The Boyfriend

by Freida McFadden

After all, the less time I spend with the chief of police, the better.

For a man my father’s size, that means he is about five pints of blood away from death.

“Well, why don’t you?”

“What did you say?”

“Nothing wrong with killing someone if he deserves it.”

“Actually, th...

“Not re...

“It’s illegal. I would go...

“Only if you get ...

I mean, it’s not like this is a funny joke or anything, but he has a pretty twisted sense of humor. He’s not seriously suggesting that I should really kill my father. At least, I don’t think he is.

Is it possible that Mystery Man and Dr. McHottie are one and the same?

Except then I read his message. And my heart sinks.

Hey Sydney, sorry about the ruse, but it’s Kevin. I really want to talk to you about the other night. I really feel like we had a lot of chemistry, and I don’t want you to blow it because of a misunderstanding.

He’s delulu

Except, when I connect the call, I immediately hear her ring tone. Coming from inside the apartment.

Slowly, I turn the doorknob. I push the door open, revealing Bonnie’s queen-size bed with the lavender bedspread. And when I see what’s on the bed, I can’t stop screaming.

Before we can walk past, I pluck the flower from the ground and hold it out to her.

“For you,”

“I thought you liked daisies,”

“Yes, but…” She scrunches up her face as she looks down at the flower still in my hand. “You killed it. It was growing happily in the ground, and now it’s going to die.”

“...

“Is there a way to ...

“No, there isn’t.” She tugs the stem out of my hand. “But I’ll put it in water when I get home. At least it ...

“You are a very good kisser, Mr. Brewer,”

“Thank you,”

“Your first...

“...

“Mine too.” She runs a finger playfully down my chest. “I always knew you were go...

And now I’m doubly glad t...

“I’d like to do it again very soon,”

“As would I,”

It’s only when she pulls away from me that I realize that while we were kissing, the daisy fell from her fingers. When I look down, I see it under my sneaker,...

Her name is Bonnie Griffin. She asked me to come over to fix her toilet, and we found her in the bedroom. And she…she’s dead.

I do. I really do. Whoever the monster was who did this to Bonnie, I want them to pay. Because she did not deserve that fate. Nobody does.

I know because we lived together for an entire year.

This wasn’t a crime of passion. Bonnie was tortured. She was mutilated.

“We saw the text messages on her phone from what seemed like a boyfriend. But they were all coming from a burner phone.”

A chill goes down my spine. The sexy doctor that Bonnie was crushing on the other day had been texting her from a burner phone.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the story of the first man I ever loved.

Unfortunately, when I arrive, Alison is the one waiting in front of the doors.

An alarm bell is going off in the back of my head.

“This is Tom Brewer,” she says. “He’s my boyfriend.”

The smile on my face freezes. Did Daisy just call me her boyfriend? Am I really her boyfriend? Did I actually make the cut? I’m suddenly doing jumping jacks in my head.

“By the way, I hope what I said before was okay,” she adds, her voice hesitant.

“What you said?”

“You know, about you being my boyfriend. I know we never talked about it.” She takes a shaky breath. “I just… I don’t know, it popped out. But you don’t have to be my boyfriend ...

“No,” I say quickly. “I want to be yo...

I wonder if she would still feel the same way if she knew the thoughts that were going through my head as I squeezed the blood out of her finger.

Seriously dexter and Norman bates

Like, she was in love with Dr. McHottie, she wanted to be exclusive with him, and yet she never even told us his name or introduced him to us.

But despite my simmering resentment, when I look down at his photo I remember that tug I used to feel when I was with him.

“It’s not that simple, Sydney. We have DNA and fingerprints, but no matches in our database.” He pauses. “Well, except for Randall Muncy, but we know he’s not our guy.”

Why