They had sex again and again that whole night. Jayden couldn’t get enough of her, in enough ways. He thought about the pool, but didn’t want to take her out to real-life memories that would intrude on them.
Her room was like some kind of womanly garden, a hive where desire swarmed thick as honey. It wrapped around them, creating some kind of masterpiece. Not a relationship. Or a future.
Or a child. He had no doubts about that.
But it was something that would always exist. Even if only just in that one memory.
They worked hard at it. Sweating, panting. At one point there were tears in her eyes. She’d been on top of him, had just had an orgasm, and as she’d looked down at him, he’d seen the moisture. She made a joke then. Moved around on his body, distracting the hell out of him, and the moment was gone.
The next morning, though, it was as if the night had never been. Things were strictly professional again. The fact that she was so close to having a child made it a little easier for him to find his necessary distance. He’d been more than a little surprised to hear that.
“People remember what they see,” Emma told him as she brought him coffee in bed. It was Sunday; he didn’t have to rush off. Apparently she had things to do. She didn’t join him under the covers, but rather, in shorts and a T-shirt, curled up in the armchair in the corner of the room. “They don’t remember what they don’t see.”
“Okay.”
“Bill’s truck,” she said, barreling right on ahead, as though they were sitting in either of their offices, a desk separating them rather than a few feet of bedroom carpet. “Someone saw it at six. Someone else around eight. No one saw it between those two times.”
“No one saw him leave.”
“But they didn’t see him there, either.”
Right. Grabbing his phone, Jayden checked his location app. Called up Bill’s profile. It said he was at work.
At eight on a Sunday morning? Was it possible Bill was planting his phone on purpose? Outmaneuvering him? Manipulating him?
Excusing himself, saying he had to make a call, he pulled on his shorts and went outside, dialing Bill as he went. If the man was in Santa Raquel... If he—
“Bill Heber,” the parolee answered on the second ring. As always. “And yeah, I’m working on Sunday morning,” he said. He would have seen Jayden’s number come up.
“The shop’s closed.”
“Johnson asked if I minded coming in. We got jobs piling up and he knows I don’t have anything better to do. Besides, I’d rather be earning money than sitting in front of the television set.”
“Okay, good.” He’d overreacted. Was letting Emma get to him. Maybe in more ways than one. Pushing away a brief flash of the night he’d just spent—the physical and emotional power he’d allowed the woman to have over him—he focused on his client. “Everything going okay?”
“Since we spoke yesterday, you mean?”
“Yep.”
“I’m a getting a bit nervous, actually,” Bill said. “You being in touch so much. Like you think I might be up to something.”
“Are you?”
“What do you think?” Bill replied.
“It doesn’t matter what I think. Are you?”
“No.” Then, “Of course not.” Another pause and then Bill said, “I thought you were different.”
“How so?”
“I thought you were giving me a straight shot. I trusted you with...like a weakling or something, telling you all that stuff about me. My regrets. You didn’t believe a word of it, did you? To you I’m just an ex-con who can’t help himself from screwing up again.”
“That’s not true.” He was different. “Believe it or not, I’m protecting you, Bill.” Jayden knew when the words came out of his mouth that he’d said too much.
“So they’re looking at me? Someone thinks I already did something? Something’s happened to Suzie, then? Is that what you’re telling me?”
Jayden could almost feel the man’s tension ratchet up along with the change in voice tone.
Damn. He was off his game. Too filled with sex. With Emma.
He’d said he wouldn’t allow it to affect his work. He’d meant what he’d said. To Bill and to himself.
“Suzie’s fine. At home and planning to go to work tomorrow, as far I know,” he said. “Don’t go getting all half-cocked on me and try to see her. I swear to you, she’s fine.”
At the moment. Because she was under police watch.
“Then why all the attention?”
“I just know I’ve been alerted to check in with you. And the more I do so, the more proof I have that you’re innocent of anything that could come up in the future. You can trust me, man.”
Unless the man reoffended. Then Jayden would be his worst enemy.
“I swear to God, I have not raised a hand to Suzie—or anyone—since my release. Nor am I going to do so.”
Since his release. Bill had said many times that he hadn’t ever hurt Suzie, and never would. It was the first time there’d been a disclaimer with the statement. Could be that Bill was specifying because they were discussing a current situation. But what if Emma was right? What if Bill had hit Suzie in the past? Did that change the now?
Having a second chance meant you’d blown your first one. What was past was past and you were starting over. Right? Getting it better the second time around. Had Bill lied to him about what he’d done the first time?
“Did you ever hit her in the past?”
“Not like that bitch prosecutor said.” Bill’s disregard for Emma came out loud and clear, but that was nothing new to Jayden. Not from Bill or other offenders. Not many people were fond of those who put them away. To be rabidly accused, in front of a panel and courtroom of witnesses, in minute detail... Even if you were guilty, that was a tough gig.
And no matter how used he was to that kind of prosecutor battering conversation, it rankled more than a little to hear it directed at Emma. And made him a bit less fond of Bill Heber.
“But you did hit her?”
“I might have raised a hand to her a time or two. But I swear, Jayden, a slap, that’s all it was. When I was sure she was lying to me about seeing another guy. I know it was wrong, unforgivable. But it was nothing like that Martin woman accused me of. Nothing. I die every day thinking about that baby we lost, all because of me. Because of my insane jealousy making her so stressed she couldn’t eat. Couldn’t sleep...”
The pain in Bill’s words resonated with Jayden. After all the years he’d been doing the job, he’d learned to detect true remorse. Had always been pretty decent at reading people, even back when he’d been mostly about himself. Back then it had been a way to make sure his own world moved smoothly.
“Just stay away from her, okay?” he said now. “And if you hit a rough patch, call me. Or get to a group therapy session. Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“Talk soon,” Jayden said, hoping to God Chantel and her people found the guy who was hurting Suzie Heber soon. Because he wasn’t sure how much longer he was going to be able to keep Bill at bay. The man loved his wife. At some point he was going to give in to the need to protect her. It was an instinct, not a desire. Something that would push at him from the inside out and eventually win.
Just like Emma’s belief that Bill was the culprit was pushing at him. Jayden had to find a way to do something about that.
Hanging up, he headed back inside.
Emma was in the kitchen, notes from Bill Heber’s trial spread around her, when she heard Jayden come back inside. She had no idea who he’d been talking to. He’d been looking at his phone before he’d gone out; obviously had had a message that needed immediate attention.
She got it. He worked as much as she did. There was comfort in that.
She’d jumped into the shower, planning to head into the office for a few hours once Jayden left. Sometimes just being at her desk, especially when the office was quiet, settled everything inside her until she could find whatever puzzle piece she needed.
And she had a couple of court appearances in the morning. A manslaughter trial starting in a couple of weeks. There was always more to do than there was time to do it.
“I have to talk to Suzie Heber,” she said when Jayden came into the kitchen fully dressed. She’d heard him go back to her room; figured he was probably getting ready to go. He emptied what was left of his coffee down the drain, rinsed the cup and put it in the dishwasher.
Not a single one of the men she’d been with in her life had done that. Not even her father. Drake wouldn’t even have carried it into the kitchen, let alone put it in the sink.
“What’s up?” he asked, stopping halfway between the sink and her spot at the table, car keys in hand.
“I keep feeling like there’s something I missed before. Something that will tie then to now, to prove that Bill is back to his old behavior. That he’s a diabolically dangerous man. I’ve been over and over the interviews, the testimonies, the reports, and I couldn’t find anything significant. And maybe that’s because, until this week, it was so insignificant I just let it go.”
“What was so insignificant?”
He came closer, his gaze focused, and she had to pause a second while a wave of emotion passed through her.
It was nice, working with him. Someone as dedicated as she was. Who understood the dedication. The drive.
“I noticed earlier this week... Suzie answered every question I asked, in multiple interviews, when Bill was on trial with me. Every one of them. Except one. When she found out she was pregnant, she’d thought Bill would be thrilled. He’d wanted them to have a child together, said it would cement them together forever. Instead, when she told him, he flew off in a rage. Said the child couldn’t be his. That she’d been unfaithful to him,” she reported.
“He told me he struggled with jealousy from the moment he fell in love with her,” Jayden shot back immediately. “He just couldn’t believe that someone as young and beautiful as she was would really love him, an old fart. His words, not mine. He said the jealousy would make him almost insane at times, in his thoughts. And that he’d accused her of awful things. He also said that he’d take off, go for a drive, or just go mow the lawn, settle down, and come to his senses, and he’d apologize. That things would be good for a while, until the doubts started to eat at him again. He said that’s what hurt Suzie. His doubts. That she never knew when he’d get jealous again, and was always watching every move she made so that she didn’t risk feeding his doubts.”
“Yeah, she told me that, too,” Emma confirmed. “She was talking about having to watch every move she made, being afraid to answer the phone when he was around in case it was a telemarketer and he would think she and the marketer were lying to him and insist that it was a lover who’d called, not knowing Bill was going to be home.”
Was he finally beginning to see Bill more clearly? The thought was a relief, and scared her, too. It made Bill as her perp that much more real. The man was unstable. Violent.
“So what question didn’t Suzie answer?”
“I asked her who Bill thought the father of her baby was. I’ve been all over my notes, even listened to the tapes over the past couple of days, and nothing. She never said.”
“It’s my understanding that he worried about anyone and everyone, at one point or another,” Jayden said. “She probably didn’t know the answer.”
Probably. Maybe. But unanswered questions made her uncomfortable. “It didn’t matter to the trial,” she said aloud. “Once we got the DNA results saying Bill was the father, I didn’t need a name to go with the imaginary lover he’d concocted.”
“What does it matter now?”
“It probably doesn’t. I just don’t like unanswered questions,” she said. She wasn’t sure Sara was working that day. And didn’t want to bother Chantel. But as soon as she could, she’d ask The Lemonade Stand counselor if she could try to arrange an interview with Suzie Heber.
And prayed the woman would agree to speak with her again.