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“Yes,” I breathed in relief. “I witnessed everything from the moment she entered the room until they were done. And he did not rape her. Not even close.”
“Holy—Wait one second.” He held up a finger before grabbing his phone and dialing a single number.
“Yes, sir?” a voice asked through the speaker on the base of the phone.
“Sandy,” Detective Rice asked the base. “Did I read it correctly on the schedule today that Stempy was going to stop by to see his client?”
“He’s here right now, signing out, actually.”
“Good.” Detective Rice glanced my way. “Could you send him back? I believe there’s someone in my office he’d be very interested in questioning with me.”
“Yes, sir.”
Detective Rice disconnected the speaker, and I gulped, wondering—though mostly worrying over—who Stempy was.
“You have impeccable timing, Miss Prescott,” Detective Rice announced. “Beckett Hilliard’s lawyer is here visiting him. He probably would’ve contacted you later with more questions, but now that he’s here, we can both just talk to you together.”
“Oh,” I said in a small voice. So I was going to get grilled by a cop and a lawyer together. That was just great. Awesome. They should toss in a priest too and really make the inquisition complete. Then again, this had to be better than answering questions more than once, right? So sure, bring on more people. The more people to hear about my debaucheries, the merrier.
Oh God, I think I was going to throw up all over the floor. When a knock came on the door, my stomach actually lurched. No! Don’t throw up, stomach. Please don’t throw up.
Detective Rice stood and answered the door. I swear, the guy that entered seemed so young he had peach fuzz growing from his face. He looked as young as I was.
“Ron Stempy,” Detective Rice introduced before swinging his hand my way, “Bailey Prescott. She claims she saw everything that happened on the night of the Hilliard rape.”
I frowned, tempted to correct him and say there had been no rape, but Stempy’s startled reaction stole my attention.
“She…?” He swung my way so fast I pulled back in my chair away from him. Then he froze and blinked at me a moment before blurting, “But she’s blonde.” Then he shook his head as if in denial and directly accused me, “You’re blonde.”
My hand went to my curls. “I…yeah. I just got it dyed.” What the hell did he have against my blonde curls? I thought they looked cute.
“You…” He stared stupidly another ten seconds before repeating. “You dyed it? What….” He shook his head again and flushed. “I’m sorry, I know this is an off-the-wall question, but when did you dye it, exactly?”
“Yesterday,” I said slowly, pressing my locks protectively to my head, and wondering if it was a crime to be blonde. A wild thought raced through my head that they were going to hold me down and shave me bald for dying my hair.
But the lawyer nodded as if pleased by my answer, then bit his lip before asking. “And what color was it before, if you don’t mind me asking?”
I squinted at him, wondering why this was so important. “It was a lot of colors, dyed like a rainbow, actually.”
He hissed out a sudden, relieved sounding breath. And from the look in his eye, I got the feeling this guy suddenly wanted to hug me. “Oh God,” he panted out, most unprofessionally. “Miss Prescott, you are exactly the girl I want to talk to.”
* * *
An hour later, I left the police department, feeling, I don’t know. Relieved mostly. A good kind of relieved. I didn’t feel all that scummy either. Okay, kind of scummy, even though the detective and lawyer both had been quite professional about questioning me. There’d been a few times when we’d all blushed and cleared our throats before continuing, but they hadn’t made me out to be a dirty voyeur peeping tom sicko at any point, so that was sweet.
Mr. Stempy seemed a lot more excited about what I had to say than Detective Rice. He smiled as if relieved when I said things like Melody instigated everything and she’d been on top. And one time, when he asked if I knew who’d provided the condom, he’d actually victory-fisted himself before hissing yes under his breath after I answered that Melody had pulled a condom from her cleavage.
The most embarrassing part came at the end when Detective Rice politely thanked me and told me someone would be in contact if they had any more questions.
I glanced between the two, startled it was over. They hadn’t tied me to a chair in a mirror-windowed room as they played good-cop, bad-cop or given me a lie-detector test or anything.
“That’s it?” I blurted, confused.
Mr. Stempy smiled as if amused. “Someone will probably be in contact with more questions.”
I nodded and rose to my feet. “So, um, he’ll be released then, right?”
The two men exchanged an uncertain glance before the lawyer sighed. “It’s hard to say. This started out as a simple she-said, he-said case. Now it’s a she-said, he-said, she-said situation, so…”
