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The chief leaned forward, his nostrils flaring like he’d caught the scent of something tasty. “Describe the sweatsuit.”
“It was white,” Saoirse said.
“Designer?”
“Yes, I think so. I’m not really into fashion.”
The chief’s cold eyes flicked over her staff uniform. “I see that. You’re saying Mr. James loaned you one of his mother’s designer pieces.”
Saoirse chewed on her inner cheek again. “Sutter loaned me a sweatsuit to sleep in. In the morning, I put it in the laundry hamper. I didn’t keep it, borrow it, steal it, or anything else Mrs. James says I did.”
“How do you know Mrs. James said anything?”
“Because she was here earlier threatening me.”
“Threatening you? How did she threaten you? And why didn’t you report this threat?”
“She threatened me with exactly what’s happening now and I didn’t report it because I’m not the kind of person who calls in favors from police chiefs and uses them to intimidate and harass people.”
The chief’s mouth turned down. “Is that what you’re suggesting is going on here?”
“I’m not suggesting anything. I’m answering your questions.”
“Not very truthfully so far, Miss Fay.”
Saoirse smiled, keeping a tight rein on her anger.
“And if it wasn’t Mrs. James who made the complaint?” Chief Stanley asked. He flipped a few pages in his notebook. “What if it was Sutter James himself who reported the theft of, let’s see here, designer clothes, diamond and emerald rings, diamond earrings, diamond necklaces, a Lalique—that’s a statue, I guess—and a cut-crystal trophy all worth more than thirty thousand dollars. What would you say to that?”
I’d say you’re a liar!Saoirse’s Little screamed.
She bit her cheek until she tasted blood. She slowly closed the door in her mind, hearing her Little sobbing behind it.
“I’d say that doesn’t seem like Sutter,” she said finally.
“No? I understand he’s quite a young man. Twenty-two. That’s a full ten years younger than you, correct? What would a wealthy young man in his prime want with a woman in her thirties, Miss Fay?”
She felt a prickling behind her eyes and willed it away fiercely. “You’d have to ask him that.”
“Isn’t it true that you targeted Mr. James, Miss Fay? You came to the Ranch for the purpose of meeting him, seduced him, conned him into showing you where the family valuables were, gave you gifts including an expensive trip to London, first class all the way, and then planned to disappear?”
She shook her head. “No, none of that is true except that he took me on a trip to London and we flew first class.”
“He says all of that is true.”
Saoirse swallowed back the lump in her throat. Turned the locks on the door in her mind where her Little howled at the possibility her Daddy had betrayed her.
“Again, that doesn’t seem like Sutter,” she said.
The Chief flipped pages in his notebook. “Let’s talk about the drugs. You’ve been seen taking pills. What are those? Pain pills?”
“No. I take anti-seizure medication.”
“Names?”
Saoirse rattled off the three different types of anti-seizure medication she’d been prescribed, although she currently only took one of them daily.
“You’re prescribed this by a doctor? An M.D.?”
