Devil's Whisper Chapter 124: Pieces in the Dark

“Firstly, go back and find out who is the person that started the vicious cycle of murders by misinterpreting messages from the Rubaiyat... You are overlooking something, and I know there is a way by which the killer would come to you, and you can easily catch him,” Sarah said, her voice steady but full of urgency.

Kate frowned, her mind racing as she tried to piece together everything she had learned so far. “What am I overlooking?”

“Look at all the pieces of this puzzle, and then you will find out what you have overlooked,” Sarah replied cryptically, her words hanging in the air like a riddle that Kate couldn’t quite solve. Sarah’s gaze seemed to pierce right through her, as if she could see into the depths of Kate’s troubled mind. “The answers are right in front of you. You just need to trust your instincts.”

Kate stood there, unsure of how to proceed, feeling a strange combination of determination and doubt. Sarah’s words made sense, in a way, but they also left her with more questions than answers.

She had to find the truth, but how? Where could she look? What had she missed?

“Now go back... and don’t try to come back until Baphomet is gone from here,” Sarah continued, her voice firm, yet there was a sense of finality in it. “You have to put the pieces together yourself. I can’t do it for you.”

Kate swallowed hard, taking a step forward, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that time was slipping away faster than she could keep up with.

“Where do you live?” Kate asked, needing to know more.

Sarah hesitated for a moment, as if deciding how much to reveal. She then said, “I live on the streets of Adelaide... Don’t worry, I will know when you need me, and I will come.”

Kate’s lips parted to ask more, to push for answers, but something in Sarah’s demeanor told her that pressing further wouldn’t help. It was as if Sarah was offering only what Kate needed to hear—nothing more, nothing less. She had to trust that whatever Sarah said had its purpose, even if it didn’t make complete sense.

Kate stood there for a long moment, watching Sarah turn and walk away. Her figure slowly disappeared into the distance, blending with the shadows of the night, leaving Kate alone with her thoughts.

She wanted to call out, to ask more questions, to demand explanations for all the cryptic things Sarah had said, but then the thought passed. It wasn’t the time for more questions. It was the time for action.

She took one last look at her house. She cannot to go inside, but get back to the motel. There was no other choice. She knew Sarah was right—the killer was still out there, and she couldn’t afford to sit around wondering who was behind it all.

Since the moment she had started investigating this case, something had never sat right with Kate about Juan Luu. Every instinct told her that he wasn’t the killer. The pieces of the puzzle just didn’t fit with him as the mastermind.

And now, with Sarah’s words echoing in her mind, Kate began to realize that she wasn’t wrong to doubt him. She had been right to question everything. The truth was still out there, hiding in the shadows, and she was determined to bring it into the light.

With newfound resolve, Kate made her way toward her car. As she drove back to the motel, her mind replayed the conversations she’d had, each word Sarah had spoken weighing heavily on her.

Every detail mattered now, every scrap of information. She couldn’t let the mystery slip through her fingers.

"Listen, Jason, I want to talk to Juan," Kate said to him in a low, steady voice, making sure her tone conveyed both urgency and determination.

They were sitting across from each other in his office, discussing several aspects of the case. Kate felt an increasing need to talk directly to Juan. Something about the evidence—or lack thereof—didn’t sit right with her, and she knew she had to ask him a few key questions if she was going to make any headway in this investigation.

In the cramped motel room, Jason sat hunched over a cluttered desk, a sea of files and photographs spilling across its surface like a map of their shared obsession. The dim glow of a single lamp cast soft shadows over his features, highlighting the faint stubble along his jaw and the weariness etched into the lines around his eyes.

He glanced up as the door creaked open, and when he saw Kate step inside, a slight smile tugged at his lips—a rare flicker of warmth breaking through his guarded exterior.

“You’re back,” he said, his smile deepened, a silent welcome that made her heart flutter despite the weight she carried. “Did you get the files?”

“No, but I did have some information that is very important to the case,” Kate replied, her voice low and steady, carrying both urgency and determination as she crossed the room toward him. She stopped just short of the desk, close enough to feel the heat radiating from him, and met his eyes with a resolve that made the air between them crackle. “Listen, Jason, I want to talk to Juan.”

Juan Luu’s arrest had felt too easy, too disjointed from the killer’s meticulous cruelty, and she knew she had to ask him a few key questions—questions only he could answer—if she was going to make any headway in this investigation. She needed to see his eyes, hear his voice, feel the truth or lies beneath his words, and Jason was the only one who could make that happen.

Jason leaned back in his chair, the wood creaking faintly under his weight, his expression shifting to one of clear hesitation as he crossed his arms over his chest.

“You know that’s not possible,” he said, his voice firm but tinged with a concern that softened the edges, his eyes searching hers with a quiet plea. “Juan’s in police custody, and no one is allowed to meet him except his lawyer.”

His tone was a wall, but beneath it, she caught the flicker of worry—the way he looked at her like she was a flame he couldn’t bear to see burn out—and it sent a shiver through her, a warmth she couldn’t ignore.

Kate let out a frustrated sigh, the sound sharp in the quiet room, but she refused to back down, stepping closer until the edge of the desk pressed against her thighs. “I’ve done you many favors in the past,” she said, meeting his eyes with an intensity that made his breath catch. “Now it’s time for you to return the favor. I need to speak with him. There’s something important I need to know.”

Her gaze held his, unwavering, and she saw the flicker of something softer in his eyes—something that made her heart thud with a mix of hope and longing.

Jason’s brows furrowed, his jaw tightening as he wrestled with the weight of her request, clearly torn between duty and the pull she had over him.

“But Kate…” he began, his voice a low rumble as he tried to resist, his hand twitching as if to reach for hers before he caught himself. But she cut him off, not giving him a chance to finish his thought, her presence a force he couldn’t easily push away.

“No ifs and buts,” she said, her tone unwavering, a quiet command that echoed the strength he’d seen in her time and again—the strength that had drawn him to her, that made him weak in ways he couldn’t admit. “I know it’s a tough ask, but it’s not impossible. You can make it happen.”

She straightened, her eyes never leaving his, and the air between them thickened, charged with the unspoken—her trust in him, his need to protect her, the thread of something deeper pulling tighter with every heartbeat.

For a moment, it was as if he was weighing the consequences, his mind racing through the risks. If word got out that Kate was meeting with Juan before trial, there’d be hell to pay—questions, reprimands, a stain on his career he couldn’t easily erase. He wasn’t naive; he understood the stakes, the tightrope they’d be walking.

But at the same time, he knew it was because of Kate’s relentless pursuit—her late nights poring over clues with him, her voice steady in the chaos—that they’d come this far. Her belief in him, her need for him, was a weight he couldn’t shake, a pull he couldn’t deny.

With a long exhale, he gave in. He became lesser and lesser weak when agreeing to Kate’s demands, a truth he felt in his bones—each time she asked, each time she looked at him like he could move mountains, he found himself bending, yielding to the fire in her that lit something in him too.

“Alright,” he said, finally relenting, his voice soft but resolute, a promise woven into the word as he leaned forward, closing the small distance between them. “If you really want to meet Juan, I can make it happen. But you’ll need to wait until the staff clears out. After that, I can arrange the meeting. Just be patient.”

A smile stretched across Kate’s face, a rare moment of satisfaction breaking through the tension, softening her features as she looked at him. “Thank you,” she said, her voice soft with gratitude, a warmth threading through it that reached into his chest and tugged at his heart.

She stepped closer, her hand brushing his arm—a fleeting, electric touch that sent a shiver through him—and the air between them crackled with unspoken longing, a pull she felt too. For a moment, she wanted to linger, to let her fingers stay, to feel the strength of him beneath her touch and know he was hers in this fight, but the case loomed, a shadow she couldn’t escape.

“But, Kate,” Jason continued, his brow furrowing as he leaned closer, his voice dropping to a husky murmur that made her pulse race, “tell me something—what exactly do you want to ask him?”