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Everyone had been laughing and whispering when she walked through the halls to the principal’s office because, of course, classes hadn’t started yet, and she could only imagine what they’d been saying. Now alone in her room, all she could think about was how one stupid mistake might ruin her life. If the colleges that were scouting her got wind of this everything, she’d worked for could very well be over.
CHAPTER 18
It had been done to him. Celia pondered that statement all the way to the station house, trying to make sense of it, but no matter how she turned it over in her head, she couldn’t. For one thing, the first thing she’d done was run his criminal background through the system, and nothing came up. If he’d been involved in like crimes on either side, it would’ve been flagged.
By the time she reached the station house, she’d tied herself up in knots trying to figure it out. “Pete! Officer Bailey.” He was sitting behind his desk, looking white as a sheet still when she walked in. Celia stopped in front of his desk with a frown, and he held out a sheaf of papers to her. “Here, I printed it off for you.”
She took the papers but still kept her gaze on his face. She’d never seen him look like that, almost green around the gills. Looking down at the papers in her hand, she walked across the room to her desk and dropped her bag before taking a seat. The words jumped off the paper at her, and she had to read them twice for them to compute.
“Is this for real?” She looked over at Pete, who was now holding his head in his hands. Pete nodded but didn’t look up at her. He was mad, but not at her; how could he be? He was hurting for his friend and wishing that none of this had ever happened.
“Why didn’t he say something about this?” Not that it meant he wasn’t still capable, but this put a whole new spin on things, she thought, as she read the report one more time.
“There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you. You know him so well, and talk about his ball-playing days, but he’s older than you, how…?”
‘That’s why he and I are so close or used to be. He used to spend his weekends teaching some of us how to play. It’s how we became close. Sure he was a few years older, but that never stopped him. I learned most of what I know about the game from him.”
“And no one knew about this?”
“I doubt it because I would’ve heard something.” Celia went back to the printout once again and reread the words written there. They were gut-wrenching and made her feel sick to her stomach, but she had to in order to put things into perspective. If what she was beginning to believe was true, then Ryan Swamp has got to be one of the unluckiest people in the universe.
“I’m going to see him. Are you coming?” Celia got back up from her chair. She’s been giving Pete leeway on this one because of how close he was to the suspect. She knew it was hard for him to be objective and didn’t want any issues down the line if the case went to trial. “You can stay here and work on Bridgette’s case; we still need to speak to Niall Davis.”
Pete got to his feet as well and grabbed his coffee tumbler. “We’re still waiting on tech, and you know you don’t want me talking to him on my own, so let’s go. By the way, I was thinking about what you said that Inez West said to you about Dale.” They were already walking out the door into the parking lot.
Pete eyed her new Mercedes SUV as they walked towards their beat to shit police issue, dying for the day she let him take it for a ride. He knew that wasn’t about to happen, especially with Riley breathing down their necks, but a man can dream. He didn’t realize that his mind had gone off track until he looked up from the passenger door to find her looking at him over the top of the car.
“You getting in, officer?” Pete opened the door that she’d already unlocked and got in while Celia got behind the wheel. “You were saying!” Celia pulled out of the parking lot with the windows down, letting in the cool evening breeze. It was almost knockoff time, and here they were just getting back on the clock. She didn’t mind since this was more her speed anyway. Back in New York, she used to work long hours because, of course, there were more cases to tend to.
Of course, when her old Lieutenant got her the job here, he didn’t expect murder cases to keep landing in her lap. She was sure he expected her to have an easy ride with nothing much to do except rescuing kittens and helping little old ladies cross the street. She’d have died of boredom long ago if that were the case, but she knew at least one person that wish it was so. Thinking of Riley put a smile on her face, which she squashed immediately and turned to look at Pete, who had yet to answer.
