Jeanne Adams - Dark and Deadly

“He did?” Torie was aghast. “Wow, he never told me.”

“He laughed it off,” Paul said, his voice tight. “Said it was probably kids.”

“Not in that neighborhood.”

“Yeah.”

Tibbet nodded, and returned to questioning Torie. “All the other intersecting events took place when Mister Peterson was in the country. I couldn’t find anything in our files that you reported or with which you were connected in between those times. Do you remember any?”

Torie thought about it, but was so tired she couldn’t dredge up a single thing. “I don’t know, Detective. It’s not that nothing happened, I just don’t know if I can say for sure. Not tonight when all this is going on.”

He asked them a few more questions, then told them they were free to go. Paul had already called for a cab, which was waiting.

“Oh, Ms. Hagen?”

“Yes?”

“I can’t tell you officially, but you’re no longer a suspect.”

Paul spoke before she could. “What changed?”

“The time line’s too short, and Ms. Hagen gave blood. Even with the gaps in your story, Ms. Hagen.” Tibbet’s smile was grim. “There’s enough weighing on your side to rule you out.”

“Why did you need my DNA?” She’d been dying to know ever since they had come to Paul’s office and taken the sample.

“Officially, I’m not at liberty to say.” Tibbet nodded at Paul.

“It could be,” Paul began, watching Tibbet, “that they found some of your hair at the scene, as I mentioned to you.”

Tibbet nodded.

“And possibly your blood? You mentioned the blood just now?” Paul phrased it as a question, and Tibbet answered it with another nod. “Ah. But they’ve ruled out your actually being there, I guess.”

Paul’s guesses were confirmed by yet another nod.

“Interesting speculation, Mister Jameson, but you know I can’t answer that,” Tibbet said as if he hadn’t confirmed everything about which Paul had asked. “But the lab will tell us everything in due time. They’re especially good with preservatives. Amazing what those crime scene techs can find.”

“The shooter would be good.”

“Yeah, they would. They haven’t gotten anything yet, but today’s a new day, ya know?” Tibbet waved toward the two cars, now on tow trucks, headed for the lab. The owner of the other car was still protesting that he couldn’t let his car go.

“We’ll let you know when you can pick up your car,” Tibbet said to Paul.

Paul helped her into the cab, and gave the driver his address.

“Maybe I should go to a hotel again.” Torie was beginning to realize how much danger she was bringing to anyone she was with. Paul hadn’t been a target before, but he was now. What had she done?

“No. You’re safer with me.”

But he wasn’t safer with her, was he? What should she do? How could she protect anyone from what she couldn’t understand?

It was horrifying to think that someone wanted her dead, or to ruin her life so badly that they would go to these kinds of lengths to destroy her world. It was worse to think about the pain that other people were enduring, the problems and difficulties. All because of her.

Maybe it was all her fault.

But what had she ever done to anyone that was so bad, so terrible, to bring this kind of retribution?

“Tibbet wants to meet with us midmorning to go over some things. Do you have time to do that?”

She nearly sobbed right then and there. As if she had a life, right?

“Nowhere I need to be, unfortunately.”

Paul must have heard the despair in her words. “It’s going to work out okay, Torie. I promise.”

“Sorry, Paul, but that’s one more empty promise. You don’t know who’s doing this. You can’t be the white knight this time, and ride to the rescue.”

“What do you mean, another empty promise?” Paul demanded as the cab pulled up at his house. He paid the driver and waited until they were in the house to continue. “I’ve never made you any promises, Torie.”

“No, you haven’t,” she said with weary resignation. “Actually, come to think of it, you haven’t promised anyone anything. Ever.” She looked at him, thinking about that new insight. She hadn’t realized it to be true until she said it. “You stay away from promises and commitments, don’t you? Is that why you pushed me away back then? No strings on you, were there, Paul? Nothing to tie you down.”

“That’s not the point, Torie. Is there something specific you meant about the promises? Did you think that my coming and finding you, getting you out of that room in the fraternity house constituted some kind of promise?”

“No. Never. But you’ve always treated me like it did. You and Todd both. He took it a different way, after you told him. Yes.” She was too tired to glare, but she wanted to smack him. “I know it was you who told him. That’s a promise you broke, by the way. I asked you never to talk about it. To not tell anyone.”

“I thought he should know—”

“What?” Torie shot back, gaining strength from the old anger which welled up within her. “That his future bride was some slutty girl who was lying around naked in the frat house? That I was too stupid to recognize that I’d been drugged? Just because I didn’t get raped, did you make him think I’d gone willingly and got cold feet?”

“No!” Paul protested, tossing his coat onto the couch. “Of course not. I knew the moment I saw you that you were drugged. Jesus, Torie.” Paul moved toward her but when she stepped away from him, he halted. “I thought he should know not to leave you alone with any of our brothers. I never did figure out who drugged you. The guy whose room you were in had been out half the semester with mono. It wasn’t him. He wasn’t there.”

“Oh, so you felt you should tell him that, in spite of my asking you not to?”

“Good Lord, Torie, I didn’t want anyone to hurt you. Besides,” he fired back, “the only one you ever banned from your house was me.”

“I didn’t ban you, damn it. You keep saying that.”

“Well, if you didn’t ban me, what the hell did you do? Once you two got engaged, Todd stopped planning to go into business with me. He stopped playing pool with us on Thursdays. I’d hear about parties at your house, parties I got no invite to.”

“For crying out loud, Paul, it was six or seven years ago. I never specifically asked Todd to ban you from the house. I just told him I’d be more comfortable if you weren’t there.”

“Oh, yeah, right.” Paul smirked, but there was no humor in it. “Like that isn’t a ban. Hell, Torie, if you hadn’t said anything, do you think he would just stop, cold, playing pool with us? He was as loyal as could be. If you had a problem with me, why didn’t you tell me?”

“You know what? I’m not doing this.” Torie was panicking. She didn’t want to face this. Didn’t want to tell him anything about her feelings, or dredge up the past. She picked up her briefcase and purse. “Thanks for the hospitality. I’ll find a hotel in the morning, and we can go back to our unusual truce. Whatever happened, we’ll chalk up to stress.”

“Stress?” Paul nearly shouted the word. “You call what happened between us this morning a stress reaction? Well, you have a hell of a way of working out your stress, Torie. No wonder guys are dropping like flies around you.”

The words cut her to the heart.

The minute he said it, Paul knew he’d not only screwed up, he’d damaged something between them. Maybe destroyed it. The fragile truce, the beginnings of understanding and forgiveness were wiped out in the blink of an eye.

The light of battle went out of her eyes. She looked defeated. Broken.