CHAPTER TWELVE
Declan
Tess Barlow sat across from me in the interview room, her face sallow, mascara streaked.
Her hair had come loose from its ponytail, and she looked a decade older than she actually was.
She’d stopped crying, which was almost worse.
She looked like a woman who’d lost everything, which was exactly what she had.
I’d offered her a lawyer. She’d refused.
I’d offered her water. She’d taken it but hadn’t drunk any.
She’d asked at least five times if she could see Gil.
I’d told her no, but she kept asking. Maybe if she hadn’t tried to shoot Spencer, I would have felt more empathy for her, but she had, and I didn’t.
I started with what I already knew, walking her back through the night Eddie died.
She repeated the broad strokes of what she’d said at the bar: she’d taken a skiff out to find Eddie, confronted him about the poaching, pushed him when he refused to back down.
Eddie hit his head on the gunwale. She panicked, wiped the GPS, staged the scene, and took the skiff back to the harbor.
“Let’s talk about Craig,” I said. “You told him the affair was with Eddie, not Gil.”
She nodded, staring at her untouched water.
“I had to tell Craig something. He caught me coming in one night after I was with Gil. He knew I’d had sex.
I got sloppy because he was supposed to be out on the Blue Whale, but he came home a day early.
I had to say something, so I said it was Eddie I was sleeping with.
I panicked. I couldn’t tell him it was Gil because Craig would have gone after Gil, and Gil would never have stood a chance against Craig physically. So I said it was Eddie instead.”
“Did you know Craig would go looking for Eddie?”
She looked guilty. “Yes. I figured he would.”
“And that was fine with you?”
“It was the lesser of two evils. At least Gil would be safe.” She let out a tired breath.
“I didn’t really care what happened to Eddie.
I know how awful that sounds. But Eddie was the one threatening to ruin Gil’s life.
A part of me hoped that if Craig roughed him up, maybe Eddie would back off and drop the whole thing. ”
“Why’d you go after Eddie out on the water? Why not just talk to him in town?”
Her eyes flickered. “Our conversation had to be private. Nobody could overhear us.”
I narrowed my eyes. “You’re sure you didn’t plan on killing Eddie the whole time? Maybe that’s why you followed him out there on the ocean.”
Her face flushed. “Of course I’m sure. I wanted to talk to him, that’s all. But he was so pious, and he said such nasty things about Gil, it infuriated me. I just lost my temper. That’s why I pushed him, to shut him up.” She winced. “I didn’t mean to shut him up forever.”
I studied her, not sure I believed her. I’d always thought Tess was a sweet girl, but I was seeing a much more devious side to her. “Why are you so in love with Gil? He’s a lot older than you.”
“Age doesn’t matter.” She got a wistful look on her face.
“Yeah, he’s older, but he’s a gentleman.
He knows how to treat a lady. He never once used a cuss word around me, and he wouldn’t let anyone disrespect me.
Sometimes the guys at the Rusty Anchor get a little rowdy, but he’d put them in their place for me.
” Her eyes brightened. “And he had big dreams, which I loved. We were going to travel together and live life.”
I frowned. “What about Craig?”
She scowled. “As soon as Gil had enough money, I was going to divorce Craig. I couldn’t wait to get out of this little town. Gil and I were going to make a new life.”
“So Gil was your ticket out of a bad marriage.”
She didn’t like that. “You’re making it sound like I was using Gil. I love Gil. I’d die for Gil.”
“You definitely killed for Gil.”
She lifted her chin. “Yes, I did. It was an accident, but I’d do it again for Gil. I’d do anything for him.”
“Even though he is upset with you now?”
Her face fell. “I wish you’d let me talk to him. I could explain better if we were alone.”
“That’s not going to happen, Tess.”
She leaned back in her chair, looking frustrated. “I guess you don’t understand what it’s like to be in love. When you really love someone, you’ll kill for them.”
I cleared my throat. “We’re getting off track.”
She laughed gruffly. “Does that make you uncomfortable? It probably does because you’re a police officer. I don’t suppose even if you would kill for love you’d be able to admit that.”
She had a point. Because of my job, it was different for me.
Although, tonight, when I’d thought she was going to shoot Spencer, I’d had to struggle hard not to jump the gun and take her out first. My instincts had been to save Spencer.
While it was my job to protect people, I wasn’t supposed to be impulsive because my feelings were involved.
Luckily, my training had held, and we’d been lucky. No one had died tonight.
“Can I ask you why you’re so angry with Spencer?” I studied her pale face.
Her eye twitched. “He’s the reason it all unraveled.”
“You really think that’s fair? I knew about the poaching. I was closing in on Gil for Eddie’s murder.” She didn’t need to know Spencer had pointed me in that direction. She hated him enough.
She sighed. “You’re a cop. You were supposed to investigate Eddie’s death.” Her face darkened. “Spencer just kept sniffing around so he could get a story. That’s different.”
I let that sit for a moment. “You wanted to hurt Spencer tonight.”
She wrinkled her brow. “I didn’t want to hurt him, but I was tired of his butting in all the time. He really did fuck everything up.” She looked at me as if I should agree. “The other night, he came into the Rusty Anchor asking Gil a bunch of questions.”
“Which night was this?” I knew what night it was. I was positive from the venom in her voice she’d been the hit-and-run driver. But I needed her to say it.
“Oh, come on, Chief.” She finally took a sip of her water. Once she’d swallowed, she set the paper cup down, looking resigned. “Don’t treat me like I’m dumb. I’m sure you already know I’m the one who tried to run Spencer over.”
Hearing her say it so flippantly was disturbing. “Why don’t you tell me about that night?”
“You probably won’t believe me, but that wasn’t planned either.” She looked up at the buzzing fluorescent lamp above us. “It just kind of happened.”
“What made you go after Spencer?”
She took a shaky breath. “Spencer came into the Rusty Anchor that night. He sat at the bar and he started talking to Gil. At first I thought he really had just come in for a drink and dinner. He used to come in a lot.” She frowned.
“But then I caught on that he was actually there to pump Gil for information.”
“What kind of information?”
Her mouth thinned. “I stupidly let it slip to Spencer that Gil had made an offer to Rosa for Eddie’s boat. I didn’t even realize I’d screwed up until he started asking questions about money. Then I caught on that I had truly goofed. He’s like a damn pit bull.”
She wasn’t wrong.
“I could see the excitement in his eyes when I told him about Gil buying the boat,” she groaned. “I was so mad at myself. But Spencer is so easy to talk to sometimes, you just end up telling him stuff you didn’t plan on saying.”
Once again, she wasn’t wrong. Spencer was very good at getting people to talk.
“So he came into the Rusty Anchor and he was talking to Gil,” I said. “And that made you mad.”
“Yes. Gil was wasted. He was suffering so horribly after Eddie died.” She said that as if she wasn’t the reason Eddie had died.
“He was drinking a lot that night, and Spencer started asking him where he got the money to buy the boat. I knew right away it was a trap, but Gil was just running his mouth because he was drunk.”
“What specifically did you hear that concerned you?”
“Spencer got Gil to basically admit that he’d got the money illegally.
Gil didn’t even realize he’d been played.
But I knew. I could hear everything because I was right there behind the bar.
” She grimaced. “I could see where it was heading. I knew Spencer would keep digging, and he’d figure out the poaching angle. Then everything would come out.”
“So what did you do?”
“I really liked Spencer, but I knew I had to shut him up. Stop him from telling anyone what he’d learned.
” She played with a tendril of hair near her ear.
“I got more and more scared as the night went on. Gil was just too loose-lipped that night. I had no choice other than to make sure Spencer didn’t talk. ”
“I see.” I had to hide how angry her flippant tone made me. She’d tried to murder Spencer in cold blood. But to her, it seemed no more serious than if she’d sprayed some ants on her kitchen counter.
“Spencer paid his tab and left,” she said.
“I remember standing behind the bar watching him walk out the door. I just kept thinking, he’s going to ruin everything.
He’s going to keep asking questions until he finds out the truth.
Then Gil is going to prison and it’s all going to be for nothing.
Eddie dying, all the guilt, all the lies.
For nothing. I knew I had to go after him. ”
“But you were working. How were you able to go after Spencer?”
She wiped her nose with the back of her hand.
“It was like divine intervention when my manager, Terry, told me to take my fifteen-minute break. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect.
Spencer had just left, so I went out the back after him.
I’d driven Craig’s truck to work that night because my car was almost on empty and Craig was out on the Blue Whale. The truck was parked out back.”
“What time was this?”
“Maybe nine-thirty. I don’t know exactly. Spencer had just left. I know where Spencer lives, so I knew the route he’d take home.”
That sent a chill down my spine. “So then what did you do?”