Chapter Thirty-One
“Inviting me in for your own arrest, Chandler?” Allen mocked as soon Kat opened the door. She fought the urge to slam the door in his face, but the truth was, they needed him right now.
Mary Robinson was more polite, yet Kat could still see the annoyance written all over her face. “This better be good.”
“It’ll be worth your while,” Stephen said. “Just hear us out.”
Allen stopped dead as soon as he walked into the living room. “Or your arrest, Alex. Did you know you’re wanted for questioning? Threatening Emma—”
“I wasn’t threatening her. I was warning her, asking her to back off this investigation. Which we’ll explain if you give us a minute.”
“And a person of interest in Massachusetts,” Allen continued as if Alex hadn’t spoken. “Clever, getting rid of your disguise—”
“By all means, arrest me then,” Alex sneered. But Allen didn’t move. “Hear us out then.” He turned, addressing Mary. “Can you tell us about the Henderson investigation?”
Mary shot Alex a look of confusion. “What does she have to do with anything?”
“We’ll get to that,” Alex evaded. “Can you tell us where you are in her case?”
Mary sighed again. “I think she was murdered.”
Excitement had Kat’s heart sped speeding up. Finally, they might be getting some answers.
“Can you expand on that? It’s important.”
Mary hesitated and looked at Allen who nodded. “I was the one to notify the family. From the very beginning, her children were adamant that she never used drugs. We get that all the time, our fair share of cases where family members say there the same thing. But I asked the medical examiner to look for long term drug abuse, just in case. He found only one mark. It was in between her toes, a common spot. I started digging a little deeper, found nothing about her life said she was a drug user. Her finances were in order, her house was well-maintained, she owned a successful restaurant, had an active social life.”
She looks up or something. “Two days ago, the toxicology report came back. The heroine was laced with fentanyl.” Fentanyl was cheap, used by many dealers to increase the amount of their heroin supply. But it was between forty and fifty percent more powerful than heroin itself, making it extremely dangerous.
“There’s no link between her and the other deaths this month?” Stephen asked.
“Not that I’ve found. The others have been known users, in and out of rehab or jail.
“Do you have any suspects?”
“Not even a person of interest at this point.”
“Have you found anything that suggests she met with Emma Anderson recently?”
“Off the top of my head, I’d have to say no. We’ve gone through Henderson’s phone with a fine-tooth comb. I’ve spoken with everybody she’s been in recent contact with, so I would have noticed if she’d been in touch with Emma, even though I wasn’t specifically looking for it. I can go back and check though. If you give me a good enough reason.”
“Okay. Hear us out—”
“Already that doesn’t sound promising.”
Maybe this wasn’t such a great idea, Kat thought, watching Mary pace her living room floor. They’d agreed to have Alex recap everything they’d discussed the night before, leaving Kat and Stephen out of it as much as possible. Allen watched, his expression carefully blank as he studied each of them and Kat wondered whether he was contemplating the viability of their theory or just tossed it out the second the words left Alex’s mouth.
And when he was done?
Dead silence.
Until Mary exploded. “You’re talking about a United States Senator!”
Finally, she stopped pacing and glared at them before looking at Allen, as if begging for help. “I have a promotion on the line.”
“A promotion you just might just nail—”
“Nail?” Mary snorted. “More likely I’ll lose my career over this.”
“Let’s backtrack,” Allen said, rubbing a hand over his bald head. “First, do you have any proof? Of anything?”
“Besides the trail of dead bodies?”
Allen ignored Alex’s sarcasm. “Listen, I know better than to discount anything the four of you tell me.” He glanced at her and…wow. Was that respect? “Just give us anything.”
“Find Jessica Adams, she’s the key.”
“And look into George Blake’s suicide. You should be able to tie him to the senator.”
Allen nodded. “Anything else?” After a pause, he said, “Stephen, can I speak with you for a moment?”
Kat glanced up at him, her stomach rolling with the thought that Allen might arrest him.
Stephen brushed her arm as he passed, silently letting her know it would be okay. But the entire time he was gone, her heart thumped and didn’t stop until he came back inside.
“What was that about?” Alex asked.
Stephen was looking at her when he answered Alex. “He wants a DNA sample.”
“What?” Kat asked.
“It’s been months, Kat. Eight months.”
Stephen looked…worried, she supposed. As if she wouldn’t believe him. “I know that. I—”
Alex stepped in front of her, blocking her view of Stephen. “Emma was pregnant.” It wasn’t a question. And he sounded…pissed. “You knew.”
Had she ever seen him look this angry? His body was all but vibrating with it. “I did—”
“Was it Ethan’s?”
“He doesn’t know. Emma told him it was—”
“And when were you going to tell us this? Damn it, Katie! That makes Ethan a prime suspect!”
“How does Emma being pregnant make him a suspect?”
“Don’t play stupid with me—”
“Watch it, Alex,” Stephen warned, grabbing Alex’s arm and stepping between them, his tone hard.
Alex shoved him off and moved to the left. “F
“So he kills her?” Kat yelled back, her angry tone matching Alex’s. “And possibly his baby? That’s too disgusting to contemplate.”
“It’s up to you to decide what pieces of information you feed us? What the hell else are you hiding?”
“Nothing! And I wasn’t hiding it. I just found out.”
“When?”
“The night of the party. When we got home. There were balloons.” She told them the rest, everything Emma had been putting him through, how devastated Ethan had been that night. She told them she’d looked through her security files, but all she’d seen was a black shadow, had no idea who’d sent the balloon. But she didn’t think Alex was listening anymore.
She was right.
“And in two fucking days, while we’re all wracking our brains, while we’re going to the investigators in charge of the case with a fucked up theory involving a US Senator without knowing all the facts, you couldn’t find time to tell us? Bullshit!”
It wasn’t a fucked up theory, but she didn’t say that. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think—”
“Walk me through the night of the party, this time focusing on Ethan,” Alex demanded.
She never saw Emma again. Not after Ethan spilled the wine on her dress. And the wine…Ethan spilled it on purpose, but not for the reason’s he’d said. Emma had been taunting him, baiting him. Ethan said they’d argued outside…
Kat never looked away from Alex as she recounted her story, her body growing numb with every word out of her mouth. She felt the weight of Stephen’s and Xavier’s stares, but didn’t dare glance at either of them. Especially Stephen.
“You said he changed. He would have burned those clothes by now,” Alex growled. “Getting rid of evidence before he was even a suspect. What else did you see? Cuts, bruises, blood?”
Oh God. “Blood. O-on his hands,” she stuttered. “Ethan…he said it was from punching Stephen.”
“So here’s a scenario for you. Emma’s pregnant with Ethan’s child, but like I said, he doesn’t want to lose you. He gets her away from the party, stabs her, leaves her near Stephen’s truck, sends Stephen a fucking text to lure him outside, framing him for murder. Stephen’s out of the picture and so is Emma, clearing every obstacle out his way.”
“But—”
“There is no fucking but! It’s a viable explanation, one that shouldn’t have been overlooked!”
Without another word, he slammed out the front door, the boom so loud, it echoed through her house, making her jump into action. She ran after him, catching a glimpse of Xavier holding Stephen back. “Alex, wait!”
But he didn’t, just stomped toward his bike, every step proving how angry he was. He started the bike and before he could peel out she grabbed his handlebars.
“Go back inside.”
She opened her mouth, but didn’t respond right away. Just watched as he pulled his helmet over his head, tipping down the visor so his face was a black mask, shutting her out. “I’m sorry, Alex. I was wrong.”
He didn’t say anything. Didn’t respond at all, the heavy silence filling the space between them. Her gut twisted, a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach that she wouldn’t be able to fix this.
She hadn’t realized until that moment how much she cared for him, how much his respect and friendship mattered. This was different than him being angry because she refused to listen, different than their battle of wills. She didn’t have many friends, but she definitely considered him one of them.
“I trusted you, Katie.”
Trusted. Past tense. “I’m sorry,” she repeated because she didn’t know what else to say. She could tell him she never suspected Ethan for a minute. Which she hadn’t, just as she hadn’t doubted Stephen. But maybe Alex was right, maybe she was just playing stupid. Burying her head in the sand because she couldn’t face the truth.
Without another word, she released his handlebars.
***
Xavier had made himself scarce as Stephen waited inside long after Alex left, watching as Kat stood in the rain, looking down her driveway at a motorcycle that was no longer visible. Eventually, she turned, made her way back inside, her expression carefully blank. There was little he hated more.
“You’re pissed.”
From her tone, it was an invitation say his worst. He refused to go there with her, wouldn’t let her bring it to an argument and make things worse. But there were still things that needed to be said. “Hell yes, I’m pissed. You withheld evidence, Kat. Purposely so.”
“Not purposely—”
Stephen raised his hand, cutting her off. “We were finally working together, something you wanted from the beginning and fought like hell to accomplish. Yet you kept us in the dark, still refused to fully trust us. Which gives us reason not to trust you. See how this works? It’s a two-way street.”
“Ethan’s not a murderer.”
“Whether he’s guilty or not is beside the point. We had a right to know.” He drew in a breath and let it out slowly. “I get it. I understand your loyalty to him, but everything Alex laid out has merit and it deserves the same focus you gave the rest of the investigation. No more, Kat. Do not lie to me again. Ever. Not flat out, not by omission.”
Kat agreed with a single, sharp nod of her head. “I’m sorry.”
When she moved past him, heading up the stairs, he let her go.
“You handled that rather well,” Xavier praised when Stephen walked into the kitchen. He was on his computer, like always, but Stephen didn’t have the energy to ask what he was researching. He was still contemplating everything Alex had said, everything he’d been thinking as soon as he learned the baby might have been Ethan’s.
“With patience,” Xavier continued, though why he was still on that was beyond him.
“She needs patience,” he answered mindlessly, going through her fridge, looking for something to eat. And so did he, because being with Kat was going to be a long uphill battle before it ever got easier.
“She also needs to believe in him. If she doesn’t have that anymore, it’ll rock her entire foundation.”
Stephen knew that. And in truth, it scared the shit out of him.