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Robert nodded. “Yeah. She was pretty much trying to get Colton and Finn Ward’s attention.”
“Finn Ward’s?” I asked before I was able to stop myself.
“Yeah. You know him?”
I could feel the heat from my father’s stare. “Um, yes, I’ve met him. So none of the guys left with her. Do you know who she left with?”
“No one. She got pretty wasted. I had the bartender call her a taxi, and I walked her out to it, made sure she got in, and that was the last time I saw her.”
I quickly jotted down a few notes before looking up at Robert. “Did anything happen before she got in the cab?”
He looked down and tapped nervously on the table. Rochelle was staring at him, and I could tell she was about to unleash on him. Clearly, something happened he didn’t tell his fiancée about.
Leaning in, I took Robert’s hand in mine. “I can’t help you if you don’t tell me everything.”
He glanced up and looked directly into my eyes. “What does this have to do with Casey Stevens accusing me of assaulting her?”
“It depends on if my hunch is right, and the only way I’ll know is if you tell me what happened between you and…what is her name?”
“Bryn Derks. Her name is Bryn Derks.”
I wrote down the name before piercing his eyes with mine again.
“Before she got into the cab, she begged me to kiss her. I told her no, that I was very happily in love with Rochelle. She got pissed off. I mean really pissed off. Started going on and on about how all men where the same. Then she just started crying. I couldn’t figure out what in the hell was going on. She finally told me her husband was a firefighter and that he had died in a car accident a few months before she started bringing her son to the library. When Mark—that’s her son’s name—started showing an interest in me, she thought it was a sign. I gave her a hug. I was only trying to be kind to her. When I went to pull away, she kissed me. I broke off the kiss immediately. Opened the cab door, told the driver to make sure she got home, and then started to walk off.”
“She kissed you! You didn’t tell me that,” Rochelle said.
“I didn’t want to upset you over something that didn’t seem to matter.”
I cleared my throat, getting Robert’s attention again and giving Rochelle a cool-it look. “Did she say anything to you?”
He shook his head. “No. Well, wait. She did.”
My father and I both leaned forward. “What did she say?” my father asked.
I glanced over to him, my mouth ajar. “Dad! I’m the one asking the questions!”
He blushed. “Sorry, sweetheart.”
Focusing back on Robert, I asked, “What did she say?”
He narrowed his eyes as he brought the memory back up. “She said something about how I’d regret walking away and…um…something about getting what was due to me.”
I sighed in frustration. “Robert, how could you not think something like that was important to tell the police or us?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I figured at the time that she was just pissed. I didn’t think anything of it after that.”
Rochelle gasped and asked me, “You think she has something to do with this, don’t you?”
I shook my head. “I’m not sure, but I am going to see if there is some sort of connection.”
Slowly shaking her head, Rochelle turned to Robert. “I knew she was crazy. I told you she was crazy!”
Robert looked back at me. “How in the hell did you piece that together?”
With a slow smile, I shrugged. “Just doing my job.”
—
