Page 130 of Hard Evidence
I got to my feet.Well, foot.I hung on to Violet so I didn’t lose my balance.
“How should I knowwhy?I’m a chef.I bake cookies on camera and teach my best friend how not to burn dinner.I escaped an abusive husband, fell in love with Justin Norquist, and then watched as you tore his life apart.”Could I get arrested for yelling at a police officer?Honestly, I didn’t care.“I told you he was innocent, but did you listen?No.You locked him up and left me on my own and now two people are dead, and I’m done.”Shakily, I began hobbling toward the house.“I’m so freaking done.”
“I’m not finished with my questions.”
I threw my hands in the air.“I don’t care.”
“Do you want me to arrest you?”
“Sit down.”
The voice was low and dangerous.And female.I turned to see Jerry Knight squaring up to Special Agent Rimer, and her eyes reminded me of the blond man’s.Hard.Murderous.Her hands were streaked with blood, and there was no sign of Shiro.
The hope I’d been holding on to fluttered away.
“This is an active investi?—”
“Sitthe fuckdown.”
Jerry didn’t shout.She didn’t have to.Rimer sat on the rock.
“You have an innocent man in jail.Two, actually.We told you numerous times that Justin didn’t touch Amie Carlson, and your pig-headed ignorance has left two men dead.Arguably, they both deserved it, but Jessalyn didn’t need that kind of trauma in her life.”
“But—”
“Shut it.You fucked up.The question is, why did you continue to ignore all the evidence and lock Justin in a cell?Either you’re dumb as a box of rocks, or you know something we don’t.”
Ari took over.“You have a good clearance rate, better than your peers.You get good scores in every test.So what went wrong this time?”
“I—”
“You let the past influence the present.Blackstone House.That case came down to a choice—Levi or Justin.You picked Levi, and you convicted him.”
“A jury convicted him.”
“On the evidence you presented.”
“I wasn’t the lead on that investigation.”
“Exactly.You’d just been promoted to Special Agent, and you were trying not to rock the boat.But something always felt a little off, didn’t it?Something didn’t sit quite right.And when Amie disappeared, you saw your chance to finally put Justin where you thought he belonged: in prison.”
“Levi Sykes’s conviction was justified.The evidence fit.”
“And yet…here we are.This is a real mess, isn’t it?”
For the longest moment, Rimer just sat there.Finally, she rose gracelessly to her feet and waved a hand at me.
“You’re free to go.”
“You can be part of the problem, or you can be part of the solution,” Jerry called after her as she walked off.I was shaking.So was Violet.I wasn’t sure who was holding up who anymore.
“Damn,” Dawson said when Rimer was out of earshot.“What the hell was that?”
“It’s become apparent that there was a monumental blunder in the Blackstone House case,” Ari said.“They attempted a cover-up of the cover-up of the cover-up, and this was the result.Think about it—Serafina Hennessy started poking around months ago, and whoever started this got wind of it.They knew if she dug deep enough, she’d prove Levi was innocent, or at least cast enough doubt to overturn his conviction, so they had to point suspicion in a different direction.Away from them.Justin was the obvious candidate.They set him up to take the fall for Amie’s murder, but there was one variable they couldn’t control.”
“Me,” I whispered.
“Yes.Their plan began to unravel from the moment you showed up on his doorstep.”
