Final Cost (The Winter Trilogy #3)

17. Lucien

17

Lucien

“We need the room,” I tell Randy and Daniel when I hang up, eager to have a minute alone with Tamsyn before my next doom-laden meeting. “Thanks.”

Randy gets up and heads for the door. “I’ll stay in touch.”

I stand and shake his hand. “I appreciate the hard work. Stay on it. I don’t need to tell you again— we need to find Winwood. The police need someone other than me to point their finger at.”

“Understood,” he says, heading out.

I start to turn to Tamsyn, but Daniel steps into my line of sight. “Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything,” he says. “I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about. Forget I mentioned it.”

“It’s okay,” I say, also shaking his hand. “I appreciate the input.”

He nods to both of us with the kind of solemnity that suggests he doesn’t expect to see me again as a free man anytime soon, then follows Randy out, shutting the door behind him.

I turn to Tamsyn, trying to dismiss the worry I just saw in Daniel’s expression, my morale now bottoming out at somewhere below sea level.

Tamsyn tries to say something but it takes her a second. Her eyes are a little too wide. Her breath is a little too shallow. She’s trying to fight back the rising panic as the walls close in around us. So am I.

“What now?” she finally says. “What could the police want?”

“No idea.”

She comes closer, then hesitates again. “What if they’re coming to arrest you?”

There it is. The exact what if that’s been running through my mind for the last several minutes. But I need to keep my head. “Like I said before, I pay my attorneys big bucks to keep me out of jail.” I think that over and decide an addendum is appropriate. “And/or bail me out of jail ASAP. God forbid.”

A hollow laugh from Tamsyn. “You have a plane. A passport. Tons of money. Probably offshore accounts somewhere. You should make a run for it before they get here.”

I make a derisive noise. I can’t quite tell whether she’s serious or not. So I hate to make the following admission. But if ever there was a time for the truth between the two of us, this is it. “I thought about it.”

“And…?” she asks with new urgency, dropping her voice.

“And I’m not going anywhere without you. You’re starting a new job you’re very excited about soon. I’m not going to condemn you to a life on the run.”

“Lucien…”

“ No. We can have a good life here at Ackerley. We can have it all. We just need to fight for it.”

She takes a sobering breath, shaking it off. “You’re right. I just lost my head for a minute, but I’m tough. I’m a good fighter.”

That makes me to smile. She always knows the way. “I know you are,” I say, stress already easing off my shoulders.

A flash of a brave smile. Gone way too soon. “I could use a hug, though.”

“Yeah. Me, too.” I reach for her. “Come here.”

We come together hard and fast, pulling each other as tight as we can. There’s nothing sexual about it for once. Just vaguely panicked. I cup the back of her head, reveling in the thick silk of her hair. Rub her back and shoulders. Press my nose to her neck and breathe her in, shoring up all these impressions for the day that may come no matter how desperately I try to fight it off—the day when I’m on one side of bars, she’s on the other and we’re not allowed to touch.

The stark fear is enough to sink my morale to Marianas Trench levels. And that’s before the sound of someone clearing their throat from the doorway interrupts us and Tamsyn quickly pulls free, averting her face and wiping her eyes.

We glance around. It’s my security guy Hank, looking embarrassed.

“Sorry to interrupt,” he hastily says.

“It’s okay.” I’m not ready to let Tamsyn go entirely yet, so I hang onto her hand. “Did you need something? I don’t have long. The police are on their way with my lawyer.”

“Actually, they’re already here,” he says, gesturing over his shoulder. “I just saw Maddie let them in and put them in the dining room. I just need a quick minute first.”

“I should go,” Tamsyn tells me.

I start to tell her it’s okay, but Hank beats me to it. “It’s okay. This concerns you, too, Tamsyn.”

“What is it?” she says, frowning.

“I wanted to let you know that the police questioned me about the night you kicked Ravenna out, Lucien.” Hank looks pained. “They wanted to know what you said to Ravenna.”

I think back, but nothing in particular comes to mind. I was in such a black rage that I could have said anything and meant it. “You have to be more specific,” I tell him.

Awkward silence while he reluctantly gets his words together. “You said you’d end the marriage one way or the other. And how it happened was up to Ravenna. Tamsyn was there. She heard it. So was Winwood.”

I cringe as the memory comes back to me. “Right.”

“You’ve been a good employer to me, Lucien.” He looks nervous now. “My loyalty is to you. I don’t think you did it. I want you to know that.”

I nod, grateful for support from whatever source. “Appreciated.”

“But I’ve got a family. I can’t lie to the police for you,” he concludes. “I told them the truth.”

That’s what I was afraid of. “I understand,” I say, extending my hand. “You’re a good man. Thanks for letting me know.”

He nods, shoots a final apologetic glance at Tamsyn, then heads out.

“You did say that,” she says quietly. “Oh, God. What if the police ask me about it?”

“Then you tell them the truth.”

“But…”

“I have to go,” I say, giving her a quick forehead kiss. “We’ll talk more later.”

I start to walk off. She hangs onto my hand, her grip surprisingly strong and insistent. But when I turn back to her, she shrugs helplessly. “I don’t know what to say. I just don’t want to let you go.”

“Same,” I say, coming back in for a final kiss.

She surprises me again, taking my face in her soft hands, her lips harder than usual. Maybe she’s doing a little imprinting of her own. “I’ll see you later,” she says, letting me go and trying for an upbeat smile that doesn’t turn up much at the edges.

But she does better than me because I can’t get my smile working at all. I’ve got way too many knots in my gut. “See you later.”

I quickly cross to the dining room, where a solemn assembly of faces rings the table. Gray. Detective Smith. Today’s uniformed cops. I shake hands all around and give Gray a nod when he shoots me a covert keep your fucking mouth shut look. Then I sit and wait.

“I’ll get right to the point,” Detective Smith says, making a great show of plunking her phone down on the table between us. “I’m here as a courtesy to you, Mr. Winter. My office is grateful to your support over the years. So the higher ups are happy to bend over backwards for you. Me? I’d prefer to have you down at the office for a formal interview. But I don’t get to decide. I’m recording. Just so you know.”

“Understood,” I say.

“The autopsy report is back although toxicology is still pending. As we suspected, Ravenna died from blunt force trauma to the back of the head. We’ll make sure your lawyer gets a copy of the report.”

I’m not sure what kind of reaction I should have to this information. When someone takes out the rabid wolf headed your way, you don’t care much whether they use a rifle or a bow and arrow. You’re just grateful that the threat has been eradicated. “I see.”

“There was also evidence of sexual activity,” Detective Smith continues.

“I haven’t had sex with Ravenna in years,” I say. I’m sure my revulsion at the idea shows on my face. Hopefully she’ll believe me.

“I’ll need a DNA sample to confirm that,” she says.

I open my mouth for quick agreement, but Gray puts a restraining hand on my arm.

“My client and I will discuss your request and get back to you as soon as possible. Is there anything else?”

A tinge of annoyance from Detective Smith but she quickly recovers. “Yes. We have video footage from the Shell station on the corner that shows your car driving toward the beach the night of Ravenna’s death.”

I don’t like the sound of that. “And…?”

“You previously told me that you weren’t near the beach that night,” she says.

“I wasn’t.”

“Well, you were close enough to be caught on the footage from the gas station,” she says flatly.

Shit. I remember now. And it’s looking worse for me by the second. “How do you know it was me? I’m sure dozens if not hundreds of people drove through there that night, and they didn’t kill Ravenna either.”

“I’ll send your lawyer a copy so you can see it for yourself. You zoomed right by in your Range Rover. We got a partial of your plates.”

Shit. Fuck. I was driving the Range Rover that night.

She pauses to wait for my reaction. I make sure not to give her one. “You see how this looks, don’t you, Mr. Winter? You were in the vicinity the night your wife died. Your wife implicated you as a domestic abuser in her interview. She also produced old pictures looking like a battered wife. This isn’t painting a very flattering picture of you as a husband.”

I feel my lips twist, but I’m suddenly so angry that I can’t control my expression as I plant my hands on the table and lean in. Nor can I contain the righteous fury toward Ravenna that makes my voice shake. How many more times will she stick it to me from the other side of the grave? Ten? Fifty? A million? “I never laid a hand on Ravenna. I never harmed her. Not once. I don’t care what she said on TV the other night. Those pictures were from a tennis injury. She was playing doubles and her partner accidentally whacked her in the face with her racket.”

“Oh?” Detective Smith whips out her pen and pad. “What’s the friend’s name? We’d like to speak to her. Clear up that discrepancy.”

I slump back in my chair because Ravenna has won this round and there’s not a damn thing I can do about it. “I don’t know.”

Detective Smith’s eyebrows do a slow climb toward her hairline. “You. Don’t. Know.”

What can I say? That Ravenna had a collection of mean girlfriends, none of whom I liked? That I avoided them whenever possible? That by the time of the tennis injury, I was far beyond caring what happened in her life and with whom? “Someone from her tennis club. That’s all I know.”

“Fine. When did it happen?”

I wince because Detective Smith has me on the ropes and we both know it. “Don’t know that either.”

Detective Smith makes a derisive noise, but Gray swoops in to rescue my ass. “I assume we’re done here? Unless my client is under arrest…?” he says.

Pleasant smile from Detective Smith. “Not at all. I’m simply gathering information and sharing information.”

“Great.” Gray stands. “We appreciate the courtesy of you coming here for the interview. But it’s over.”

“Thank you for your time,” Detective Smith says, ever the crisp professional. “We’ll stay in touch. Remember what I said about leaving town, Mr. Winter. Lobbing a final pointed glance in my direction, she walks off with her minions, taking her recorder and shutting the door behind her.

“Fuck,” I say, also standing.

“Relax,” Gray says. “They’re trying to build a case against you, but it’s all circumstantial. Assuming your semen doesn’t turn up in Ravenna’s body…?”

“ What? No. I told you.”

“Good.”

“Matter of fact, the security footage from the hotel shows that Ravenna and Winwood, my security guard who disappeared, were having a sexual relationship.”

His ears perk up. “What? Why didn’t you mention that just now?”

“Because my investigator got the tapes by means that may have been dubious. Plus, the tapes also give me a motive for killing Ravenna. So I wanted to run the issue by you before I mentioned it.”

“Good thinking.”

“But my investigator says the police will get the tapes tomorrow.”

“Well, the point is, they don’t have enough to arrest you yet. So that’s the good news.”

“ Yet ,” I echo dully.

Gray blows out a breath and stares at me long and hard. “I’m not going to sugarcoat it, Lucien. None of this is good.” A heavy pause. “We can’t afford one more piece of evidence against you, circumstantial or not. So you need to finish getting your legal affairs in order. Plus, the DA is running for reelection this year. Your head would make a good trophy on her wall for her law-and-order campaign. Detective Smith is by the book, but the rest of them aren’t. I’m going to do everything I can to prevent it, but…my best guess is that they’re going to do everything they possibly can to pin this on you and make it stick.”