“Hello?”
“Andrew, I’m calling to check on the progress of your investigation.”
I nodded, looking around town. “Yeah, it’s going.”
“And?”
I scratched the back of my head and sighed. “Look, honestly, I’m not finding anything more than you already have.”
“Are you serious? You come highly recommended and you mean to tell me you’ve found nothing?”
“Look, if we were talking about cybercrime, that would be a different story. You’re asking me to find something from police reports of events that happened years ago.”
“Maybe you don’t understand what’s at stake here.”
“I do, trust me, I completely understand. But I haven’t found anything that would give you a legitimate cause for concern. I’ve tried getting to know her, to get something to slip, but I’m telling you, there’s nothing there.”
“She got to you,” he accused.
She had, and it was fucking unprofessional of me, but the fact was, there was nothing here.
“Barty—“
“Excuse me?”
“Bartholomew,” I said, rolling my eyes. “The fact is, you need solid evidence and it doesn’t exist. Aside from her admitting to killing anyone, there’s nothing there for you to take to the police. I can’t find anything to suggest that Matthew was killed. And while Murray’s death looks suspicious, unless you can find the random fiber they found in the car, there’s nothing to prove she was there. There were a few strands of hair found in the car, but again, no suspect to match. And even if you could match someone, how do you prove that the suspect was in the car at the same time as Murray?”
“What about the lug nuts?”
“I checked with the shop that changed the tires on Murray’s car. According to their records, it was a kid that changed the tires. He was fired after investigators talked to them, even though it was considered an accident.”
“And the tire tracks on the road?”
“All they prove is that he lost control of the vehicle.”
“I thought you said you were good at your job.”
“Again, cybercrime. This is not a cybercrime. I checked into every account she has. Other than the money in her joint account with your father, she has no hidden accounts. She hasn’t moved money around and she’s not hiding it in the Cayman Islands. She has nothing,” I stressed. “This is a dead end.”
“So, you said it would take a confession to make any of this stick.”
“That and so much more. I mean, I’m not a lawyer, but even I can see this is all thin.”
“If you find anything, I want to know immediately.”
My eyebrows shot up in surprise. “You want me to keep going on this?”
“Mr, Cortell, you may be blinded by my step-mother’s charms, but I’m not. I know what she did. Now, you find me that proof and do the job I hired you to do.”
He hung up before I had a chance to say anything else. What the hell was I supposed to do? Keep digging into something that was going to end up nowhere? This was ridiculous. Not to mention that the closer I became to Lorelei, the worse I felt about hiding the fact that I had been looking into her, that I suspected her of murder. I knew now that she couldn’t be a murderer, but that didn’t mean she would be so forgiving about me digging into her and coming over all the time just to get close to her. In fact, I was pretty sure that would be a relationship killer.
Lorelei
I had been painting all day and while it was coming along nicely, I couldn’t help but think about what it would have been like to have Andrew here with me. I hadn’t heard from him in three days. It felt like so much longer. I wanted to call him and apologize, but I didn’t know how to do that without bringing up the topic of secrets. That would blow up in my face big time.
As I stood back and studied my handiwork, sadness crept over me. I thought that once I was back to living in my own space and beginning my new life that I would be happy. But it seemed like my past would follow me around wherever I went.
“Hey, we’re heading out for the night,” Eric said as he walked into the kitchen.
I turned and smiled, though I didn’t feel like it. “Thanks a lot. How’s it coming?”
“Well, I think your bedroom will be a lot easier than we thought. And the windows are supposed to be in this weekend. Things should really warm up after that.”
“Thank God,” I laughed. “I won’t have to sleep in front of the fire anymore.”
“You know, I’m sure Andrew would be fine with you staying with him.”
I ducked my head, ashamed to admit that I had screwed up. “We’re not speaking right now. I…I said something and…well, I think it might have ended things between us.”
He looked uncomfortable, shifting from one foot to the other. “Well, we all fuck things up from time to time. Maybe just give him some time.”
I nodded, but I wasn’t sure that would help anything. Eric and his crew left shortly after and I started cleaning up from my project. All that had to be done in the kitchen now was for Eric to put in the crown molding. A knock at the door had me dropping what I was doing. I assumed Eric had left something behind, but when I opened the door, Andrew was standing there.
I stood there, shocked and unsure of what to do. “Uh…hey.”
“Hey,” he nodded.
I still stared at him. “How are you?”
He chuckled slightly. “Can I come in?”
Flustered, I stepped back. “Of course. I’m sorry.”
He stepped inside, but didn’t take his coat off. I was so out of my comfort zone right now. I had always felt so
