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It was my heart I didn’t trust him with, but I could hardly admit that.
I said the first thing that came into my mind. “The police were right. Why was Dolly in your apartment? It doesn’t make sense. Why the hell did Jonathan kill her there?”
I stared at him accusingly, realising this was true. And I was horrified when I saw something shift in his dark eyes. Something that made me scramble back off my stool and try to get away from him.
He seized me around my waist, and when I screamed, he held me harder.
He looked astonished to see the fear in my eyes, and dismayed too. He let me go at once. “I would never hurt you, carissima.”
I stayed frozen in front of him, too wary to move, in case my flight set him off again, as if he was a predator.
“You know something about Dolly’s murder,” I accused, panting.
And to my utter shock, he nodded.
He retreated from me, went to sit on my bed. Looked at me sadly.
“She worked for me.”
I blinked, not sure what he meant. “She worked for you?”
He nodded. “As an informant, a spy, you could say. Dolly was popular. Had her ears everywhere. She brought me many kinds of useful information over the years. People like her are necessary in my business.”
I didn’t know what to say. I was absolutely stunned. I’d never had an inkling of this. I shook my head. “Dolly never told me.”
“Of course she never told you. She was a clever girl. She knew better than to spill my secrets.”
“Because you would have killed her?” I accused.
He looked a little hurt, or maybe I imagined it.
“Never. She was far too smart for that. And I liked her.”
I flushed. Nodded, remembering. “Someone told me she used to go up to your apartment all alone with you.”
His mouth tightened. “Impossible. There are no cameras in the private lift. And she knew to be careful. No one could have seen.”
“But she did go up there, privately with you?” I said, voice trembling.
“She was my informant. Nothing more.”
I so desperately wanted to believe him. Because the idea of him and Dolly together did actually hurt. She had been my friend.
My eyes widened. “Mr Big Dreams,” I whispered. “You were the guy who was going to fulfil all of her big dreams.”
He had to be. Dollyhadmentioned him to me, after all.
Tears leaked from my eyes. “Did she come up to your apartment to see you that night?”
He shook his head. “We had no plans to meet, but she did have a spare key. Sometimes she would come up to leave a note discreetly. It must have been that. Because Landry can’t have dragged her there against her will to frame me by killing her there. We would have heard a scuffle, and we heard nothing.”
My voice shook. “Or maybe she came up because of me. Maybe she saw you and me together.”
“She was always protective of her friends,” he admitted. “Told me point blank she wouldn’t betray anyone she loved when we first made our deal. I also wondered if she saw you coming up with me, and wanted to warn you off.”
I couldn’t help but laugh fondly at that. “Yeah, she would have done that. She wouldn’t have given a crap about how dangerous you were.” And then more tears leaked out. “She came up there for me, and Jonathan must have gotten scared.”
He nodded. “If he realised she was my informant that night, he must have been terrified. Desperate to stop her.”
