This was all wrong. Her instinct was telling her it was wrong. Who was this witness? “Sir—”
“I need to get back to the station before Anderson gets booked.” Bushnell declared. “Sharpe?”
“I’ll follow you, sir,” he said. “I have to take care of something.”
“All right. I’ll see you at the station.” He turned and walked toward the car.
Sofia watched the captain drive away, her mind still reeling. They’d arrested Lucas. “This is bullshit!”
“Detective—”
“He didn’t do it! Any of it!” Her hands clenched into fists. “I know it.”
“Detective—”
“What’s this evidence against him? And this witness? Is it—”
“Detective!” The forcefulness of his tone made her stop.
“What?”
Sharpe tugged at the tie on his coat. “Detective, please. Hear me out.” He looked around, as if he was expecting someone to jump out at them. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I believe you.”
“You do?” She wasn’t sure if she’d heard him right.
“Let’s take a walk.” He gestured for her to follow him as he strode away.
Intrigued, she did and stepped up to keep pace. “You believe me.”
He shoved his hands into his pockets. “I don’t know Bushnell very well, but his reputation precedes him. That first day I came, I knew it was a well-deserved one. But something changed the other day. It’s weird, and I can’t wrap my mind around it, but it’s like he’s a different person.”
“A different …” A chill ran through her. Her mind replayed her conversation with Bushnell, playing it like a movie backward and forward. There was something off about the captain. “How?”
“For one thing, he seemed unnaturally obsessed about Lucas Anderson. He said I should focus on him as a suspect.” He shook his head. “Twenty years as a detective, and I’ve never had a superior tell me who my suspects should be.”
“That’s unethical.” And definitely didn’t sound like Bushnell. “And what did you tell him?”
“I said I’d be doing my own investigation. But he insisted, and he shared your initial suspicions with me.”
“About the connection between Lucas and Dixon? The kidnapping and Kevin Hall?”
“Yes. I have to say, it was fine work on your part. Why did you stop?”
“Because it was all a dead end.” She crossed her fingers. That was technically true, but she couldn’t tell him the real truth about Lucas and the Lycans. “And then when we found Fraser, it should have all clicked together, but it just felt wrong.” She looked at him, trying to gauge his reaction. “Bushnell didn’t tell you, did he? About my suspicions?”
“No.” He stopped and turned to her. “But he did tell me about your personal involvement and why I had to take over both cases. What suspicions did you have?”
“That someone was trying to frame him. We need to figure out what happened. And why someone seems to want to frame Lucas for these murders. But Bushnell—”
“I don’t think we can trust him.”
She hated to think it, but Sharpe was right. Maybe someone had gotten to him, was bribing him or something. “We need to look back at all the evidence. And we can’t do it at the precinct.” Bushnell would be there. And of course, Lucas. She couldn’t bear to see him in the cell. The look of hate he gave her before he was taken away ate at her. No, she would make sure he got free and he would never look at her like that again. “We can go to my place.”
“I’ll grab the case files and meet you there.”
Chapter Twenty-One
“Detective, you should get some rest.”
“Shhh!” She held a hand up. “I need to read this.”
“Detective … Sofia,” he said gently. “You’ve read that autopsy three times.”
“I might have missed something.”
“If you have, it’s because you haven’t slept or eaten in hours. Now, stop and take a breather.” Sharpe insisted.
“No, there’s no time.”
“Time is the only thing we have.” Sharpe took off his glasses. “We don’t have any case.”
“Not yet!”
“Sofia.” Sharpe looked at her from across the kitchen table strewn with various papers, files, and photographs. “We’ve been at this since last night. It’s five in the morning. Did you even sleep?”
She looked around her. “I closed my eyes for an hour or two.”
He stood up and walked over to her, then knelt down to look her straight in the eye. “I’m sure we’ll find something, but you won’t be able to if you’re tired and hungry.”
“But Lucas is counting on us. He’s been in that cell all night!” She had called Winters at some point during the night to see how Lucas was doing. It was a Sunday, and no courts were open, so they had to wait until the next day for a judge to grant bail. If he gets bail. Lucas had the means to just disappear, so she doubted any smart judge would let him post bail.
“And we’ll get him out, but you have to eat and rest.”
She sighed, despair slowly creeping up on her. But she refused to fall into that pit. Lucas needed her. “All right.”
“Good. Let’s go get some breakfast and try to circle back. Maybe if we have full stomachs, we can figure this out.”
They walked to a deli not far from her apartment and ordered bagels and coffee. Her stomach growled at the smell of food, and she devoured everything in seconds. Still, she felt ravenous, and she ordered two more egg and bacon bagels.
“This is a disaster,” she said. “We haven’t accomplished anything.”
“You’ve convinced me that Lucas really is innocent.”
She gave him a weak smile. “Thank you.” And she meant it. Right now, she could use as many people on her and Lucas’s side.
“I really thought it was just me, but now I know what you mean about how everything fell into place too easily. Ready for us to take, wrapped up with a neat little bow. Even that witness who suddenly came forward—”
“The witness!” She searched her mind. “Why didn’t I find anything about him in the files?”
“It wasn’t in there?” His lips pursed together. “I was pretty sure I
