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Worse than that, the bed and floor were covered in opened condoms. Covered.
Painted on the wall above the headboard were the words CHEATING DIRTY BASTARD.
DC Alice gave Forde an undisguised look of distaste. “Any extracurricular activities lately that might have led to this situation?”
Forde clenched his jaw, and his hold on my hand tightened. “What the fuck did you just ask me?”
She lifted her chin. “Don’t use that tone with me.”
Indignant, I snapped, “I think you’re the one who needs to watch your tone, suggesting Forde is to blame for being broken into.”
She gave me a pitying look I detested. “We have to determine who did this, and if Forde has been with another woman, then he’ll know who did it.”
“You think I’d cheat on Cameron?” The question was low, hoarse.
But it was his suddenly emotionless expression that killed me.
“Who cares what she thinks.” I turned into him, cupping his face in my hands, his beard scratching my palms as I looked deep into his dark eyes. “I know you didn’t. This is just a jealous, nasty person’s idea of winding us up.”
Forde reached for my waist, squeezing it, his expression softening. But I hated that bleak flicker across his gaze.
As if he expected everyone to believe the worst in him.
I whirled on DC Alice, not disguising my anger. “Are you aware we’ve been receiving letters? Creepy stalker letters?”
She shifted from one foot to the other. “I’ve been made aware.”
“So, it never occurred to you this might have something to do with that?”
She considered me as PC William stood behind her, looking like he wanted to be anywhere but here. “Fine. We’ll need to dust for prints. And we’ll ask you to stay elsewhere until we finish our investigation.”
“Have fun going through those individual condoms.” I smiled tightly.
She blanched, clearly disgusted at the thought of having to collect every single one of them to send off for fingerprint dusting.
I didn’t care because I could be a petty bitch when I wanted to be. Still bristling with outrage, I took Forde’s hand and led him out of the house, away from the ruination of our fantastic bloody weekend.
I slept fitfully because Forde had tossed and turned all night. Every time it woke me up, it took me a while to fall back to sleep for worrying about him. The next morning, he left early to open the garage. He called me not long later to tell me he’d found the police already there, requesting access to the garage’s cameras. They discovered the cameras that caught part of Forde’s house had been covered with an oil rag.
My brain ticked over with suspicions I didn’t want to have. And then I walked into Pages & Perks to grab my morning coffee and couldn’t help but notice Paisley MacDuff’s eyes widen comically at my entrance.
Paisley was Aodhan’s granddaughter. The young brunette was somewhat shy, which I put down to her only being twenty years old and having never traveled. Her mum, Dara, became a single mum when Paisley was ten. She worked long hours at Glenvulin Distillery, so there had been a time when I’d helped her out and babysat Paisley. She was sweet, kind, and a total bookworm. Aodhan had been chuffed to bits when Taran hired Paisley to work at the store because it meant she got to stay on the island doing something she enjoyed, instead of having to leave like so many of our young people.
The widening of Paisley’s eyes was the first clue something was wrong.
As the queue got smaller and I neared the coffee counter, Paisley seemed to grow more jittery. She refused to look my way as she knocked over a coffee cup, then the stack of lids, almost spilled a customer’s coffee as she handed it over, and generally pissed Ewan, Taran’s manager, off with her clumsiness.
“What is wrong with you this morning?” I heard him hiss as I stepped up to the counter.
Paisley blanched, pushing a sweaty strand of hair off her forehead. “Nothing.”
“Are you sick?”
“Maybe?” She flicked me a panicked look. “Should I leave? Now?”
Ewan sighed as I rolled my eyes and rounded the counter.
She squeaked in fright. “Cammie?”
