Danny begrudgingly sat me down in an interrogation room while a deputy went to get Boone. “What’s this all about, Charlotte?” Danny asked.
I licked my lips, unsure how much to tell him. I decided to ask a question first. “Did the medical examiner do a tox screen on Marcus?” Long nights reading over police drama scripts had finally paid off. Though not in the way I’d suspected a year ago.
He gave an obnoxious snort that bounced around the cement walls. “No cop talks like that.”
“Just tell me, did Marcus have any drugs in his system?”
“Why? Was he a regular user?”
I gripped my hands together to keep from choking Danny. “I’ll tell you why I ask, if you’ll tell me the truth about any drugs. Deal?”
For a few seconds I thought he’d refuse, but he finally held his hand out. “Deal.”
I took the offered appendage, shaking it. “You first.”
He laughed. “I will never understand what Brodie sees in you.”
I didn’t respond.
“The ME didn’t find any drugs in his system.” He paused. “Happy?”
“You’re kidding.”
“Do I look like I’m the sort of man who kids, as you put it?”
I blew out a breath. “Not really.” But how was that possible? Brodie and I had found drugs in the motel room. Why else would Marcus have drugs in his room unless he was using them?
His gaze lowered to mine. “You really didn’t know him well.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Let’s be clear.” His moth thinned. “From this moment on, you are done investigating this murder. If I hear different, I will lock you away for obstruction.”
“But—”
“The penalty for which is up to three years in jail.” He stopped, his eyes hard. “How would Lucky, or more importantly, your grandfather survive without you for that long?”
Before I could respond, in a way that probably wouldn’t help my plight, a deputy knocked on the door. Seconds later, Boone entered, a leer on his lips and handcuffs around his wrists. “Well, well, ain’t I lucky,” he said with a laugh, as if I hadn’t heard that one a hundred times before.
Danny shoved Boone into a metal chair across from me, locking the handcuffs to the steel hook welded to the table. “Behave yourself,” he warned. I didn’t appreciate the fact he looked to both Boone and me when he said it. “A deputy will be outside. And Charlotte,” he said, “remember what I said. Three years.”
With that Danny disappeared through the door, leaving me alone, very alone at that, with Boone. I tried to conceal the rush of revulsion skirting my skin. He gave me a tobacco-stained smile, all rotting teeth as well as intentions. “Can’t say I’m surprised to see you, Char-o-lotte,” he said, oozing out my name.
I raised an eyebrow, refusing to let this man intimidate me. He was the lowest form of trash. A man who preyed on those weaker. I knew it from firsthand experience. No matter what, I refused to react to his sleaze comments or innuendos. I’d faked my way through an on-screen kiss with a rather famous actor and his horrible halitosis, I could manage to sit with a handcuffed Boone without showing my disgust. “And why is that?”
“I imagine you’re lonely with your man locked up,” he said and laughed. “I’m willing to take Gett’s sloppy seconds. Why don’t you come give me a kiss?” He made kissing sounds, which grew louder and grosser when I failed to rise to the bait.
“Are you finished?” I asked after a full minute.
He shrugged. “I’ve got the time since I ain’t getting out of here anytime soon.”
“In that case, why don’t you tell me what you were doing hanging around the Harker Motel on Saturday night?”
Eyes narrowing to mean slits, he growled, “You trying to pin something on me again?”
I frowned at the reminder of our last run-in a few months ago. Brodie and I had the unfortunate experience of visiting Boone at his home, if one could call it that rather than cesspool, during our attempt to save Jack from a murder charge. It was not a memory I wanted to revisit. “I’m merely asking a question,” I said with a shrug.
“Well, I ain’t gonna answer. Hear me?”
I ran my finger along the edge of the table, as if unconcerned. When in truth I regretted the action immediately. Who knew what sort of germs I’d just contracted. “Okay, if you say so.”
“You should be talking to your own kin. Not me. I ain’t killed nobody.”
Acid burned in my stomach. “Are you referring to Evan? Did he say something to you about the murder?”
“I’m done answering your questions.” He crossed his arms as well as one could with their hands cuffed to a table. “Unless you’re willing to do a little something for me . . .” His eyes fell to my breast tucked away under my shirt. Bile rose quickly up my throat. Unable to help myself, I drew back. His laugh bounced around the small room. “That’s what I thought. You have yourself a real nice day now, Char-o-lotte.”