Page 57 of Thicker Than Water
Wyatt rubs the back of his neck as he nods. “I know. I’m sorry. I was going to check in with you as soon as I got a minute, but things have been—”
“Labs make mistakes, don’t they? The lab said the blood on Jason’s knife belonged to Gavin—that’s the reason they got the warrant. But couldn’t that be an error?”
As Wyatt stares at me, his brow slumps with concern, and it’sthat—his watchful silence, his hesitation—that floods me with frustration.
“Come on, Wyatt. You know Jason. You can’t possibly think he’d ever…”
I leave the deeds—stab, smother, stitch—unsaid.
“It doesn’t matter what I think,” he replies. “I’m not the one leading the case, and those whoarehave to follow the evidence. Which, unfortunately, points straight to Jason.” I open my mouth to argue, but he continues. “Do I think your brother murdered someone?” He shakes his head with a humorless chuckle. “Honestly, it’s hard for me to imagine. It’sJason, you know?”
Of course I know. But the way he said it—emphasizing my brother’s name like it’s synonymous with sainthood—makes me want to cup his face and kiss him.
“Exactly.” I cross my arms, tucking my hands away. “See? You get it. Unlike Julia. She isn’t sure he’s innocent anymore.”
There’s a beat of silence as Wyatt absorbs this news. “Really? Wow. Shit. That must be so hard for you.”
I shrug, even though his reaction is perfect.Wow. Shit. It honors my surprise, while announcing his own. It validates that Julia’s doubting of Jason is worthy of cursing.
“Seriously,” he says, “I’ve never known the two of you to disagree about anything—except whichWeekend at Bernie’sis better.”
“The second one.”
“Obviously. Dancing dead man wins every time.” His mouth twitches upward, almost a smile, before sobering again. “So, what changed her mind?”
I study him, trying to gauge how much he already knows. When I showed up at his door last night, reeling from the revelation that Jason cheated on Julia, I didn’t explain my presence with anything other than an urgent, distracting kiss, backing him against the walluntil he pulled me even closer, his mouth closing hungrily on mine. Because it wouldn’t make sense, it still doesn’t: I comforted myself over my brother’s infidelity with the man who was unfaithful to me. Still, Wyatt knows about the arrest warrant; he probably knows about Maeve’s statement, too, and that fills me with so much shame I have to break our gaze.
“Here you go,” a voice says, and we turn to find the woman back behind the reception desk, slipping papers through the gap beneath the glass. She narrows her eyes at Wyatt, then flicks them over to me. Before she can piece together our former connection, I snatch the papers.
“That can’t leave the premises,” she warns. She nods toward a door directly across from her desk. “But you can use that room to review it.”
“Thanks,” I say. Then, to Wyatt: “I’ll talk to you later.” But as I cross the hall to the door, he’s on my heels, stepping over the threshold only half a step behind me.
“What is that?” he asks. The door closes, sealing us in this space that’s little more than a closet. A desk is bolted to one wall, and I lay the arrest report onto it. Wyatt leans over it, skimming the first page, then lances me with a look of concern.
“Why did you ask for this?” he says. “I told you they checked this guy out.”
“Yeah. But you didn’t mention he was Gavin’s almost-partner.”
“So? What does that matter?”
“Everything! I want to know what he said to Gavin when he was yelling at him that night. Those names in that notebook I told you about, with the boxes of cash—”
Wyatt whips his head toward the door, as if he could see through it to someone listening on the other side.
“—some of them used to be Henry Hendrix’s customers. So if heknew Gavin was cutting deals with them, after busting him for the same damn thing, that would make him furious, don’t you think? Sounds like motive to me.”
“Sienna, no. It’s a dead end.” Wyatt touches the report, as if he’s about to pull it away, but I slap my hand on top of it.
“Maybe it is! But I have to dosomething. No one’s doing anything. Lou’s with other clients, Julia’s sending work emails like this is no big deal, I can’t rely on her right now—” My voice wavers, almost a break. “But Jason’s relying on me. Even if he doesn’t know it. And anyway, you’re the one who said I can’t tell the cops about the money in the warehouse, so this arrest report is all I have.”
“It’s not all you have. You have me. You know I’m on your side, Si, always.”
I flinch at the phrase.
Wyatt rubs his jaw. “Look, I understand how hard this must be. I know what your brother means to you. But why don’t you leave this type of thing to your lawyer?”
“He said he’s not going to do anything until Jason wakes up!”
