Page 72 of Playing for Keeps

“I...” I blinked, shaking my head. “I was with my boyfriend.”

“With Mr. Parker?”

“No. He wasn’t...” I gripped my necklace, rubbing my finger over the smooth stone. “Aaron and I weren’t dating. Not really. We were just friends and we...” My eyes squeezed closed, my trembling fingers tucking a hair behind my ear. “We made a terrible mistake. I was drunk and upset, and we had sex. And I told him,” I said, moving my hand to my lips, “I was thinking about someone else.”

McKeighan narrowed his eyes at me. “When was this?”

My weak voice strained out through my tight throat. “Thursday night.”

“And by Saturday night you were dating someone else?”

The nod I gave was subtle, the cringe inside me invisible, though it felt like a huge, flashing light. It sounded so wrong, but nothing with Vinny felt like anything but right.

“And this person.” McKeighan consulted his notes. “Your boyfriend?”

“Vinny,” I said, not more than a whisper, as I clutched my necklace once again.

“Vinny Leonetti?” he asked, and I nodded. “You were at the wedding together and left around nine?”

“That’s right.”

“How do you know Mr. Leonetti?”

“We met at a bar last year. We dated for a few months, but we broke up after my brother was shot. We reconnected at the wedding Saturday night.”

“Where did you go after you left the wedding?

“Back to Vinny’s apartment.”

McKeighan jotted something down in his notebook, then tapped his pen against the page. “At any point, did Mr. Leonetti leave the apartment?”

My brow furrowed. “No, we were together the entire time, until this morning when he dropped me off at work.”

“He never left your sight?” he asked. “Not to slip out and grab coffee or something to eat?”

“No, he’s got a coffee maker in his kitchen, and he had food in the house. We didn’t need to leave.”

Officer McKeighan nodded, then jerked slightly at the buzz of his phone. He picked it off his hip, glancing at the screen before looking up. His lips pressed flat, his jaw set, as he reached for the file folder on the table. “If you’ll excuse me a moment, there’s something I need to take care of.”

He stood to leave, but one of the questions that burned inside of me couldn’t wait any longer. “What happened to Aaron?”

McKeighan stilled, hand on the doorknob, and turned to look over his shoulder at me. “He was found Sunday morning with a bullet to the head. The coroner estimates his time of death to be between ten and midnight.”

His flat delivery stunned me, but I blinked away the questions I still had, focusing instead on one very important fact. “Vinny couldn’t have done it,” I told him, staring straight into his eyes. “He was with me the entire time.”

The man nodded, then turned and walked out of the room.

* * *

My paper cup sat in shreds on the table in front of me, my coffee long gone and my back aching from sitting in the uncomfortable metal chair for so long. No one stepped foot in the room since McKeighan left over an hour ago. I wanted to get up and move, to pace the room if nothing else, but I was too scared it would make me look guilty of something I didn’t do.

When the door finally swung open again, McKeighan had Officer Linden standing behind him. “You’re free to go.”

I jumped from the chair, nearly tripping in my haste to move. “Are you sure?”

His lips clamped together, the line of them crooked like a cartoon character. “I’m sure. Just don’t leave town.”

“What about Vinny?” I asked, grabbing my coat from the back of my chair and stumbling over the leg as I raced toward the door.