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Kerri lowered into the nearest chair. He was the one angry now. She refused to regret this confrontation. It had to be done. Today. Now. Should have been done yesterday. “I tried to talk to you yesterday.”
“I’m aware,” he said. “For your information, I had a funeral to attend. Does that excuse my not getting back to you before this morning?”
Now she felt like a total shit—at least on that point. Before she could apologize, he went on, “Should I call the chief and request his presence as well?” His glare warned that he wasn’t entirely joking.
Neither was she. She met his glare without flinching. “I’ll leave that to your discretion, sir.”
He looked away.
A knock on the door had Brooks announcing, “Come in.”
Sykes and Peterson swaggered into the room. “You wanted to see us,” Sykes said.
The two glanced at Kerri and audibly exhaled.
Perfect.Now they were all pissed at her.
“Take a seat, Detectives.”
The two did as they were told, making no attempt to conceal their dark glances at Kerri.
“Let’s talk about the Myers case,” Brooks said. “Have you looked into the Walker Academy connection as we discussed yesterday morning?”
Surprise lanced through Kerri. He hadn’t told Sykes and Peterson until yesterday morning? Sue was murdered yesterday morning. These two wouldn’t have had time to pass along the info to anyone who may have had something to do with her death.
Well, hell.
“No, sir. After what happened with Sarah Talley, we were a little busy.”
“So you haven’t discussed Sue Grimes or Walker Academy with any of your sources? With anyone, for that matter?”
Sykes shook his head. “We haven’t talked to anyone about it.”
“We did hear she’d been murdered,” Peterson chimed in. “Which pretty much put trying to talk to her on the back burner.”
What an ass.Kerri turned to the man. “Really? You’re going to joke about a woman’s murder?”
“At least I ain’t hiding my kid from a homicide investigation.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Kerri demanded.
“We went to the school to talk to Tori, and she wasn’t there,” Peterson said.
“You went to talk to her without calling me first?”
“We were going to call,” Sykes interjected. “We hadn’t gotten that far.”
“Just as far as the school and asking for her,” Kerri shot back.
“You don’t get it,” Peterson growled. “The Talley girl didn’t just try and off herself; she left a note.”
Sykes glared at him. Peterson shrugged.
“What does that mean, Peterson?” Kerri demanded.
“Sarah Talley left a note confessing to pushing Brendal Myers down those stairs. She said Tori was the one who came up with the idea to get rid of Brendal. Alice Cortez tried to talk them out of it, but ...” Sykes turned his hands up. “You know how it turned out.”
“I have no idea why,” Kerri argued, her voice quavering, “but Sarah lied. Tori would never do that.” The sting of betrayal was sharp. Why in the world would Sarah have made up such an awful lie? Following that hollow burn of betrayal was a stab of outright fear that she refused to acknowledge. Tori would not hurt anyone or urge a friend to do so. Not possible.
