DEATH PLAYBACK

CHAPTER 3: THE FOURTH VICTIM

Jaxon didn't go home. He drove around the city for two hours, weaving through traffic, making random turns, checking his rearview mirror every ten seconds. The black SUV had disappeared after twenty minutes, but he didn't trust it. Carter knew. Carter was coming for him.

He drove past his old house, the one he'd lost when he got suspended. Past the bar where he'd spent three years drinking himself to death. Past the cemetery where Marcus was buried. He didn't stop at any of them.

【Hey you know what would be a really good idea right now? Going to someone with this evidence. Like literally anyone who isn't a drunk washout who everyone hates. Just a thought.】

"Who would believe me?" Jaxon mumbled.

【Good point. Yeah we're fucked.】

He ended up parking outside his ex-wife's house. He sat there for an hour, engine off, watching the lights in his daughter's bedroom on the second floor. Lily was nine now. He barely saw her anymore. His ex-wife had a restraining order. Said he was dangerous. Said he was a bad influence.

She wasn't wrong.

If Carter went after her... if he touched his little girl...

Jaxon gripped the steering wheel until his knuckles cracked.

His phone rang. It was Morrison.

Jaxon stared at the phone for three rings before he answered. "Yeah?"

"Reid. Get your ass down to 5th and Oak. Now."

The line went dead.

Jaxon's blood ran cold. 5th and Oak. That was where Carter lived.

---

He got there ten minutes later. The whole street was full of cop cars. Red and blue lights flashed against the dark sky. Crime scene tape was strung across the front of Carter's nice suburban house. Neighbors stood on their lawns, watching, whispering.

Jaxon pushed through the crowd. He still had his old badge in his wallet. He flashed it at a uniform and got waved through.

Morrison saw him and stormed over, face purple with rage. "What the f**k did you do?"

"What?" Jaxon said. "What happened?"

"Carter's dead," Morrison said. "Someone slit his throat an hour ago. Just like the other three. And guess what we found on his kitchen table?"

Jaxon's stomach dropped.

"Your goddamn badge," Morrison said, holding it up. Jaxon hadn't seen it in three months. "And the murder weapon. With your fingerprints all over it."

Jaxon stared at the badge. Oh. That was really f*****g clever.

【WELL. THAT ESCALATED QUICKLY.】

【NEW MISSION: DON'T GET ARRESTED FOR MURDER YOU DIDN'T COMMIT】

【REWARD: NOT JAIL.】

"Wait," Jaxon said, holding up his hands. "This isn't what it looks like. He framed me. He was the Serial Slasher, he killed those three women, and now someone killed him and framed me - "

"Shut up," Morrison said. Two big uniformed cops started walking towards them. "You're under arrest, Reid. For the murder of Detective Carter."

Jaxon didn't listen. He was looking past Morrison, into Carter's house, through the open front door. He could see the body on the living room floor, throat slit. Deep. Clean. Just like the other three.

Wait. Carter was dead. Which meant...

"He's not the killer," Jaxon whispered.

Morrison stopped halfway through Miranda rights. "What?"

"He's not the killer," Jaxon said, louder. "Carter wasn't the Serial Slasher. He was just the fall guy. Just like me. Someone was using him. And when he wasn't useful anymore? They killed him. And framed me. No loose ends."

The cops grabbed his arms. Jaxon didn't resist. He was too busy thinking. He'd watched Carter kill Amy Chen. He'd seen it. But if Carter was dead now, killed the exact same way... that meant there was someone else.

Someone who had been watching both of them. Someone who knew about the system.

Jaxon looked up at the crowd of neighbors watching from across the street.

And one of them smiled at him.

A woman in her thirties, blonde hair, wearing a gray business suit. Jaxon had never seen her before. She winked. Then she turned and walked away. Calm. Casual.

【...uh. Jaxon. I think we just found the real killer. And she knows who we are. Which is very not good.】

The cops cuffed Jaxon's hands behind his back and started leading him to the squad car. He didn't fight. He was already planning. He was going to escape. He was going to find that woman. And he was going to find out what the f**k was going on.

He looked out the car window as they drove away. The blonde woman was standing at the end of the block, leaning against a pole, watching him.

She waved.

Then she was gone.

---