Page 97 of The Girl from Widow Hills
CHAPTER 26
Friday, 4:30 p.m.
ICALLED DETECTIVE RIGBY MYSELF.
I knew she wanted to talk as soon as I was back in town, and I was eager to find out what was happening with Nathan’s case. Whether there was closure in the immediate future; whether something was just about to crack open.
It felt like a delicate balance, like we were one step from everything tipping over again. There was no containing who I was any longer, but I could keep the rest from spinning out of control.
Detective Rigby’s steps echoed as she walked up my porch. I was waiting for her in the open doorway, and I watched her carefully this time—watched as she took everything in, seeing everything, making assessments, while trying to give away nothing.
“How are you doing, Olivia?”
“All right,” I said, holding the door open for her to step inside. “Can I get you something? Water, juice?”
“I’ll take water,” she said, following me into the kitchen.
“Any news on Nathan’s case?” I asked. I held my breath as I pulled a glass down from the cabinet.
“Well,” she said, taking a seat at the kitchen table, “he’s being held in Kentucky on the assault and stalking charges. We can try to build a case in the meantime. These things take time, though.”
“I thought it was pretty cut-and-dried,” I said. I hoped it wasn’t the lack of a murder weapon. Currently in some hospital disposal holding area.
“Main problem is he says he wasn’t in town at the time of his father’s death. And we can’t prove he was yet.”
“Isn’t there a shed back there? At the edge of that property on Haymere?” I asked, gesturing toward the back of my house. “He could’ve been staying there, right?”
She cut her eyes to me again, in the way I’d come to understand: that I had just given something away about myself. Like she had been trying to unravel me, as I had her. Both of us trying to prove ourselves here.
I turned on the faucet with my elbow, then held the glass under the sink.
“Why are you holding your arm like that?” she asked.
“Oh.” I handed her the glass. “It’s been getting worse. I thought it was okay yesterday, but I can barely move it now.”
“Did Nathan do that?”
I nodded. “He grabbed me when he was chasing me. I felt something snap, or pop, but it was okay until this morning.”
She stood up, stepped closer. “Did you get it checked out?”
“No. I can take some pain medicine, see if that helps first.”
She left her glass in the sink. “It can help the case, Olivia. If Nathan harmed you during the assault, it will help in the trial. We need to get it documented.”
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll get it checked out.”
She took her keys from the pocket of her slacks. “I can’t let you drive like that. Come on, I’ll take you.”
———
THE SECOND TIME Iwas in Detective Rigby’s car, I had a better handle on her.
She continued the conversation as we pulled out of my driveway. “If there’s anything else you’re not telling me, now would be the time, Olivia.”
Her tone could be savage; it was growing on me. I thought we might’ve been friends under different circumstances. But I didn’t know how much she knew, or just suspected.
“Did you find the papers in his hotel? He’s been obsessed with me for years.”
