Ash's Darling | ✔

Chapter 22

"Did you check the warehouse for any evidence?" If Esther was kept there I'm sure the rest of the girls were too.

George nodded. "Yeah, it was spotless, suspiciously so. There wasn't a speck of dirt in there which makes me think that's where he kept them but we have no evidence on that either."

I sighed. "I'll go see what information I can pull out of him and we'll go from there."

George agreed and we both walked out of the room and parted ways. I went back into the interrogation room. "Where were we?" I pulled out the chair I was sitting in previously and took my seat once again.

"You were asking me questions I wasn't answering." Aldine responded.

"Sounds about right, let's try again. What was your goal?"

"Didn't have one."

I laid the file George gave me on the table in front of us and leaned back in my chair. "We both aren't leaving this room until you answer me. Whether that will take minutes, hours, or days I don't care. Neither one of us is leaving." I pushed the file towards him. "Want to explain why every girl you stalked went missing a few weeks later?"

"I don't know, bad luck?"

"Didn't I say not to fucking lie to me?" We both knew he had a part in this, I just had to get him to admit it.

~~~~

After four excruciating hours I finally got the answers I wanted out of him. At hour three he finally realized I wasn't bluffing when I said neither one of us was going anywhere until he answered.

He confessed to stalking the girls in the file and confessed to the murders after another hour. He said he owned the warehouse where the girls were kept until their bodies failed them for whatever reason.

He never said anything about accomplices but I decided to leave it alone for today. I'll come back another day to get the rest of the information from him. I walked out of the interrogation room and met George in his cubicle.

"I got most of the information. He confessed to stalking and kidnapping all the girls in the file." I set the file down on his desk as I continued. "He told me he owns the warehouse that the girls were kept in until their bodies failed them and they died. After that he would take them out to the woods and leave them for you guys to find while he cleaned the warehouse and left nothing behind. The only thing I didn't get out of him was if he had accomplices."

George nodded, slightly impressed. "Nice work. I had a couple different guys come in while you took your girl home but none of them got any information out of him. Well done, Dalloway."

I shrugged. "If they wouldn't give up so easily they'd get more information from people." I took my keys out of my pocket and walked out of the police station. It's already been a long day and it's only 3pm.

I unlocked my car as I walked up to it and got in. Pulling out my phone, I decided to text Esther. I couldn't get her out of my mind all day and it only worsened when Aldine started to confess. It made me imagine what would've happened if Esther had been found even a day later. Would she still be alive or would it have been too late?

I pushed those thoughts out of my head and found her contact in my phone. 'Hey, darling. What are you up to?' I sent it and I didn't have to wait long for a reply.

'I'm just reading, how'd it go?' She knew that today I was going back to the station to interrogate Aldine since George had called me this morning while she was still at my house to tell me he wanted me to come back in although in the moment he didn't know exactly what time.

'It was good. I got most of the information I needed from him.' I needed to see her. There was a part of me that wanted to see her with my own eyes to make sure she was alive and okay. The confessions got to me more than I thought they would. Aldine described in detail, how he would stalk, kidnap, and even torture the girls and it killed me knowing that Esther went through all of that. 'Are you home?'

'Yeah, I'm in my room, just walk in.' I was glad she wasn't asking questions right now, I just wanted to hold her and put the nagging in my head to rest. Wanted to reassure myself she was okay, I could protect her now.

~~~~

As I got to Mae's house I did as she told me and walked in without knocking. "Hey, Ashton." Her dad greeted me as I walked through the living room towards the kitchen doorway and the staircase which were right next to each other.

"Hey, Ben. How have you been?" I stopped my trail to the stairs as I talked to be polite.

"Pretty good, how about yourself?"

"I've been good." I shortly answered. "I hope it's okay I just walked in, Esther told me it would be okay."

"Of course, son. As long as you're dating Esther, you're family. There's no need to knock." Ben got up from the couch and walked past me, patting me on the shoulder as he walked towards the kitchen and disappeared in the doorway.

I continued my path upstairs and turned down the small hallway. I remembered the door on the right is Mae's room but just to be sure I lightly knocked on the door and opened it after hearing her voice come from the other side. I opened the door and walked in to see Mae sitting in the corner of her room reading with her back against her small bookshelf. She set her book down as I walked over to her. I caught her by surprise when I easily picked her up off the floor and hugged her to my chest.

She wrapped her legs around my waist and hugged me back. "Are you okay, love?" She quietly asked as she started to run her fingers through my hair, soothingly. Love. She called me Love. I liked it. I always call her darling but normally she doesn't call me anything but Ash.

I nodded and rested my head on her shoulder. "Better now." I mumbled, hugging her tighter.

I walked over to her bed and laid us down so she was on her back and I was laying on top of her. I slipped down a bit so I could lay my head on her chest while she continued running her hands through my hair. No matter how many times she does it, running her fingers through my hair always calms me. She always calms me. 

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Author notes:

I'm really sorry for not posting this yesterday, my day yesterday didn't really go how I planned and it was a rough night. I was going to post it this morning after I woke up but I've been super busy, I'm sorry again.

[Edited 3/21/22]

xoxo ~ Alex