Chapter Thirty-Four
Blake
I sat back on the couch in Keenan’s room, chatting with him about a ridiculous extreme fishing TV show that we both enjoyed as the hour drew close to dinnertime. I’d been here for about forty minutes now, giving Indi the space she said she needed.
It was fine. I knew she’d calm down soon, and in the end, she’d make a good decision. She was fiery-tempered, but she was smart, and she’d realize that it wasn’t a good idea to blow up her entire life just to get out of this horrible show.
The sky outside had been grey and threatening to rain earlier in the day, and by now a thunderstorm had well and truly rolled in. I could barely even hear Keenan speak over the pounding rain on the windows, and neither of us heard Donna and Amy enter the room until they were practically standing right in front of us.
“Jesus, Blake, here you are! We’ve been looking for you everywhere!” Donna said. Her face was twisted with fear, and Keenan and I immediately jumped up.
“What’s wrong?”
Donna shook her head slowly, as if she couldn’t even believe what she was about to tell us. “Ed Kramer is dead,” she said.
I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes. Oh, sure, now Ed was supposedly dead… just like Yuri was ‘dead’. Christ, this show was getting out of hand with its antics and fakery now.
Of course Donna, Amy, and Keenan didn’t know it was all bullshit, though.
“What happened?” I asked, trying not to roll my eyes.
“Someone stabbed him in his office. And Blake…they’re arresting Indi!” Amy said, her green eyes shining with tears. “You have to help stop them!”
I frowned. “What? What the fuck do you mean?”
“She found his body, and the deputy on guard outside the inn heard her screaming. But then he called the sheriff for backup, and they just said they’re taking her in.”
I shook my head, unable to believe what I was hearing. Was this another trick from the showrunners, or was Indi seriously being arrested right now? Were the sheriff and the other island cops even real, or were they all paid actors?
I guess I was about to find out.
“Thanks for finding me and letting me know,” I said grimly. “Where are they?”
“Everyone’s down in the lobby,” Donna said. “Let’s go, quick!”
We raced down to the lobby, where contestants, crew members and inn staff were milling around, faces etched with fear and confusion. A deputy was going around taking quick initial statements from people, and Indi was nowhere to be seen.
“Outside,” Donna said, nodding toward the main doors of the inn.
I burst through them to see Sheriff Irons shoving a handcuffed Indi into the back of a car. “Blake!” she cried out when she saw me running toward the car. “I didn’t do anything!”
“I know!” I called back. I strode over to the sheriff. “Hey, Irons!”
He assessed me with a wary gaze. “Who are you again?”
“I’m her husband,” I said, nodding toward the back of the car, where Indi was now sitting. Her face looked as white as a ghost. “Now look, I know what’s going on, okay? I know the showrunners are paying you to go along with whatever shit they tell you, but it’s gone too far now. Pretending Ed Kramer is dead and humiliating my wife like this is too fucking far. Let her go right now.”
Irons stared at me shrewdly. “I’ll admit the network paid us to play along with certain things for a while,” he began. “Ain’t much work for cops on such a small island, after all. But right now I’m doing my real job. The one the government pays me for. I can assure you, Ed Kramer is dead.”
I took a step back, shocked. This wasn’t fake? “I…what do you mean?”
“I mean he’s as dead as a doorknob. Stabbed in the chest.”
Jesus fucking Christ.
“Why the hell are you arresting Indi?” I asked.
He narrowed his eyes. “Well, she found the body. Pretty convenient. And as soon as I arrived after taking the deputy’s call, I heard from no less than four other producers and crew members that she got in a bit of an argument with Mr. Kramer only an hour ago. Apparently she told him that she was getting off this show no matter what. This could’ve been her way of doing it. Killing the exec producer is one way of getting the whole production shut down, I guess.”
I stared at him, aghast. “Are you fucking serious? She didn’t kill him!”
“Her last words to him could be interpreted as a threat of sorts,” Irons said. “I wouldn’t be a decent cop if I didn’t take her in as a suspect. We’re not laying any charges yet. Obviously we need to investigate further. But as of now, Indi is our prime suspect, and we’re going to hold her in custody.”
I couldn’t believe it. This was absurd. I knew Indi wouldn’t hurt a fucking fly, and these moronic cops were arresting her for murder simply because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She wasn’t the sort of woman who would stab a man just to shut this terrible show down. Obviously someone else had done it, and they were looking at the wrong person.
But shit, that could take days for them to figure out. I couldn’t let Indi rot away in a shitty custody cell until then. Not alone. She would be terrified, utterly beside herself.
“Take me with her,” I said to the sheriff.
He frowned. “What?”
“I said take me with her. I’m her fucking husband, so if you’re gonna lock her up, you better damn well lock me up with her. I’m not letting her go through this bullshit by herself.”
Irons scoffed. “You wanna spend the night in the lockup? Fine. Be my guest,” he said. He jerked his thumb toward the back door of his police cruiser. “Get in.”
I opened the door and climbed in, and I heard it lock behind me a second later as Irons got in the front and pressed a central locking button.
“You don’t have to come with me,” Indi whispered, her face stricken.
“Yeah, I do,” I said softly. “Like I told him, I’m your husband. Doesn’t matter if it’s fake. Gotta support my wife, even if that means spending a night in jail with her.”
She smiled despite the circumstances. “You’re the best fake husband ever,” she said, her voice slightly choked from emotion.
I winked. “Don’t I know it,” I said jokingly. Nothing was funny about our current situation, but I needed to calm her down somehow, and the silly humor seemed to be keeping her from crying hysterically. “Don’t worry, baby girl… we’re gonna get this all sorted out. I promise.”
She nodded and took a deep breath. “I know,” she finally said. “I trust you, Blake.”
Those were the sweetest words I’d ever heard.