THE ALTER: A Psychological Crime Thriller by EJ Nesbeth Page A

already know that, and so does Ryan. But right now I’m more interested in where Bret Mitchell hid the recording. It’s not in this phone and the memory card is missing,” he said impatiently.
    “I don’t know anything,” Ava responded.
    “So who should I ask, Merissa?” he said with a diabolical smirk.
    Ava felt a chill greater than what the night wind could produce. The thing she feared most now confronted her directly. No one was supposed to know about the daughter she and Bret shared, especially the mayor.
    There remained only a few feet between them when the mayor continued, “I took a really good look at his home screen, and the resemblance is striking. But where could ‘daddy’ have hidden the memory card? Where would he hide it so no one would ever suspect?”
    Ava shook her head in ignorance.
    “I’m willing to bet that Mitchell hadn’t visited his daughter for a while until he brought her this teddy bear,” the mayor deduced looking back at the picture on the phone.
    Ava capitalized on his distraction and quickly pulled her service pistol, lifting it towards him. Before she could find aim, the mayor swung his large arms sending her gun flying into the air. Another flash sent Ava flying backwards to the ground. As he walked towards her, she turned and crawled speedily towards her car with blood dripping from the corner of her mouth. Soon he was over her, grabbing her by the throat. His large hands squeezed and she gasped and coughed as she struggled under his weight.
    “You think I care about cops, principals, and dead little girls?” he taunted, squeezing even harder. “Where’s Merissa?” he demanded.
    As scared as she was in his death grip, the sound of her daughter’s name sent her into more desperate panic. She wiggled a leg free and swung her knee into his groin. The mayor wailed and released her then clutched his testicles.
    Ava sprang to her feet and dashed towards her car. She panted breathlessly as she ran, still recovering from his asphyxiating grip. A few more yards were all she needed to make her escape. Suddenly, a gunshot echoed. Ava stumbled forward then stopped. Her breaths were heavy and her eyes rolled inside her head. She struggled, moving her leg forward for more step. A second gunshot roared, throwing her onto the bonnet of her car. She lifted her head towards the windshield and uttered strenuously, “Ryan, save Merissa,” then she collapsed to the ground.
    Mayor Richards stood over her clutching the gun that had been knocked from Ava’s hand. He looked down at her twisted body and she looked back up at him. His heartless frown was the last thing she would ever see. After a mumbled attempt to call her daughter’s name, she gazed into the starry sky then took her last breath with eyes wide open.
    Hours later, Ryan sat alone in the room of a brothel with a cell phone in one hand and a firearm in the other. This was the only kind of place he could think of where anonymity was a basic amenity. The noisy erotic romp from the room next door did little for his concentration so he turned the television up loud, loud enough to also mask the sound of the gunshot he planned to deliver to his head.
    He looked at the message from Ava’s number and assumed that she had finally cut him off. He didn’t blame her either, especially in light of the sensational stories that played on the television screen. Thanks to the mayor, he was now officially a suspect in Bret’s murder and the press conference bombing.
    A special item of breaking news caught his attention. The body of a female detective, Ava Reynolds, had been found with gunshot wounds. Ryan was devastated. His eyes wetted and he struggled to hold back the tears. It mattered little that he was named a suspect in Ava’s murder. What mattered was that Ava was gone and there was nothing he could do to bring her back. She was a rose among thorns and the only one who understood him a little. A severe loneliness engulfed him as he