Manny swore. He knew there was something off about her. His gut hadn’t led him wrong before and the one time he decided not to listen to it, this shit happens. All he could do was plead his case to officers and hope they believed him. 

“I didn’t know, I swear to you,” he said. “I thought she was trying to connect with old friends from college or something. But then she said they were ex-acquaintances or whatever. I can show you their Twitter, if you want.”

“Slow down, Manny.” White inched forward in her seat, leaning forward with her arms on her knees. That close up, he could pick up hints of green in her eyes. “Exactly what did she have you doing?”

“She had me watching some accounts on Facebook and Twitter. Up until the day before yesterday, they were all inactive. Our relationship was strictly business, I swear.” A bit of fear wormed through his giddy haze. Losing his job was enough; he didn’t need to be thrown in prison, too.

Detective Carson stepped forward. “Are you sure she was just a client?”

“Yes, I’m sure.” He sat up straighter. “Look, I just met her in person yesterday. Before that, she was just a name on a screen. I didn’t know anything about her, I swear.”

“This your phone?” Carson flashed the cracked screen, with the picture of Aurya holding the cup of hot chocolate. “Did she hire you as a photographer, too?” He passed the phone off to his partner, who raised an eyebrow at the picture before swiping through the others.

“N-no!” Manny stammered, fear slamming back into him so hard, it knocked the wind out of his lungs. He squeezed the edge of the laundry basket to stop his hands from shaking. “She just asked me to make her a Twitter and show her how to tweet, that’s it. I took the pictures for her to post.”

Detective White flicked her gaze up at him. “You know, Manny, a lot of people consider crime a business. It certainly operates like one a lot of time. Are you a partner in this business?”

A sheen of sweat coated Manny’s body, making his clothes stick to him. “Listen, officers, I swear… I’m innocent. I didn’t know.”

“I need you to tell us where she is, Delgado,” Detective White said. “Otherwise, we’ll have reason to believe you were an accomplice. We’ll take you down to the station.”

“You’re not taking him anywhere.”

Their heads turned in unison to the sliding glass door.

Aurya stood there, clad in black leather with reflective shades hiding her eyes. Her braids were pulled into a ponytail, and no smile graced her lips. The door slid open without her or anyone else touching it, and Manny had to pinch himself to make sure this was reality and not a nightmare. “Invite me over your threshold, Manny.”

Detective White shot to her feet and put herself between Manny and Aurya. “Don’t listen to her, Delgado. She’s the reason you’re in this mess. Just come quietly, Khadi. We don’t want this to get messy.”

“Wait, messy?” Manny stood and glanced back and forth between Aurya and White.

Who was he supposed to believe? To trust? One had probably gotten him fired, and the other wanted to take him down to the station for further questioning, which would result in him being thrown in jail. God… Fuck this. Fuck cops and strangers with sweet smiles. If he got out of this, he’d live the most boring life possible. No excitement.

Aurya snorted. “Manny, those fools are not police officers or detectives, or whatever nonsense they told you.”

“She’s lying, Delgado,” Detective White said, her voice carrying the sing-song quality again. “We’re only trying to help you. Just come to the station with us and we’ll sort this out. Then you’ll be free to go, I promise.”

Manny’s head swam, his mind caught between fear of being thrown behind bars and the giddy feeling clouding his senses again. He scrubbed his face, squeezed his eyes shut, but it didn’t alleviate the dizziness.

“Manny.” Aurya’s voice cut through the haze. “Ask for their badges and take a good look at them this time. If they’re truly law enforcement, it shouldn’t be a problem, should it? If they’re lying, then they have no authority to take you anywhere. In fact, they’d be the criminals, hm?”

Manny exhaled and opened his eyes, the dizziness lifting like morning fog. He had no reason to believe Aurya, but he had to admit, she made a good point. White had only flashed her badge, and Carson hadn’t shown one at all. “Let me see your badges again.”

Carson, who’d been quietly watching the exchange, whipped around so fast his body became a blur. And suddenly, Manny stared down the abyssal barrel of a gun. His mind screamed at him to run, but his body didn’t register the message. It shut down, left him rooted in place.

Move. His finger twitched, his toes curled, and his vision tunneled to a pinpoint, his focus on the barrel that separated him from death. Don’t shoot. He tried to say it, but only a pained whimper escaped his lips, and he scarcely heard it over the roar of his heart in his ears.

Carson squeezed the trigger.