watch, dammit, I want to hear about it. Every detail.”
“Want me to make a video?” he asked sarcastically.
“Don’t be stupid. That would be evidence.”
“Not if no one else was in the picture.”
True. And she could always erase it after she watched it. The thought of seeing Garrett Bowen struggling for air calmed her down.
“You’d do that for me?” she asked Skip in her sweet voice.
He gently touched her cheek, where he’d slapped her, and said, “You know I’d do anything for you, Cami.” He leaned forward and kissed her.
She didn’t want to leave, but she had to. “Is Robbie okay?”
“Totally clean. I told you he would be.”
“Good. And Faye?”
“She’s in place.”
Cami had unlocked the only window that wasn’t visible to the external cameras. Now Robbie, Skip, and Faye just had to hide until the house was empty and Garrett Bowen was alone.
Julia had been monitoring James and Stephanie Ridge for the past thirty minutes. “Are you ready?” she asked Dillon.
“Let’s go.”
The Ridges were talking to another couple. Julia made small talk, not knowing who they were even though they knew her. It made her uncomfortable, but she was used to it. Finally, they left, and before the Ridges could excuse themselves, Julia said, “We haven’t met formally, but I wanted to tell you how sorry I am about what happened to your son.”
James’s face tightened. “That was nearly a year ago.”
“I know, but I work for the District Attorney’s Office and another steroid death has been brought to our attention. Jason has been on my mind lately.”
“Jason didn’t use steroids,” James Ridge said with complete confidence, or total denial.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-”
“I don’t care what your idiot coroner found, Jason was clean. As Garrett can tell you.”
“Garrett? You mean, Dr. Bowen?”
“Yes, he was seeing Jason. He’ll tell you Jason worshipped his body and would never put alcohol or drugs into it. Jason’s body was his temple.”
“The autopsy report-” Julia was uncertain how to proceed.
“Mistakes happen, Ms. Chandler.” James Ridge put his arm around his wife. She had tears in her eyes. Julia felt bad for bringing up their son’s death.
Dillon saved her. “We wanted to talk to Michelle O’Dell, Jason’s ex-girlfriend. In the initial investigation she seemed to have some information that may have helped-”
“Good riddance. She was no good for Jason.” Stephanie Ridge spoke up for the first time.
“Excuse me?”
“I didn’t like Michelle. He broke up with her after just a couple months. And that’s when his problems started, and-”
“Stephanie,” James said, his voice low and threatening.
“It’s water under the bridge,” Stephanie said with a half smile. “Jason was a good boy. He was.”
“Excuse us,” James said and steered his wife away.
“What do you think?” Dillon asked Julia when the Ridges were out of earshot.
“I think I want to talk to Stephanie Ridge without her husband.”
They regrouped at Julia’s house. Connor watched how Julia and Dillon played off each other as they shared their conversations and observations. Julia was relaxed and smiled at Dillon. He felt a pang of something odd in his chest. It couldn’t be jealousy because, dammit, he didn’t even
He just didn’t like the thought of Dillon kissing her.
He tried to convince himself that it was simply because the counselor had screwed him so royally five years ago. Dillon shouldn’t be consorting with the enemy, so to speak. He knew damn well how Julia had messed with Connor’s life. Wouldn’t a good brother help keep her at arm’s length?
But in the back of his mind, Connor acknowledged that it was the thought of Dillon intimately touching Julia that set him off. Kissing her lips…touching her breasts…making love to her.
“I think we’re done,” Connor said, jumping up. “Let’s go.”
“What about the disk you got?” Julia said. “I thought we were going to look at it.”
Connor pulled it from his pocket and tossed it to her. “I assume you have a computer somewhere.”
Julia frowned. She led the way down the hall to an office. It was perfectly furnished, with built-in bookshelves filled to the brim with legal, historical, and fiction books. Her computer sat on a large mahogany desk in the middle of the orderly room.
Parking herself in the leather swivel chair, Julia booted up the hard drive and put in the CD. Dillon and Connor looked over her shoulder. “So what did you get?” she asked Connor.
“I copied anything that looked potentially relevant, including e-mails.”
“Hmmm.” Julia clicked this and that and dragged the e-mail file into a program.
“He didn’t use his home computer much, did he?” Dillon said, looking at the sparse information.
“No,” Connor concurred. “There weren’t a lot of files to download.”
“Nothing about Wishlist,” Julia said, disappointed. “Just messages from his nephew, his girlfriend, colleagues. And they’re all recent, nothing older than two months.”
“He may well have purged his e-mail file,” Dillon said. “I do it regularly.”
“Dammit. I really thought there’d be something here.”
“It wouldn’t be admissible in court anyway, Julia,” Dillon reminded her.
“I know,” she snapped. “I’m sorry. I’m just tired.”
Dillon glanced at his watch. “It’s late,” he acknowledged, then said to Julia, “It’s been a long couple days for you. Are you okay here?”
Julia smiled, nodded. “I’m fine, thank you for your concern. I talked to Emily earlier and am going by the hospital in the morning. She sounds better. I just-I’m scared about letting the police in to talk to her. Do you think she’s ready?”
“Yes, I do. We’ll prepare her in the morning. Meet there at ten? Will isn’t coming until noon.”
“What’s going on tomorrow?” Connor asked, feeling out of the loop.
Julia said, “We’re meeting at the hospital to talk to Emily about her police interview. I thought I told you.”
“You didn’t.”
“I’m sorry,” Julia began.
“I have a vested interest in this case, Julia. You hired me to help Emily. Don’t keep me in the dark.”
Dillon intervened. “I’ll pick you up on the way,” he said to Connor. “All right?”
Connor nodded. “Fine. Good night.” He walked out. He heard Dillon mumble something incoherent to Julia, then follow him to the front porch. Behind them, bolts slid into place.
“What was that about?” Dillon asked. “Julia’s been through hell this week and you just jumped all over her.”
“I didn’t.”
“Yes, you did.”
Connor slid into Dillon’s passenger seat and drummed his fingers against the dashboard.
Dillon turned on the ignition. “What’s with you?”
“Nothing.”
When Connor didn’t elaborate, Dillon said, “It’s difficult for you to let go of the hatred you felt for Julia, isn’t it?”
“Don’t psychoanalyze me, Dil. I don’t need it.”
“She’s beautiful and smart. It’s impossible to hate her.”
“So you’re hot for her,” Connor said, his jaw tense.
