"Officers, you have to understand—this is just how things are done where we come from."
"Especially when a daughter's boyfriend visits for the first time. The mother always makes dumplings by hand. It's tradition."
"And with the holidays right around the corner, every family makes dumplings. Every single one."
"It's been this way for as long as I can remember. So how could... how could my daughter's boyfriend just..." Her voice cracked. "Lord have mercy."
But Justin Dickerson from the task force kept his eyes locked on me, refusing to look away.
"Maybe there's a more sophisticated method of poisoning we haven't considered."
The color drained from my face. I opened my mouth, ready to defend myself.
But before I could get a word out, Chief Finch spoke up for me.
"Dickerson, the probability of that is virtually zero."
"Didn't you hear what the coroner just said?"
"There were no signs of poisoning in the victim's body whatsoever. He didn't die from poisoning."
The task force members shook their heads in frustration.
"So we can rule that out. This has nothing to do with the dumplings your mother made."
I couldn't help muttering under my breath.
"Besides, I ate them too."
My mom loved making dumplings more than anything. And before those three boyfriends died, I used to love eating them too.
This time, though, I'd been so anxious about something happening to Richard that my appetite was shot. I'd barely touched them.
But my mom had eaten two full bowls without hesitation.
If there had been anything wrong with those dumplings, how could the two of us still be sitting here, perfectly fine?
One by one, every theory was shot down.
So the task force kept eliminating possibilities until, finally, someone raised a new angle.
Could this be a crime of passion? Someone with a grudge against me?
Chief Finch turned to me. "Deborah, think carefully. Is there someone like that in your life?"
"Someone who pursued you and was rejected—someone who might be operating in the shadows, killing each of your boyfriends one by one. It's a real possibility."
I racked my brain, thinking hard for what felt like forever. Then my head snapped up.
"Actually... there might be."
Everyone's eyes settled on me, their expressions unreadable.
I had no choice but to lay it all out.
"There was a colleague I knew from work. His name was Oscar Parsons. He pursued me for a while, but he was a heavy smoker, and I just wasn't interested, so I turned him down."
"After that, he threatened me several times—sometimes to my face, sometimes behind my back."
"He said that when he set his sights on a woman, he'd have her no matter the cost."
"I told him I had a boyfriend. He just looked at me and said we wouldn't last."
The further I went, the more goosebumps crawled across my skin.
I was on the verge of tears. I looked up at Chief Finch, desperate.
"Chief Finch, do you think it could be him?"
"But how would he even know every time I started dating someone? And how did he manage to kill each of my boyfriends without fail? How is that even possible?"
Chief Finch's brow furrowed, his expression thoughtful. "We can't confirm he's the killer just yet. He's a person of interest, that's all."
"To test this theory, we'll need to investigate further."
The task force proposed having Justin pose as my boyfriend and visit my family's home.
"Me?"
"Him?"
Justin and I said it at the exact same time.
I looked at his handsome face, written all over with reluctance, and my own brow creased.
"Can't you send someone else?"
Chief Finch smiled faintly. "He's the only one on the task force close to your age. Anyone else wouldn't be convincing."
Fine.
So Justin followed the task force's plan and posed as my boyfriend, coming to my family's home for a visit.
I recreated the scene exactly as it had been the day Richard came over.
