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My eyes went wide at the sight of a bloody kitchen knife – one of myShun Kajiknives, that I’d considered the perfect tools for my perfect kitchen.
Knives that were missing after yesterday’s incident.
Across the room, Bauer cleared his throat. “You don’t even have to ask whose fingerprints are all over this knife, do you?”
“Those werestolen,” I insisted, looking right into his face. “Yesterday, someone broke into my home, I filed a police report and everything. That was one of the things they took!”
“More like theonlything they took,” Crowley drawled. “Which I find mighty convenient. Don’t you think it’s a littletooconvenient Bauer?”
“Oh definitely. Just like the “hacking”. Pretty damned well-timed, you supposedly get hacked, so your security system, all your cameras are offline. It all just seems… planned. Is that what this is, Mrs. Stuart? This was your plan?”
“I didn’t need a plan, because I didn’tdoanything.”
“Oh come off it,” Crowley snapped. “You were upset because Kellen couldn’t keep it in his pants, so you decided to send a message.”
My face screwed into a scowl. “Bykillinghim?! That doesn’t even make any sense!”
“According to his girlfriend, you called Kellen yesterday morning, screaming that you were going to kill him. Today, he turns up dead, and your fingerprints are on the knife. This all makesplentyof sense to me.”
Bauer nodded. “Kellen hasn’t worked in what… four years? You’ve been paying all the bills, while he runs around like a single man, spending your money. You don’t divorce him because you don’t have any legal recourse to keep him from taking half of everything, or at least insisting on spousal support. That’s enough to make anyone snap, right? Is that why you did it? To keep him from getting anything?”
“I didn’t do this.”
Crowley sat back in his chair, staring as if he was considering my words before he looked at his partner. “What do you think, man? Think she’s telling the truth? I think she’s telling the truth. I don’t think she beat her husband and tied him up, tortured him with the stabbing, then cut his throat. Nah, it wasn’t her.”
“You’re right,” Bauer shrugged. “Look at her – you really think she’d do a dirty job like that? It was probably her boyfriend.”
“Boyfriend?” I exclaimed. “What boyfriend?!”
“You really are an actress, aren’t you?” Crowley chuckled. “What boyfriend? That particular ruse would work a lot better if you’d actually bothered to hide all those emails and texts and phone calls.”
I pushed out a frustrated sigh. “What the fuck are you talking about?! I don’thavea boyfriend!”
“Would “No Rest for the Wicked” agree?” Bauer asked. “I mean, the man killed your husband for you – I don’t know if he’d appreciate not being claimed.”
…the man killed your husband for you…
“I…what?” I said, suddenly feeling dizzy. “You don’t… you don’t know what you’re talking about. He doesn’t even know Kellen. He’s not… we’refriends.”
Crowley leaned across the table, wearing a smirk that made my skin crawl. “Mrs. Stuart… come on now. We saw the video – the things you two were doing weren’t veryfriendlyat all.”
My eyes went wide. “Video? What video?”
“The video we got from your computer, the video you’ve watched thirty-six times since last year, of you and “Wick” finger-banging yourselves, Mrs. Stuart. Well…youused more than just your fingers.”
Heat spread over my face as I clenched my fists. “I deleted that months ago!”
“Well, you didn’t do a very good job. You’ve barely been here an hour, and we already have enough from your computer to put you away for good.”
“Everything you have is circumstantial at best, Crowley. Cut the bullshit.”
I looked up to see that the door had opened again, and a woman was standing there glaring from Crowley to Bauer. The door swung shut behind her, but she kept her stance – one hand propped on her hip, the other clutching an expensive-looking leather commuter bag.
“Demetria Byers… it hasn’t been long enough.”
Demetria smirked, tucking her hair behind her ear as she approached the table, putting her bag down before she started collecting the pictures of Kellen to put back into the folder.
“Ah, if you only understood how mutual the feeling was.” She closed the folder full of pictures and tossed it across the table to him. “This interview is over. You had no business speaking with my client without her lawyer present, and I’ll make sure that’s mentioned when you try to use anything she’s said against her.”
