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“Do you have her number?” Again he looked at her at sea before reaching into his pocket for his phone.
He just stared at it as if he couldn’t remember what I was or what it was for. “Give me, is she under mama.” He nodded his head, and her heart twisted in her chest. As a seasoned detective, she’d learned over time not to let things get to her. Not to take it personally and definitely not to get involved.
But sometimes it was just too hard not to be human. The sad little boy look on his face and the way he’d cried out for the woman who, for all intents and purposes had been doing him wrong will stay with her for a very long time.
She used his phone to call his mama and told her to meet them down by the station. She passed the phone back to him, and he took it in his lifeless hand. “I think you should come with us; I don’t think you should drive.”
“Officer Bailey move his car to the side of the road. We’ll get someone to two it back into town for you; how’s that?” She turned back to Gil.
“Bobby down at the mechanic shop would get it. No, that’s not right, he’ll be torn up too knowing that Mel is gone.”
Celia looked over his head at Officer Bailey with a quizzical look on her face. She stood to her feet, and they walked a little way away. “Isn’t Bobby the one you said she was having the affair with?” She asked as she looked back at Gil, who was still sitting on the ground, rocking back and forth.
“See what I mean? He’s just not the type. I can’t see him doing something like this, especially not to Melissa. He loved that girl since high school. Sure, they hit a rough patch, but those two used to be real tight.”
“Well, looks like the other party has shown up as well.” They both turned to watch as Bobby jumped down from the tow truck with the name of the garage emblazoned on it. He looked from Melissa’s car to the ME and then to Gil sitting on the ground.
“I guess we forgot to tell him whose car he was towing.” She watched as he bent down to have a word with Gil seconds before he cried out in denial. The two men held onto each other, and Celia wondered just what maze she was about to walk through now. This town, for one so small and with such an insignificant population size-wise sure did have its share of surprises.
CHAPTER 12
There wasn’t much that could be done until they got word back from the M.E., so Detective Sparks and Officer Bailey spent the next few hours combing through the victim’s life for the past few years. It would’ve been much simpler if the two men in the woman’s life weren’t so obviously innocent Celia thought as she interviewed them one after the other.
But she didn’t see either of them for the job unless one of them was a very good actor. She was even more bewildered when she spoke to them both together. The way the husband would look to his wife’s lover to answer a question he didn’t know the answer to left Celia thinking that there was more to the relationship between the three people than the town gossips knew.
Like, maybe they’d had some kind of relationship the three of them together, or the husband was one of those men who came to terms with such things for the sake of holding onto the woman he loved. And there was no mistake about it Gil Sherry had loved his wife.
The most promising thing they had to go on was the lead on her new job. Detective Sparks knew from her time working the beat in some of the grittier neighborhoods in Manhattan that once you step foot in that world, the world of strip clubs and underground crime that it was a whole new ballgame. And she didn’t think for one second that things were different here because this was a small town.
The M.E. didn’t give them anything that day because he claimed was backed up, and by the time she was through questioning neighbors and friends, she decided they’d head over to the next town the following day to question the other workers at the club.
Celia’s mind went to Riley as soon as her eyes hit the clock, and she saw that it was knockoff time. All-day, she’d kept thoughts of him at bay, which had been harder than she thought it would be, but now that it was almost time to see him again, her body had taken over.
I’ll go home first and grab a shower and change. She thought. It would not be cute showing up at his door wearing the same clothes I had on yesterday, and this morning when I left his house. She had another one of those moments where she couldn’t believe that they were actually dating. If you can call it that.
