inside of my purse. Someone was calling me. I didn't pick up, I was so close to getting to the bottom of all this. Lilah was going down, she was a murderer and she was not going to escape this time. She stopped by her cupboard, I closed the gap between us and held my stun gun at her back. "Try anything and this is what will happen." Lilah froze for a second, looking extremely afraid. "Do you want to know the truth, Sydney?" Her voice was painful, sad, even, and coming out in a soft whisper. I nodded slowly, "Yes."

And then she turned the tables on me. She twirled around so swiftly I barely had the time to press the button on the stun gun, she grabbed it from me and jabbed it in my stomach. I screamed as I fell to the ground and my vision blurred a little. All my nerves were going crazy and my entire body ached, it felt like liquid poison was burning my intestines and making its way up my throat. The burning sensation was almost blinding. "You are an idiot." She announced, before pulling out a gun from her cupboard. She stroked it lovingly, when the pain abated a little, I noticed that this was the same gun from last night, in all my panic for Adrian; I'd been stupid and had left it inside of Lee's house. It probably had her fingerprints on it, if only I'd used my brain maybe I could have nipped it in the bud much earlier. I squeezed my eyes shut, kicking and punching the air, the stun gun was quite effective in frying half of my internal organs. I waited for impact but... nothing.

For some reason, she wasn't shooting. She wasn't even aiming the gun at me. Then she crouched down and stunned me again, in the same place. I remember feeling absolutely helpless before I blacked out completely.

When I opened my eyes, I was tied to the edge of Lilah's bed. She wasn't in the room. Both she and her gun were gone. Then I could hear her, talking in a hushed voice to somebody on the phone outside in the living room. My stun gun was atop the bed, where I couldn't reach it; at least not tied up like this. My entire body was still shuddering from the impromptu shock therapy that I'd received, my wrists burned under the tight ropes, as did my ankles. Evening light streamed through one of the windows. How long had I been out?

My purse was still vibrating. I realized that it was very close to my hands, if only I could zip it open and grab my phone... Lilah walked in, looking extremely calm. "Oh, you're up. That's quicker than I thought. Strong little girl, aren't you?" She muttered fanatically, a psychotic twinkle in her eyes. That's when I realized it, that despite her normal semblance; this woman was completely mad. I took a deep breath, trying to sound unfazed. It was difficult, but somehow, I managed. "I don't get it," I mused, "Why aren't you finishing me off?" She loured at me, her mouth twisting into an ugly smirk. "Oh, Sydney, I didn't want to kill you. I was simply showing it to you, it might have the fingerprints of the real killer." I gawked at her.

"If you wanted to prove your innocence to me, I'm not sure chaining me up to your bed and assaulting me would be the first call of action." I mumbled sarcastically.

She scoffed, "I have my reasons." Then she kneeled down so that she could look me in the eye. "What little gadgets are you keeping inside your little-" she got cut off abruptly when I headbutted her with as much force as I could conjure. She'd come a little too close, and I couldn't resist. It worked, she groaned, falling back and writhing in pain, holding her head.

I knew that I didn't have much time. Forty seconds maybe? A minute, if I was lucky. My own head was throbbing, but then again, so was the rest of my body, so I paid the pain no heat. I managed to zip my purse open, I sifted through it, feeling my way through stuff, which was hard to do when both my hands were tied; but I managed somehow anyway. I pulled out my phone. There were about ten missed calls from Adrian, I pressed his name on speed-dial. I leaned down, so that my ear could make contact with the phone. It took a lot of strain.

"Sydney!" His voice was extremely frantic. "Sydney it isn't Lilah. It's Foster! Foster from the bar! He got away, but I've called the police, they're going after him. WHERE ARE YOU?" My heart began to race and the butterflies inside my stomach were back, "Lilah. She's got me tied up inside her-Ahh!" I screamed as she snatched the phone out of my hand and tossed it at the wall. It made a sickening smacking noise as it fell to the floor.

As expected, Lilah was already back up on her feet. "That," she mumbled barbarically, "Was very rude!" I groaned, hoping that Adrian had gotten the message. "Lilah," my voice came out relatively calm; slightly floored. "He said you didn't do it. He said you didn't kill Lee."

"That's what I've been trying to tell you!" She barked.

"He said Foster... The bartender who you were talking to..."

She nodded her head, waving me off dismissively. She began to pace the expanse of the room. "Yes, yes. I never realized just how much he made it look like I was the one who'd done it until you talked to me today. I'm not surprised, though. He had all reason in the world to do it. Just feel betrayed." She had started to babble, even though I was in the room, I had the feeling she was talking to herself.

She didn't even make eye-contact. "I mean, of course! Clearly he was blinded by love and then Clarence had to go ahead and fire him. I understand why he did it. But crazy, crazy, crazy! Now I'm getting the brunt of it all! He's going to land me in jail, that boy. Ugh. When I first met him he seemed fine. Happy, like sunshine..." she went on, mumbling in hushed tones.

Some of her words struck a chord. "Blinded by love? Lilah, was he in love with you? Is that the reason Foster killed Lee?" I kept my tone as gentle as I could. Speaking to her like one did to a child. Her eyes finally met mine. "No, no," she laughed dryly. "He did it for the same reasons I did."

Suddenly, I figured it out. The puzzle that was the case of Lee Donohue's murder.

My eyes went wide. "He was in love. That's why he did it, but not with you. He was... He was in love with Lee. But... Of course, Lee didn't love him back so that angered him. He killed him and set it up to make it look like you were the one who did it. And that night... At Lee's home he was the one who attacked us. Wasn't he? He has the right build for it, he's strong, tall... Why didn't I ever see it?"

Lilah nodded her head, "He told me about his plan. I got mad at him. Ask me to kill anyone in the world and I'll do it - for the right price, but not Lee. I loved Lee. I tried to stop him, but it was already too late. We fought, you know," She pointed at a gash on her neck that I hadn't noticed before. It looked like a stab wound. "The pocket knife found at the scene of the crime," I murmured introspectively, "It was yours."

Again, she didn't deny it. "We fought each other when I saw what he'd done to my poor Lee. He was quite intelligent, actually. He beat him with a hammer, then cleaned off the prints using bleach and vinegar and threw it a mile away from my house, so that I was the one that looked guilty. The rest of the room looked untouched because he wore latex gloves."

"I don't understand. If you knew that he did the deed, why were you talking to him so casually? Why were you with Kylie that night, talking her up? She doesn't know, does she?" I asked.

Lilah sighed, looking wistful. "I'll admit I only became friends with Kylie out of spite, I wanted to see what that bitch had that I didn't, but we did become close. Hanging out with her is just something I do usually, and of course she doesn't know, I doubt she'd speak to me if she did. As for Foster, he blackmailed me, we struck a deal. He said that if I did what he told me to, he'd keep my secret and find someone else to frame."

"Your secret being your murder of Sheila Donovan?"

She nodded casually. "Yes, I don't know how he found out about it, guess he put a lot of thought into everything. He asked me to help him in the aftermath of everything, so we went to Lee's house the next day and spooked it up. He knew that I used to track Lee's phone messages and asked me to help him use all of that against Mark-his back-up victim."

"Where does Adrian fit into all this?"

"See, that's the thing, he never was supposed to. Foster was planning to cast the blame on Mark, that little weasel, it would have served him right-jail life. Anyway, it just happened that Lee came to visit Adrian at the wrong time, so Foster just followed him and killed him on raged impulse. We thought, hey, Adrian's the son of a rich asshole, he'll get out of it, in the meantime, let's work on casting the blame on Mark. So we stole stuff from his home, left him all kinds of cryptic messages, I had to come back to your hotel room just to steal the tapes again, we even tried to lead the two of you on into finding Mark guilty." She explained, and I just stared at her, flabbergasted with all this newfound information.

"But then the two of you didn't know your limits and where not to put your nose. You had to go on your little scavenger hunt! So Foster dug up information on you, teamed up with your partner, some Keith. He asked Foster to spike your drinks at the party and get the two of you so drunk that you end up sleeping together or something so that he could get rid of you both. He also promised that he'd keep our secret. So, well, two birds one stone."

I blanched. Mark was lying! He hadn't spiked our drinks after all, it had been Keith all along, sans Foster! I felt repulsed and creeped out all over again. Apparently, Keith truly was insane. He would make a deal with a killer, just to ruin my life and kick me off the case. What a cockroach. But then.. How did Mark know? "We met up with Mark when I found out he'd stolen Lee's ring," Lilah supplied, like she'd read my mind, she twirled her own identical ring around in her finger and grinned, "We told him about how we spiked your drinks and then, we threatened him. Foster tried again, to get the two of you off of the case, by telling Mark to-"

"Feed us all that rubbish about the game that plays us? I figured. What did you offer him?" I muttered, feeling sick. "Money. Loads of it." I groaned, shaking my head. We had been played like puppets for so long. Suddenly, fear began to rise up my chest. "Why are you telling me all of this?"

"Because I've got to kill you. See, I don't want to do it but you just keep doubling back, like a stupid bobo doll! And it's getting in my way. You know about Sheila and practically everything else that's keeping me from jail. So, you've gotta go." She said, shrugging nonchalantly.

I couldn't believe she could talk that way about murdering someone. "Lilah?" I said, "Yeah?" she leaned in. I spat on her face. She slapped me. I tried to wriggle my way out of the ropes once again, to no avail. Just when I thought this was going to be the end, I heard sirens. Police sirens. And someone was knocking vigorously on her front door. Luckily, she hadn't gagged me.

Right on time. Lucky draw? Maybe. I didn't want to stick around to find out.

Help. It was coming.

"HELP!" I screamed, to the max of my voice's abilities.

Lilah squeaked, swiftly turning around to gawk at me. I flashed her a knowing smile. This pissed her off. And then, everything happened at once. The police bounded in, with Adrian in toe. Lilah turned around and grabbed my neck, placing the gun to my head. I screamed on instinct. Having a gun positioned at your head can do that to you.

"Put your guns down or I'll shoot!" She exclaimed.

I eyed Adrian. For a second, his face was extremely pale, but he regained his sensibilities admirably quick. He grabbed one of the guns from one of the three police officers now present in the room and pointed it at Lilah. "You shoot. I shoot."

"We haven't got the commands to-" one of the officer's started, but Adrian glared at him, his arms outstretched, a determined expression on his face, his gun aimed right at Lilah's chest. "Shut up."

For a few seconds, you could possibly hear a pin drop. Nobody spoke. Then one of the officers with Adrian mumbled, "Lower your weapon right now, ma'am." And then it all went to hell. Lilah dropped the gun, Adrian tossed the one he was holding back at the police officer he'd snatched it from and she began to run the other way. She was trying to jump out the window but she wasn't quick enough, all three of the police men charged at her, pulling her back as she fought against them.

Kill me, maybe. But she wasn't strong enough to resist the grip of three trained policemen. Adrian ran to my side, his forehead was glistening with sweat, he untied my hands first; then my legs. After that he pulled me into an extremely tight bear hug and kissed my forehead and face repeatedly. "God, you got me worried there for a second, Sage." I smiled slightly, I wanted to stay in his embrace forever, but wasn't there a killer still on the loose?

"Adrian! What about Foster?" I cried. He shook his head, stroking my hair and rubbing my back, "He's been dealt with." That meant I could finally take a breather. I cushioned my head against his chest, feeling it rise and fall strenuously as he panted; like he'd forgotten to breathe in the last few seconds. I listened carefully to his heartbeat, that was beginning to steady.

"Sir?" The voice of the police officer pulled me back to earth and hesitantly, I slipped out of his grip. We both stood up. I realized that there was only one officer in the room now, the other two were taking Lilah out. "Foster Blake still hasn't admitted to the crime and your hearing is-" I cut him off, instantly pulling out my recorder and placing it in his hand.

"All the proof you need that Lilah Lehane and Foster Blake are behind this murder."