Sandra Brown - Smoke Screen

“She was,” Jay said. “The stash was in her handbag, and I’ve already tracked down the friend she came with. They were doing coke before they got to the party.”

Raley was surprised that Jay had learned all that in such a short amount of time. He was impressed, both by Jay’s investigative skills and by his friendship. If he doubted one word of Raley’s story, he hadn’t shown it.

McGowan was notified of a phone call and left the room to take it.

Jay glanced at his watch. “When Hallie called, she gave me her ETA. If the plane’s on time, she’s less than an hour out.”

Hallie, Jesus. The pilots would be announcing their initial approach into Charleston. She would be anticipating their reunion at baggage claim. She was probably dabbing some powder on her nose, applying fresh lip gloss, checking her hair, using breath spray, innocently expecting to walk into the arms of her faithful fiancé. It broke his heart to think of the disillusionment she would suffer when confronted with his betrayal.

Neither was overly jealous. Hallie didn’t come unglued if he had a conversation with another woman, and he didn’t think twice about her traveling to Boston with two men from the bank with whom she worked. They trusted each other implicitly.

So how in hell was he going to explain last night to her when he couldn’t even explain it to himself? He tried to imagine facing her and saying what he must. How would he even find the words? What words could he use to make this ugliness any prettier? There weren’t any words to do that. The woman he loved was going to be devastated by what he’d done, and there was no way to avoid it.

Jay pressed his shoulder. “Why don’t you let me pick her up? I’ll give her an overview of what’s happened. If I soften the blow, she’ll be better prepared to hear the details from you.”

McGowan, who had returned, said, “That’s a good plan. At least as far as picking up Hallie is concerned. We need Raley to stay here.”

“What for?” Jay asked.

“Cobb Fordyce. He heard what happened. He wants details.”

Cobb Fordyce was the county’s ambitious DA. It was said he had a sixth sense when it came to which cases were sound enough to take to trial and which to let go. His critics said this sixth sense was based more on ambition than on seeing justice done, but his critics were in the minority. The voting public held him in high esteem. He had always liked headlines, and since the fire and the heroism he had exhibited that day, he had cultivated them at every opportunity.

Angrily, Jay asked, “Who called him?”

“Doesn’t matter, Jay. You’re a cop who had a naked dead girl in bed with your houseguest. Those EMTs know Raley. Sooner or later the DA’s office had to get wind of it.”

“She died of a drug overdose,” Jay exclaimed.

“Then neither you nor Raley has anything to worry about, do you?” McGowan said. “The DA’s involvement is…what do you call it? Routine?”

“Pro forma,” Raley said dully.

“Right,” McGowan said. “Pro forma. Let Jay go pick up your lady at the airport and break it to her gently that your dick got you in a heap of trouble last night. You stay and talk to Fordyce.”

Before he left, Jay pulled Raley aside. “One thing. For godsake don’t say anything more about being drugged.”

“But-”

“Listen, dammit!” Jay said, taking him by the arm and shaking him slightly. “You go talking about drugs in any context, the logical conclusion will be that you and dead Suzi there did them together, and did so much of them that you blacked out and lost your memory and she died.”

Raley covered his head with both hands. “Jesus.”

“Yeah.” Jay sighed. He left for the airport.

Half an hour later, it wasn’t Cobb Fordyce who showed up. Raley was alone in the interrogation room when Candy walked in. She looked worse for wear, her face bloated from a night of too much drink and too little sleep. Smeared mascara had given her raccoon eyes. She was still wearing her party dress. It was wrinkled. He figured she’d slept in it. He wondered where.

She stood in the open doorway, staring at him for several moments before slamming the door shut and advancing into the room. “I didn’t believe them. It’s true?”

“Unfortunately.”

She tossed her briefcase on the small table and released a deep breath. “Holy Christ, Raley.”

“I know.”

She gathered her hair into a messy ponytail and secured it with an elastic band that had been around her wrist. “Officially I’m here representing District Attorney Cobb Fordyce. He called and asked me could I see to this ’cause he’s in the middle of his son’s birthday party. Grandparents, balloons, a wife who’d be pissed if he left.”

“Does he know we’re friends?”

“I wouldn’t be here if he did. And he would fire me if he ever found out. Where’s your lawyer?”

“Lawyer?”

“Your lawyer, Raley, your lawyer,” she said impatiently. “What’s the matter with you? Are you still drunk?”

“I, uh…”

“Don’t tell me you talked to the police without a lawyer.”

“Not the police,” he said, raising his voice to match hers. “Jay.”

“Oh, Jay,” she scoffed. “And McGowan. And Wickham.” She looked at him with a mix of bewilderment and irritation. “My boss, the DA, would shit if he knew I had said as much as hello to you without a lawyer present.”

“Talk to me, Candy.”

She shook her head sternly. “Not a good idea.”

“Please.” His voice cracked on the word, and that seemed to get to her more than the plea itself.

Her shoulders slumped. She threw a cautious glance toward the door. “Okay. You’ve got three minutes before I turn back into an ADA, so be quick. Friend to friend, tell me what happened.”

To the best of his ability, he did.

“So you admit sleeping with her,” Candy said.

“I woke up beside her.”

“She was already dead.”

“Of course. Yes. I gave her CPR, but I knew right off she’d been dead for hours.”

“You didn’t witness her death?”

He gave her a look. She waved her hands in front of her face. “Forget I asked that. Of course you didn’t. Did you have sex?”

“Maybe. Probably. They found used condoms.”

“Terrific,” she muttered. “And by the way, you’re a cheating asshole, and I wouldn’t blame Hallie if she never spoke to you again.”

“I didn’t do it consciously.”

“Oh, I see. You contend you were unconscious when you fucked her.”

“I contend I was…” Recalling Jay’s advice, he hesitated.

“Was…? What?”

But the caution not to mention drugs couldn’t apply to Candy. Lowering his voice he said, “I think I was drugged.”

“I heard she was in possession of cocaine. You experimented?”

“No, hell no. I think she slipped me some kind of…I don’t know. A date rape drug.” After a moment, he said, “Stop looking at me like that.”

“Sorry,” she said angrily. “This is just the way I look whenever a good friend tells me a story that strains credulity.”

“I think that’s what happened.”

She studied him a moment, then pulled a chair from beneath the small table and sat down. “Talk. Hurry. I’m still listening.”

He told her his theory, that the drink Suzi Monroe had given him had been spiked with a mind-altering drug. “They give people temporary amnesia, exactly like I experienced.”

“Right.”

“Well?”

“So does cocaine.”

“Jay said I shouldn’t mention it.”

“Jay was right.” When she saw that he was about to protest, she said, “But okay, I’ll tell Fordyce you’re convinced you were slipped a Mickey. I’m not sure I can convince him. It’s pretty thin, Raley. As a defense, ‘I don’t remember’ is for shit.”