"You've been on the task force since my earlier boyfriends died. Every time you see me, you get angry."
"This time it was Richard. My boyfriend, Richard Finch."
"He's gone, and I'm the one hurting the most. And you still blame me for it."
Justin stared at me in silence for a long time before finally letting out a sigh.
"I just think you're a bit of a... femme fatale."
"And I feel bad about those lives. That's all."
"No matter what it takes, we will get to the bottom of every single one of your cases. I promise you that."
I burst out laughing. Justin laughed too.
He picked up the juice from the table and took a few sips.
After that, the hostility in his eyes when he looked at me seemed to fade.
We followed the same routine as before, ate the dumplings, and waited on edge for the killer to make a move.
But the last dumpling was eaten.
And Justin hadn't noticed a single thing out of the ordinary.
"I'm not dead?"
The dumplings had already been tested for poison by the task force beforehand. There was never going to be a surprise there.
From start to finish, nothing suspicious had happened at all.
Everyone found it even stranger now.
"Could we have been looking in the wrong direction?"