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“You’re late,” Andrew said when Kat knocked on the doorframe of his tiny office at Cherry Hills Police Department headquarters forty-five minutes later. “You told me you were fifteen minutes away over an hour ago.”
“There was an emergency,” she replied. “I’ll fill you in later.”
To Kat’s immense relief, Dr. Mark hadn’t seemed all that concerned about Tom, especially when he’d asked if she had noticed any blood in his vomit and she had answered in the negative. After a full-body inspection, Dr. Mark said Tom was dehydrated but otherwise checked out okay, at least upon cursory inspection. He had given the cat a shot designed to prevent him from throwing up for twenty-four hours with the hope that he could keep some fluids down and whatever had upset his stomach would be flushed out by then. Kat had taken Tom home with the veterinarian’s blessing, but she was under strict instruction to call if he stopped acting like himself at any point. If whatever ailed him didn’t clear up on its own, he would have to go back for blood work and diagnostic tests.
Tom hadn’t been happy about the visit, especially when Dr. Mark had pricked him with that needle. He had remained unhappy throughout the drive back to Kat’s apartment, making a beeline for the space underneath the bed as soon as Kat freed him from the carrier. But Dr. Mark’s optimism about his condition had buoyed Kat’s spirits, even when she went into the bedroom to change out of her work clothes and was reminded of the mess the feline had made on the carpet and bedspread.
Her good mood hadn’t lasted long though. Now that she was on her way to face a man accused of murder, apprehensive tingles kept running up and down her arms. As heartfelt as Zack Lawson’s ‘I didn’t do it!’ had struck her yesterday, the imminent face-to-face visit had erased some of her conviction in his innocence.
Andrew stood up and squeezed through the narrow gap between his desk and the wall to join Kat by the door. “Come this way,” he said, taking her elbow.
She fell into step beside him. “Did I make you stay past your shift?”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ve got nothing else planned this evening, and there’s no way I would leave you here alone to face someone in lockup.”
“So you’ll be joining us in the interview room?”
“You couldn’t pay me to miss it.”
Kat wanted to throw her arms around him and plant a kiss on his mouth, but that didn’t seem like the appropriate response while he was still on duty. She would just have to show him how grateful she was later.
“Chief’s giving you thirty minutes,” Andrew said. “And we won’t be in an interview room.”
Kat’s steps faltered. “Where are we going to be?”
“Lawson will remain inside of his cell, and you and I are going to be on the other side.”
Kat had never seen the jail area before. The notion sent a shiver down her spine.
Andrew gave her arm a reassuring squeeze. “You’ll be perfectly safe. And if need be, backup is only a shout away.”
He led her toward the back of the building. When he reached a heavy metal door, he peeked through the glass window embedded within the center before pulling out a set of keys and using one to let them in.
The jail area was smaller than Kat had expected, although she supposed she should have anticipated as much from the modest size of the building itself. She spied two cells on the left separated by a solid, white wall. The right held nothing more than a wall and two chairs, each facing one of the cells.
Through the bars of the closest cell she saw a thin mattress lying atop a low metal shelf jutting out of the wall and an open toilet and sink. The mattress looked pitiful with its bleached-white sheet, insubstantial blue blanket, and lone, flat pillow. But as utilitarian as the space was, at least it looked clean.
Zack Lawson sat on the mattress, his feet on the floor and his head in his hands. When he looked up, the despair in his eyes knocked the wind out of her. Perhaps he really had been telling the truth about his innocence. With just the merest hint of a five o’clock shadow darkening his baby face, he certainly didn’t fit the image of a killer. Kat had to remind herself that looks could be deceiving.
“You’re here,” he said, jumping to his feet.
“I’m here,” she confirmed.
Andrew led Kat to one of the chairs by the wall. It was only when she settled into it that she realized it was bolted to the floor. She crossed then uncrossed her legs, unsure whether it was the chair or this environment that was making it impossible for her to get comfortable.
“I wasn’t sure you’d come,” Zack said, running one hand through his dark hair. It looked more tousled than it had yesterday, and Kat had to wonder if people in lockup were allowed combs.
“I guess it didn’t occur to me not to come,” Kat told him. “But why did you want to see me?”
“Ms. Ryan said you’re the town sleuth, remember? Right before we ran into that Maura woman and she promised to talk to that Will guy about setting up my accounts?”
“Oh, right.” Kat rubbed her palms up and down her jeans-clad thighs. “Suzanne—Ms. Ryan—may have been exaggerating a little.”
Beside her, Andrew made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a snort. Kat didn’t dare look at him. She knew what he thought of her amateur sleuthing. And while he had pretty much grown to accept it as part of who she was, that didn’t stop him from periodically telling her to mind her own business.
“I didn’t do it,” Zack said. “I didn’t kill Nat. I would never have done that to her.”
“How come there’s a warrant out for your arrest then?” Kat asked.
Zack wrenched his gaze away from hers, but not before she saw the pain in his eyes. “Because I was there that night. And . . . the knife used to kill her may have been in my car.”
So far, he hadn’t told her anything she didn’t already know. She waited for him to elaborate.
He gripped the bars in front of him and stood up a little straighter. “I’m not certain it was the knife, but it had blood all over it. Someone must have planted it there because she was already dead when I arrived at her apartment. I swear on my own life I had nothing to do with her murder.”
“Witnesses saw you running from the scene.”
“I couldn’t stay, not with her like that. She looked so . . .” He trailed off with a shudder before meeting Kat’s eye. “Have you ever seen a dead body?”
She shifted in her seat. “Maybe once or twice.”
Andrew coughed behind one hand. Kat thought about swatting him on the arm but refrained.
“Then you know,” Zack said. “You know how awful it is.”
“Why did you run instead of calling the police?”
“I panicked. When I realized she was dead, I just wanted to get as far away from that . . . from her . . . as possible. So I got in my car and took off. It wasn’t until later, after I calmed down some, that I noticed the knife in the footwell of the passenger seat. The sight of it freaked me out so bad I ditched the car.”
Kat could understand his reaction. Seeing a dead person—especially one who had left this world at the hands of someone else—awakened something inside of you, some base instinct for survival. And once the fight-or-flight response kicked in, it was hard to think rationally.
“Tell me about your friend at DataRightly,” Kat said.
She could tell her request caught him off guard. He visibly jerked, although he tried hard to compose himself.
“I don’t have any friends there,” he said. “I don’t even know anyone there. Except you and the other ladies I met yesterday, obviously.”
Kat gave him a withering look. “I know that’s not true. Think about it, Zack. How do you think you ended up here? Do you honestly believe CHPD had you on their radar without anybody cluing them in to the fact that you’re wanted?”
A cloud of doubt passed over his face.
“Did you have a falling out with her?” Kat pressed.
Zack’s head snapped back. “Who?”
“The person you know at DataRightly.”
He stared at her for a long moment before shaking his head.
“I’m guessing something happened between you two though,” Kat said. “Since she turned you in. Exactly how close are you?”
“Not very, apparently.”
“Is she the reason you moved to Cherry Hills?”
Zack shook his head. “I moved here for that job at your company.”
Kat knew there had to be more to the story than that. As much as she had come to appreciate her hometown, Cherry Hills wasn’t the type of place non-residents actively sought out employment unless they already had the intention of relocating here.
Then again, it wasn’t inconceivable a man on the lam might have been desperate for any job he could land. Perhaps he had cast a wide employment net, and Suzanne had been the first person to offer him a position. Plus, Kat had to admit Cherry Hills might hold a certain amount of appeal for a person looking to stay out of the spotlight. After all, what were the chances of someone recognizing him here?
“Did Wendy promise you that job?” Kat asked.
Zack’s mouth slanted. “What do you mean?”
“Did Wendy guarantee she could get you hired at DataRightly? Is that why you applied?”
Zack shook his head. “She didn’t guarantee me anything.”
Kat studied him. “You moved here for some reason.”
“Yeah, because I thought this would be a good place to get my life back on track without my past coming back to bite me.” His shoulders slumped. “So much for that plan.”
“You said you didn’t kill Natalie Grimes.”
“I didn’t. That doesn’t mean her murder hasn’t complicated things.”
“If you’re innocent, why did you never turn yourself in?”
“And risk being locked up for life?” Zack shook his head. “Nuh-uh. No way. Not with that knife turning up in my car like that and her neighbors telling every reporter who would listen that they’d seen me fleeing the scene. Everybody in Ketchum had already decided I’d done it. And they liked it that way. I was the outsider.”
Kat supposed she could see his point, even if she did think he had chosen the wrong course of action. “Tell me about her.”
Zack’s body seemed to cave inward, and he sagged against the cell bars with a melancholy sigh. “Natalie was great. She had this personality that was larger than life. She could convince anyone to do anything. Remember when we were talking about our cats yesterday?”
“I do,” Kat said.
“Well, Nat was the friend who convinced me to take in that older tortie I was telling you about. I guess someone in Nat’s neighborhood left her behind when they moved. Nat would have adopted her herself, but pets weren’t allowed in her building, so she begged me to take her in instead. I didn’t want a cat—or so I thought at the time—but that was Natalie for you. It was impossible to say no to her.”
Kat recalled the cloud that had darkened Zack’s face yesterday when he had talked about his now-deceased cat. She had written off his expression as mourning for his late pet, but now she suspected it had more to do with Natalie’s murder.
Or possibly his involvement in her murder.
Kat eyed him. “What were you doing at her apartment the night she died?”
“I went there to get her to sign some papers. We were in the process of starting up a business together. Did you know that?”
Kat thought back to what Andrew had told her yesterday. “Was this the designated driver app?”
Zack nodded. He seemed to have regained some of his strength. He was no longer leaning against the cell bars, at any rate, although he did wander back over to the mattress to sit down.
“It was going to be grand,” he said. “Everyone involved had visions of getting rich from this thing. Maybe not billionaire rich, but rich enough that I could pay off my student debts in one go, at least. Even in-state tuition isn’t cheap, and I was drowning in loans. I was ecstatic when Nat lined up a couple venture capitalists like that.” Zack snapped his fingers.
“Who were these venture capitalists?” Kat asked.
“I don’t know. A couple rich people Nat had met through her regular job, I guess. She did marketing consulting.”
“Did she work for herself?”
“No, but she wanted to. And everyone around her could see she had an entrepreneurial spirit. She told me she always figured it would only be a matter of time before she branched out on her own.” Zack stared at the ceiling. “This business was going to be her opportunity to do that.”
“She must have rubbed someone the wrong way,” Kat said. “Considering what happened to her.”
Zack bowed his head for a moment, and something constricted in Kat’s chest. She supposed it was possible he was putting on an act, pretending to be pained over the loss of his friend and business partner, but somehow his show of grief struck her as genuine. Or was he grieving the loss of his freedom more than anything else?
When he lifted his head, he said, “I doubt it was one of our financial backers who did her in, if that’s what you’re thinking. Not only were these guys not the type, but they were just as enthusiastic about our venture as we were. You should have seen them. As soon as Nat pitched our plans to them, they had their checkbooks in hand, waiting for us to announce our business was finally official.”
“If it wasn’t one of your investors, do you have any idea who might have wanted her dead?” Kat asked.
Zack spread his hands. “If I knew that, I wouldn’t be here, now would I?”
The door leading into the station creaked open. Chief Kenny popped his head inside.
“Let’s wrap things up in here, folks,” he said, making a swirling motion with one finger.
Andrew acknowledged his request with a nod, and Chief Kenny disappeared back inside the station.
Kat stood up. She glanced at Zack, unsure what to say now that their time was over. But he wasn’t looking at her.
He had his face buried in his hands, his shoulders shaking as though he were silently weeping.
