A Perfect Murder by Kat Thomas at Inkitt

Chapter One

Cover design by Canva Kat Thomas

Book design by Kat Thomas

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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Due to many thefts of online work This copyright notice will be there on every online posting from now on. I will also say I will take action on any person or company who posts my work without permission.

The room was darkened as the two people sat across from each other. The silence was almost deafening as the smaller of the two people sat with a slight smile on their face. The other was trying to get a read on the person in front of them. Somehow there was no fear in the first person to the second that meant only one of two things. Either they were not guilty of the crime they were being accused of, or they were a cold-hearted killer with no remorse. Detective Mitsuhide Akechi was not sure. He had the reputation of being the human lie detector, but in this, he could not place if the woman in front of him was either. It was confusing him. He did not like it at all.

Kit Walker sat in front of the man in the small grey room. She waited as she watched him watch her. She knew this would be a thing when she had found out her longtime boyfriend had disappeared. She would be the first person the police would look at. She waited and didn’t say anything. Sitting the quiet of a room was nothing new to her. So she waited. She glanced at the man who was in front of her, also doing what he was doing to her. She was sizing him up. He was taller than most of the other police she had interacted with. He was lean, but she didn’t think for a second he wasn’t as strong or stronger than all the other men in the building. His hair was a gleaming color which she couldn’t actually tell if it was white or a really light blond. He was distinct from the others, as well. His glowing yellowish eyes were unusual as she kept contact with them.

“Ms. Walker, I have some questions for you.” He finally said.

“I assumed as much.” She replied.

“There are conflicting reports of statements you have made in the disappearance of your longtime boyfriend, Matthew.” He said.

“Ex-boyfriend.” She said as she looked at him. “We broke up the week before he disappeared. I also have never given a statement about him or his disappearance, so how could there be conflicting ones.”

“That is just it. I need to clarify some of the things you have said in the past week.” Mitsuhide said.

“Alright. I have nothing to hide.” Kit replied, never breaking eye contact. He thought to himself as he looked at her behavior as she was right in front of him, there was no way this woman did the crime. She was not easy to read, but she was to calm, to put together, and she simply didn’t have the demeanor of having done anything wrong. This was going to be an information session for him.

“You said he was your boyfriend to one officer and then that you broke up a week before he was reported missing. Which is it?” Mitsuhide said.

“Both.” She said with a smile, “Life with an artist is never easy. We often broke up, and he would return after a week or so, and everything found be fine. Until you actually declared him as a missing person, I had to believe this time would be like the rest. The door was always open to him.”

“So, do you have anyone who could verify this?” Mitsuhide asked.

“Every person who knew him.” She said almost with a small laugh, “It wasn’t just like that for me. He did this to everyone. He would be fine for a long time, but then one day, he might pick a small fight, and in his mind, it grew, and he would storm away swearing never to speak to you again. It often lasted a week but never more than two. Then he would act like nothing ever happened and be the best of friends again.”

“Everyone just accepted this behavior?” Mitsuhide asked as he was now confused that she was opening his suspect pool by hundreds instead of narrowing it down to just her.

“No, not everyone did. Maybe the first time, but by the second or third, the only reason people actually put up with him was his fame.” She said. “He was a good artist. He had a rare quality of being able to capture a moment in its perfection with his craft. People put up with his manic side because of the fame of being attached to such a person.”

“And you?” Mitsuhide asked.

“Me?” she asked.

“Why did you put up with it?” Mitsuhide asked.

“Five years. We were together for five years, and the first couple had no issues. I didn’t care about his art. I stayed away from that world. I was proud of him. It became familiar. A routine.” Kit replied as she looked at the man in front of her.

“Where do you think he is?” Mitsuhide asked.

“Honestly, I have no idea. He is probably holed up in some cabin, either painting or with a woman.” She said.

“He had affairs?” Mitsuhide asked.

“Too many to count. I recently found out about them. I know that probably places me higher on the list of people who would want to hurt him, but honestly, I didn’t care about that too much.” She said. “I have no reason to tell you anything, not true.”

He sat there looking at her, and he could not detect a lie anywhere in her statements. She was telling the truth when she spoke. “Can you give me a list of his friends and associate’s.”

“Of course.” She said. “I brought his planner with me today.” She handed over the leather binder to him, and he took it from her small hand. “It has all of his contacts and friends listed in it. It also acted as a journal of sorts. You should be able to get inside his head.”

“You are free to go.” Mitsuhide said as he looked at her, “Stay in the area, and if I have more questions, I will need to reach you.”

“I have nowhere else to go.” She said with a smile, my number is in there as well.” She stood up and then went to the door, “Detective?”

“Yes?” he asked as he looked up from the binder in his hands.

“When you find him tell him never to come back to my place.” She said as she opened the door and walked out, and she started through the crowded room. People stopped and stared at her as she went across the floor. Most everyone must have thought she was guilty of something. Mitsuhide watched as the group also watched her. His boss, the captain, walked in, “Why did the lead suspect in that case of the artist just walk out of here?”

“She didn’t do it,” Mitsuhide said as he looked at the ever-growing list of suspects in front of him.

“Are you certain?” The captain asked.

“I haven’t been wrong yet,” Mitsuhide said as he looked up. He held up the book in his hands. “We have a lot of bigger fish to fry now. I would put money on it that she was not happy, but she didn’t kill him or make him disappear. The crime techs are going over her house right now. If there is one drop of his blood there, I will buy a round for everyone here on Friday.”

“You are that sure of yourself?” The captain asked.

“Yes,” Mitsuhide said as he thought of the small woman who just left the room and then the building. “I am.”

Kit walked out into the sunlight and felt the warmth on her face. For a few minutes, she thought she was going to have to stay in the police station much longer than she had been. It seemed that she was the number one suspect in his Matthew’s disappearance. She knew she would be when it went public that he was missing. The scorned girlfriend. As they went through Matthew’s life with a fine-tooth comb, it would have been more damning to her if she didn’t reveal to the police now about his normal behavior. Matthew had been an abuser to nearly everyone in his life, but no one more than her. His serial cheating and womanizing would only cast more doubt on her if she didn’t tell them now.

She stated it best. She had nothing to hide. She had let the crime tech team search her house while she was being questioned. She knew they were going over each place he could have been. Kit knew that again, they would find nothing out of the ordinary. She didn’t even require then to get a warrant. She had heard that they could have got one quickly, but she knew that just offering was simpler. It also would either damn her or free her.

It looked like it freed her. She was not a super confident person, but she held her own against the detective that was known as the human lie detector. He had to believe her because he let her go. He was known not to be kind when he had a scent in the air. His reputation was that he was like a pit bull with a bone when he was on a case. Maybe she had just given him the bone that would make him look somewhere else, or he would circle back. She had no idea.

The fact was Kit knew beyond a doubt that she would be tried more in the court of public opinion if something wasn’t done quickly to find the missing man. She smiled to herself as she neared her house to see the trucks and vans packing up. She watched as they only had a few bags of things, and they were all small. “Swabs.” She said to herself as they all drove off. “It isn’t like anything is in here.”

She got out of her car in the driveway and went to the front door and walked in. She was greeted by the picture Matthew had painted for her last birthday. She looked at it with utter disgust. “At least his disappearance will make this worth something.” She said to herself, “Now, if they could only find his body, it would be worth millions.” The smile on her face would have made people think more on her involvement though it was plain that she could not have done anything to him. At five feet tall and only a few pounds over a hundred there was no way she could have overpowered a man of average size let alone one like Matthew.

She walked deeper into the house only to see a few things out of place. She was happy to see they didn’t destroy her home in the process of searching for a clue. There would never be anything that could tie her to the crime. That thought in itself was the only thing that got her through the idea she would have this hanging over her forever now. “I think a shower would be nice.” She said to herself, and she went to go take one. It was like she was trying to wash the idea of this man off of her. It would never be the same again in her life.

Mitsuhide got the preliminary report of the crime lab. There was zero evidence that the man had even been in the house recently. They had also made a copy of her hard drives on the two computers, and there was no unusual activity. No searches out of place. Nothing that would raise suspicion of the small woman.

He made a copy of the report and went to hand it to the captain. “Looks like I was right again,” Mitsuhide said as he looked at the man reading the report.

“At least, for now, you are.” The captain smiled at the man. Mitsuhide turned back to his office and started to make a list of people to talk to. The list was growing longer and longer, and she was being moved further and further down the list. For some reason, that made Mitsuhide happy to see she was being cleared. He had never had the feeling of happiness when it came to any other suspects being cleared. He was sure he didn’t want to think about the reasons why.

Author’s note

If you don’t like my choice of names, fine, I respect that. Stop reading. Do not comment on it. It will be deleted.

My stories DO NOT have mainstream names. All stories unless the location is said are based in America where we have many cultures blended together. A man might not have any features of the typical stereotype of a region but might be descendent of one of them with a family name.

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kat