Page 133 of Demo
I shake my head. “No, I’ve never seen him before.”
“Why the hell would Sanders break into our apartment and leave drugs hidden here?” he asks. I chew on my thumbnail, and I know Knox can tell I want to say something. “What is it?” he insists.
I look at the ground before looking back up at him. “Does Sanders know you used drugs in the past? Could he be trying to set you up?”
Knox blows out a breath. “I mean, he’s friends with Bram. At least, I thought he was. Gonna have to have a conversation with Bram about that dude. But, yeah, Sanders’ stepfather is some big developer. Layton, Leeman? Anway, he could know, I guess—”
“Knox.”
He stops at my interruption. “What is it?”
“It’s just …”
He takes a step and crosses over to me, so his back is leaning against the same countertop mine is, so we are now side by side. “Say it. Ask it. Say or ask anything you want to, Lizzie. We need to figure this out.”
“Chief Scott told me he thinks Sanders stole drugs from the scene of the crash, when you hit that woman. They think either you or Jenny had drugs on you, and Sanders took it. They think Sanders has been lifting drugs from crime scenes for almost a year now.”
Knox turns and faces me, taking my shoulders in his hands as he waits for my eyes to connect with his. When they do, he says, sternly, “Lizzie, I promise you I had no drugs on me that night. I haven’t used in … God, years. I know you have no reason to believe me, but it’s the truth. I don’t know if Jenny had drugs on her that night. It’s very possible. I don’t talk to her anymore, but I do know she was in a bad place back then.”
Knox starts to pull me toward him, but I quickly pull my shoulders out of his hold and turn away from him. I need to think, and I can’t do it with him so close.
Why? Why would Sanders, and some other guy, break into our apartment andleavedrugs, not try to find them? Why would he leave drugs here when he’s taking them from crime scenes? Unless …
“Lawler?” I ask quietly, my back still to Knox. When he doesn’t respond, I turn to face him. “Sanders’ stepfather? Is it Lawler?”
Nodding, Knox says, “Yeah, that’s it. Why?”
I close my eyes as I try to harness all my thoughts. Then I open my eyes and declare, “He’s planting them.”
Knox pulls his brows together.
“Sanders is not stealing drugs, he’s planting them.”
Now Knox crosses his arms across his chest. “Why would he do that?”
I sigh. “Gerard Lawler wants to develop a new police station downtown, and I’m betting it would only help things along to make it look like the police are successful in their crack down on drugs. And to fabricate more successful cases of drug seizure, well, I wonder if Sanders is planting drugs so they can be confiscated by police. Hence, the wild uptick in drug arrests.”
Knox blows out a breath and runs his hands through his hair. “I mean, it seems plausible, but it also seems like it could be a long shot.”
“Definitely,” I concede. The wheels start turning in my head. There were no drugs found on Jerome King, or at the scene of Knox’s crash. Why wouldn’t Sanders plant drugs then? Can I trust that Jenny didn’t have drugs on her the night of the crash?
Suddenly, I’m filled with the need to finally get answers. “Uh, look, I’m gonna take a shower and head to work. I need to go through some notes and figure a few things out.”
“Yeah, of course,” Knox says. He turns to push the refrigerator back into its place, so I help him. Once it’s back in place I realize I still have my wedding band tucked in my left palm. I open my hand, and Knox and I both look down at it. Somehow it seems so heavy. Like it holds so much weight. It sits in my palm only two inches from where I can still see the dent in my finger from where I wore it for so many years.
“Liz—” Knox starts, but I quickly pluck the ring out of my palm with my other hand, bend down, and fling it back under the refrigerator. When I stand up Knox is staring at me. I can’t tell if he’s hurt, or confused.
That makes two of us.
Brushing my hands together, I say, “I just figure, it’s been safe under there since I took it off. So, I’ll keep it there until I decide what to do with it.” Then I turn and start toward the bedroom. “I have to shower and get to work. Lock the door on the way out.”
I take a step, and then remember the drugs sitting on the counter. I swivel and grab the baggie, then dump the contents down the garbage disposal before, once again, heading toward the bedroom.
I shut the door behind me and call Dee as I start to undress, and she answers on the second ring, “Whores for hire. How can I be of service?”
That gives me a chuckle. “You really are the weirdest woman on the planet, you know that?”
“It’s one of the things I’m most proud of.”
