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I was just putting my glass back down on the table when I heard a minor commotion happening behind us. I turned around just in time to see that four uniformed police officers had converged on the front of the restaurant, and the hostess at the podium was pointing directly at me.
My eyes went wide as they pulled their weapons, eliciting screams from a few other patrons, and a“What the actual fuck?”from Nubia.
Not knowing what else to do, I stood up when it was demanded of me by the first officer that reached the table.
“Are you Monica Stuart?” he barked, with his gun aimed right in my face.
“Y-yes,” I stuttered. “What in the world is going on?”
I cringed as he grabbed my raised arms, twisting me to pin them behind my back before he locked me tight into a pair of handcuffs.
“Monica Stuart, you are under arrest for the murder of Kellen Stuart.”
The murder of Kellen Stuart.
The murder of Kellen Stuart.
Murder?
“This has to be a joke,” I muttered to myself, looking around the sparse, dimly lit interrogation room. I’d never had occasion to be in one before, but I was struck by how remarkably similar it was to the ones on TV. The plain table, uncomfortable chair, the mirror they were undoubtedly watching me through, waiting for me to… I don’t know… break?
But I wouldn’t break, because I hadn’tdoneanything. Not that they believed it, but the news of Kellen’s death had struck me hard, in a way I didn’t expect.
It… hurt.
As a matter of fact, as I sat there in that cold room alone, I forced myself to fight back tears that confused the hell out of me. Kellen despised me, and the feeling was mutual, but still… I’d been his wife forfourteenyears of my life. I was having a hard time remembering why I hated him when memories of those early years – the good times – were swimming in my head. Suddenly, the joke I’d made about him being dead to me at the dinner table seemed so unnecessarily crass.
Maybe because now… I reallywasa widow.
And I had no idea how to process it.
“Mrs. Stuart.”
I flinched as the door suddenly flung open and two men stepped in. Plainclothes officers or detectives, I didn’t know, but I had a good idea about what was going to happen next.
One sat down across from me and dropped a file folder on the table, while the other leaned against the mirror, arms crossed. I pulled my sweater tighter around me, trying to hide my cleavage from the one who was closer, and seemed to be enjoying my breasts a little too much.
“I’m Detective Crowley, this is Detective Bauer,” he said, smirking as he nodded toward his partner. “Why don’t you go ahead and just make this night easier for all of us, and tell us why you did it?”
“I didn’t do anything,” was my immediate answer. “And I’d like to know why I wasn’t notified before this about Kellen’s death. One of those cops earlier – they told me his body was found this afternoon. I didn’t know anythingabout it until you came and made a spectacle of arresting me at dinner with my friends. I am hiswife. I should’ve been notified.”
Crowley grinned. “Wow, you see that Bauer? She seems a little upset.”
Bauer nodded. “Yeah, she does. Maybe it’s because she doesn’t understand that we tend to avoid notifying the spousetoosoon… when they’re the primary suspect.”
“Don’t talk about me like I’m not sitting here,” I demanded. “Why the hell wouldIbe your primary suspect? I didn’t know it had happened!”
“This,” Crowley said, flipping open the file and snatching out a picture that he slapped on the table in front me. “Iswhy, Mrs. Stuart.”
Bile rose up in my throat as I took in the image in front of me, of a very bloody, very dead Kellen, tied to a chair. At first, I didn’t understand why he was showing me this, but then my eyes landed on something written across his bare chest, in some sort of black substance.
BY DEATH WE PART.
I swallowed hard, trying to keep myself from puking at the table. I looked away as he spread out more pictures, close up shots of Kellen’s injuries – deep gashes marring the beautiful golden-brown skin I’d always admired so much.
Including one across his throat.
“If I didn’t know better, Mrs. Stuart, I’d think this was your first time seeing this. Here’s something that should be pretty familiar,” Crowley said, tossing a picture on top of all the others.
