“Look, Zoe, don’t you think the police investigated all these things?”
Now we were getting to the main reason I had come to see Myles. Okay, maybe it wasn’t the only reason—I was enjoying being with him, after all.“That’s what I’m wondering about. I have to be honest. I wasn’t too impressed with the homicide detective who questioned us that night. He treated the whole thing as some routine incident.”
Myles looked at me. “You should never treat any investigation as routine. What was his name?”
“Erickson, I think.” I had managed to remember his name, probably because the guy irritated me so much with his bland questions. “Why, you know him?”
He shook his head. “Maybe my dad did.”
I took my opening.“But you still know some people in the department, right? Friends of your dad’s? Maybe someone who could do some poking around for me?”
“I haven’t spoken to anyone there since my father’s funeral,” he replied, sounding a bit angry as he did, which was surprising. I knew Myles had some conflicted feelings about law enforcement ever since his dad died in the line of duty, but I didn’t think he was holding it against the entire Suffolk County Police Department.
“But you’d talk to them for me, wouldn’t you?”
He shook his head. “You’re barking up the wrong tree, Zoe!‘
Now I was angry. “Well, excuse me for thinking a man who was going to work for the Manhattan D.A. might care a little bit about justice.”
His next words came out so quietly, I wasn’t even sure I heard them. “I’m not going to work for the D.A.‘s office.”
“Excuse me?”
“I said I’m not going to work for the D.A.”
My eyes widened. “Oh, God, Myles—” I began, reaching out to touch his arm, which felt surprisingly cool under my hand.“I’m so sorry. I thought for sure you’d get the position—”
He looked at me then.“I’ve been offered the position, Zoe. I’m just not going to take it.”
“But why?” I said, looking into his eyes. “You’ve wanted that job since forever. Well, at least since you worked for the Suffolk County D.A. I don’t understand.”
He shrugged, dropping his gaze. “I changed my mind.”
A coldness clutched at me and I removed my hand from his arm. It didn’t make sense. Working for the D.A. had been Myles’s dream. During the past year, it seemed like getting that job was his whole life. “What are you going to do?”
He fiddled with the label on the water bottle in front of him. “I’ve had a few interviews at some corporate law firms. In fact, I just got a call for a second interview with one of them.”
“Corporate law? Myles, that doesn’t sound like you.”
He looked at me. “Maybe I’ve changed.”
I wanted to probe him further, but something about his expression told me to hold my tongue.“I guess you have,” I said carefully.
Maybe it was the silence I lapsed into that had him sputtering out answers. “I would have made nothing at the D.A.‘s office anyway, Zoe. Do you know what the starting salaries are for lawyers in the corporate sector? Sometimes as much as one hundred and twenty thousand a year. That’s nothing to sneeze at.”
I raised an eyebrow at him. “Neither is murder.”
“Zoe, you don’t know that for sure—”
I sat up. “That’s just it. We don’t know that for sure. Which is why I wish you could just make one call to the S.C.P.D. Just to get the facts on this case. You must still be talking to Paul Stover over there—you guys were good friends.”
“I can’t, Zoe.”
I sat back hard on the couch, arms folded in front of me, probably looking a bit like a petulant child. But I didn’t care what I looked like right now. I was angry.
Myles must have sensed this, because he leaned back, too, letting his head come to rest on the cushion, before turning to look at me. “Look, Zoe, did it ever occur to you that you’re wrong about Tom?”
I didn’t answer him. Instead, I stared straight ahead, at the spider plant on the window. Actually, I was thinking about taking it home with me. I wasn’t sure I even trusted Myles with the care and feeding of that plant anymore.
“Not all men are like your father, Zoe,” Myles said softly. “Not all men are bad.”
That’s when I felt my anger spike. But I kept hold of myself long enough to stand up, grabbing my knapsack from the floor as I did.
Hoisting my knapsack on my shoulder, I headed for the door, turning back to him only to take one last parting shot.
“Not all of them are good either.”
Chapter Nineteen
Sage
The kingdom is at hand.
Being on Fire Island for the long holiday weekend had not only recharged my batteries but cleansed my soul. I felt in control again. In command. I was in command, now that Maggie was no longer around. In fact, when I came into the office on Wednesday morning, I was even starting to think about whether or not it was premature to talk to Tom about the sales manager job. I didn’t want to offend him by broaching the subject too soon after Maggie’s death.
On the other hand, I also didn’t want to lose out on the job I had wanted ever since the day Tom hired me.
Which was why I felt a tremor of foreboding when Yaz informed me as I breezed past the reception desk, that Tom wanted to see me in his office.
I paused. “Did he say what it was about?”
She shrugged. “No. Only that you should head over there as soon as you got in.”
I nodded, turning around and heading for the elevators
