Adrenaline was rushing through Archer's veins. Finally, the lead they had all been waiting for. Now they were going to catch the killer that was destroying Emilia's life and then her life would go back to normal. He would ask her out on a date and–

And? There was no and. For crying out loud, he was a married man. He couldn't  make Emilia his side bitch. If he did that, he would be making his mother happy and hell would freeze over before Archer willfully made his mother happy.

Archer forced himself to breathe in and out. He did this until his heart was no longer threatening to pump out of his chest. He relaxed in his seat and continued to drive towards the Mannequin Hotel.

He took a left and stopped at a traffic light. He was genuinely surprised to see a working traffic light in this part of Mattapan. More over one that was not overflowing with gang signs. He figured it would not be long till that traffic light suffered the same fate as the others.

He allowed himself one more memory of Emilia. Particularly, their first kiss in this very same car. How their lips had moved in perfect sync with each other and how she had stubbornly refused to leave with him when he had informed her that she could no longer go to work.

Stubborn.

The word rang in his head like an irritating gong. His brain was flashing a signal that he didn't seem to be getting. Archer couldn't help but feel that something was very wrong. Emilia had agreed to stay behind so easily. She actually hadn't even asked to come. Yet this morning, she had wanted to go to the scene of her father's murder. Yesterday, Emilia had also insisted on going to the station with him when he had informed her that he had to interview Craig and Gertrude Barker. Despite his explicit instructions for her to stay in the observation room, Emilia had disobeyed him and entered the interrogation room anyway.

His shrill ringtone permeated his thoughts. Archer felt like throwing his phone out the window. It now felt ominous to him. It had now become the bearer of bad news. He hadn't even changed his damn ringtone yet.

"Um hello?" Benjamin again.

"What bad news do you have for me now?" Archer asked. He didn't bother to hide his irritation.

"Well, I think we found the car that was used by the person who threw Evelyn's charred corpse into Emilia's home." Benjamin said. He was still in a noisy area so Archer struggled to hear amidst the noise.

"Where was it?" Now Benjamin had Archer's full attention.

"It was parked at the HK car dealership. A police officer recognized the car as having the same description when he went there to buy a car and he called it in. Crime scene techs examined the car and found skin cell traces that are currently being transported to the lab for testing."

"Benjamin, why are you telling me this?" Archer asked. He was genuinely perplexed. How was this information supposed to help him now?

Benjamin paused on the other side of the phone and Archer imagined that he was giving him the look that he only reserved for dumb people.

"Um the HK dealership is owned by the same trust that owns the Houghton house and all other assets that used to belong to the Houghton family. Now I have gotta go. See ya"

The hairs on the back of Archer's neck got a weird static feeling. His phone rang again before he could put it back on the passenger's seat.

"Hello sir?" Ricco Romano, the IT guy greeted. Archer suddenly remembered that he had asked him to do a background check on Emilia's two friends, Gregory Willard and Andrew Cross.

"Yes, Ricco. What did you find out?"

"Um well, I found out a lot." It seemed that Ricco had also been infected with the "um" syndrome. The universe was giving him yet another flamboyant sign that this was more bad news.

"Ricco I don't really have time and someone else is trying to call me." Archer said as he tried very much to hide his irritation because Ricco was the most sensitive person on the police force.

"Okay, let me summarize. One, there is no one by the name of Gregory Willard who matches the picture you just sent me. I checked the car dealership he allegedly owns and it is registered to a trust which also happens to own a variety of properties in Boston, mostly around Mattapan and Dorchester. There is also no one by the name of Andrew Cross. There is no way of getting any information on them because they basically have no credit cards, national IDs or driving permits. They own no assets. They might as well be  ghosts."

"Shit." Archer groaned. This information was too important to pass up and he parked on the side of the road. "Are you sure, Ricco?"

"Yes, sir. I am. I spent the whole night digging up information and I got a big pile of baloni."

"By any chance is this dealership called HK enterprises?"

"Yes, sir. How did you know?"

Archer hung up so that he could answer the person who was persistently calling him on the other line. Now, he couldn't help but feel like a big fat fool.

"Archer, you need to come back here very fast. Khristopher and I went into the house to check if we had missed anything important and when we came out, Emilia was gone. I think.... I think she tricked you." Amanda said. She was clearly panicking to the extent that she would cry soon.

"Shit. Shit. Shit." Archer slammed his fist on the steering wheel. He was really hoping that Emilia hadn't actually lied to him. He made a sharp U-turn, almost ramming the squad car into a media van.

"Damn it Emilia. Why couldn't you trust me?" He said even though he already knew the answer to that. She couldn't trust him because he was a cop. No, he was not a cop. Worse, he was a cop in love and even though he would not admit it, cops in love were very protective. Archer would never have allowed her to do what she had just done so Emilia had resorted to the next best thing, trickery.

A thought stopped Archer. The note.

It all ends where it all began

Where did it all begin? Where did all this madness begin? He wanted to beat up Rukelle and Maxwell right now. If only he had been present at Emilia's damn interrogation, he would know where this had all began. Archer had not even bothered to ask Emilia about her past. He was too busy dreaming about making love to her to ask.

Archer considered calling Maxwell but then his idea bulb flicked on. The answer had been right in front of him this whole time. He had been there himself not so long ago. He had shared his first kiss with Emilia at this place. Why hadn't he thought of this before?

He took a sharp right turn onto a dirt road. He hoped that this path would be a shortcut to the place where it all began.

When he turned onto the church property, he breathed a sigh of relief. The church was deserted and eerily quiet. The last time he was here he had heard the gleeful noises of birds and squirrels. Now, the birds and squirrels were silent.

He walked passed the cracked building. Fallen twigs and dry leaves crunched under his boots as he approached the planted forest. A heap of burnt wood caught his attention. He inspected one of the planks of wood and realized that these pieces of wood had probably been burnt a long time long ago. Some of the planks were even rotten.

He took a step forward and stopped when he heard a gunshot. It had definitely come from the forest. Archer checked for the state issued Glock in his shoulder holster and took off at a run.