Chapter 21
CHAPTER 21
S he couldn’t believe she was doing this…but she couldn’t completely regret it. A big chunk of her heart had wanted to stay because she too had grown to love Kyle. Was it just because of all the good sex?
No. It was his heart that had won her over. He’d opened himself up, let her peek deep inside, and she’d done the same. And, unlike Tommy, Kyle hadn’t made her feel weak or pathetic by telling him how important her parents had been to her or how much she missed them.
Kyle was a good man, and she didn’t know how many opportunities she’d have to find the exact right man. If he was her soulmate, there probably wouldn’t be another.
Still, part of her wondered if her judgment was clouded by the hormones.
And now she and Kyle sat inside the Silver City Police Department waiting for the person the receptionist had said was coming. Regardless of the past year, she was going to have to present herself as Melody Morton, formerly of Pueblo, ex-girlfriend of Tommy Nogales.
Kyle had seemed okay with her real self, although he had yet to see her real hair.
But as she sat there, she realized Kyle was right. What kind of life would it be if she was constantly pulling up roots to go somewhere else, always afraid of the shadows? She remembered how she’d felt the first few months in Silver City—she’d been afraid to go anywhere. When she’d started to relax, feeling like she was safe, she’d really begun enjoying the life she was building there.
A lot of that had to do with the man sitting beside her.
But he wasn’t all of it. It had been the first time that she’d been able to fully support herself by herself. She didn’t have much—a cramped apartment with few belongings—but she’d done it without anyone’s help. To walk away from all that would have been difficult…but her frenzied mind had been certain that was the only way to do it.
She was going to try Kyle’s way…knowing that she could always leave if she had to.
“Ms. Morton?” an officer asked, appearing in the lobby.
“Yes.” She stood, ready to follow him.
When Kyle stood, the policeman said, “Just her.”
“He’s with me,” she said.
“And he can wait for you out here.”
Well, this cop was a friendly fellow. Melody turned to Kyle. “Do you mind?”
“Nope. I’ll be right here.”
The officer, in uniform, led her in the back—but not before making her feel like she was a common criminal. He had her place her purse on a belt and ran it through a metal detector, and then he rifled through it before having her pass through another metal detector. When he was satisfied she didn’t have a weapon, he led her down a hallway. Soon, they were in a plain room with white walls, a table, and three chairs. It took her a second, but she soon realized this was probably an interrogation room, but it wasn’t like any she’d ever seen on television. There were no mirrors and the space was small, but she did notice a camera in the corner against the ceiling pointing down at her exact spot.
No wonder he’d indicated that chair for her to sit in—she’d be in the spotlight.
On the table sat a thin manila folder and a pen but nothing else. The chair she sat in was in a small space between the door and the table and immediately she felt like the door was too far away, like she was trapped. And then it dawned on her—in the time she was waiting for the officer to get her, he’d likely run a background check, and he likely knew she’d been Tommy’s girlfriend.
So, of course, they would probably think she was a criminal, guilty by association.
But he didn’t act that way, especially when he didn’t sit too close to her, so she took in a deep, slow breath, trying to make her heart slow down. “Thank you for coming in, Ms. Morton. You indicated that you wanted to report a possible crime.”
Before she could answer, another man came in the door, but this one was not in a uniform. Instead, he wore a long-sleeved white button-down shirt, khaki pants, and dark brown Oxfords. His head was shaved as was his face—and Melody thought he looked mean…but he had a tight smile on his face, maybe trying to soften his expression. He was the older and bigger of the two.
The other officer, with dark brown hair and eyes to match, moved closer to her to accommodate the newcomer. He said, as if it was an afterthought, “I’m Officer Friendly, and this is Detective Newcomb.” Was his last name really Friendly? Melody doubted it and was already regretting being here. Why had she let Kyle talk her into it?
But she noticed that the officer in uniform seemed a little less sure and even nervous now that the plainclothes guy had entered the room.
“What is the crime you wanted to report?”
Where should she even start? After filling her lungs again, she picked what she thought was the most logical place. “Before I came to Silver City, I used to live in Pueblo and I dated a man named Tommy Nogales. I think his real name is Thomas, but I honestly don’t know. Tommy’s the reason why I came to Silver City, because I felt like my life was in danger the longer I stayed with him.”
“Why did you feel that way?” Officer Friendly asked.
“He’d gotten rough with me a few times, and he a lot of times made vague threats about killing me or killing someone else. And he’s the kind of guy I believe would do it if his back was against the wall.” Or, in her case, if he even imagined it. She was starting to wonder, though, if part of what was going on yesterday was that he was possessive and felt like she belonged to him—and he was coming to retrieve his lost item.
She’d never fully understood the man, so she had no way of knowing for certain what had been in his head.
“When did you come to Silver City?”
“In June.” God, please don’t ask where I’ve been working or anything like that.
Detective Newcomb stood up. “Would you give us just a moment, Ms. Morton?”
Officer Friendly’s cheeks seemed to turn a slight shade of pink, although she might have imagined it, but the two men quickly left the room. It wasn’t two minutes later before they came back in.
This time, the detective sat closer to her with the officer at the far end of the table.
“Ms. Morton,” he said, “let’s start from the beginning. Tell me again why you’re here.”
What the hell was going on? She didn’t want to act frustrated, because she was at their mercy—and she tried to remember that Kyle wasn’t too far away. But what could he do? It wasn’t like he even knew what was going on back here. Hoping her face didn’t betray was what inside, she nodded. “I used to live in Pueblo with a man named Tommy Nogales. I left last June and came here because I felt threatened. He was in jail at the time and I knew that would be the best time to get away.”
“Go on.”
Finally. She could maybe tell the whole story and be done with it. Detective Newcomb opened the file folder and, on a blank sheet of lined paper, jotted a note. Melody saw that he’d written “June-Pueblo to SC.”
“In April, he gave me a beautiful diamond ring and said he wanted us to get married. The ring wasn’t a just solitaire diamond. It was like a flower, with a round diamond in the center and oval-shaped diamonds around it pointing outward like petals. I’d never had any jewelry like it before. I started getting all kinds of compliments at work—more from customers than coworkers.”
“Where did you work?”
“At Sheldon’s. It’s on the northeast side, and I was a server. I had more than one customer tell me the ring had to be worth several thousand dollars. I was sure that couldn’t be right, because Tommy…well, he didn’t really work a steady job and I couldn’t imagine him spending hours trying to pick out the perfect ring.”
Detective Newcomb’s raised his right eyebrow. “We’re familiar with Nogales.”
Oh. It would’ve been nice if he’d said something earlier, but she reminded herself that they probably already knew some of her background. “After hearing about its value so many times, my friend encouraged me to take it to one of the jewelers downtown to get it appraised. I was sure it was, like, cubic zirconia or something just made to look expensive. So I asked the jeweler if he could tell me the value of my ring and he asked if I wanted to sell it. I told him I didn’t. My boyfriend had given me the ring and I just wanted to know what it was worth. When he told me an appraisal would take a day, I told him, ‘Never mind.’ So he said for twenty bucks, he could tell me quickly if the ring was cubic zirconia and give me an estimate of its approximate value. I handed it to him and he used a little machine on it. The first thing he said was that the stones were diamonds, and then he started turning the ring over, scrutinizing it. He started kind of mumbling about the unusual design and said something about the type of metal used in the band and, before I knew it, he gave me back my money and said he was keeping the ring and calling the police. I panicked and left.”
“You didn’t wait to talk to the police?”
“No. I was scared. I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“But Nogales might have.”
“I know. And that might be why I panicked. I don’t know. And when I got home and told him what had happened with the ring, he called me a stupid bitch and asked if I’d given the jeweler any information—which I hadn’t.” No way was she going to say shit about the murder investigation or her suspicions, because she didn’t know if that would make her an accessory or something. Should she have come forward before? Yes…but she was afraid of what Tommy would do to her. And that was the part she was comfortable telling. “He threatened me and hurt me, and I knew he would kill me if I ever told you guys about this.”
“So why are you here now?”
Scarlett nodded. It was a logical question. Although she didn’t feel any less anxious now than she had when she’d first stepped in here, she was feeling lighter by releasing this burden she’d been carrying. “Tommy’s the kind of guy who’s going to get caught eventually. I never knew any specifics of anything he might have done, but I just knew he was involved in questionable activities—and I knew that he’d eventually have to serve some real time. But to keep myself safe, I left, and I’d started building a new life here. After a few months, I started to think everything would be okay. Yesterday, though, he showed up at my job and tried to kidnap me.”
“ Kidnap you? Again, I’m curious why you didn’t call us.”
“Actually, my boss did—but I went to my apartment and started packing my bags. I was going to run again, because Tommy knows where I am now, and that means I’m not safe. He will kill me. I know it.”
“When and where did this take place—him coming to your place of employment?”
“It was yesterday around three o’clock. I work at Tequilaville.”
The detective turned to Officer Friendly. “Wanna get that report?”
“On it.” The officer got up and left the room.
“So tell me why you’re here today.”
Wasn’t it obvious? “I was going to leave Silver City yesterday, and…a friend talked me out of it. He said I should come to you to tell you what I know. And I guess I thought if you guys knew he was threatening me and trying to hurt me, you could…I don’t know—keep an eye out for him?”
She couldn’t read the cop’s expression, but he finally said, “I know all you citizens think our job is to protect you—and it is—but not like you think. We’re not your personal bodyguards.”
“I wasn’t—”
“And it’s not on us that you got mixed up with the wrong guy.”
“I know, but—”
“So we’ll give you a referral to the local women’s shelter here. They have the resources to deal with cases like yours and they can help you file a restraining order against Nogales.”
Melody felt her cheeks turn warm but that mixture of feelings in her belly quickly turned to anger against this man. He was minimizing her experience and blaming her for it.
Just then the officer returned, handing the detective a sheet of paper. As he looked it over, she made a decision. She was not going to sit here and be belittled by the so-called good guys. Maybe she should have gone to the cops in Pueblo when she’d still lived there, because at least they didn’t have the rap that Silver City police did. Across the state, there had always been rumors of corruption in Pike County and, although she’d seen no evidence of it, she figured where there was smoke, there was fire. Regardless, she wasn’t going to sit here and be made to feel small and stupid and ashamed of getting into a shitty relationship, and she didn’t feel like she had to explain it to these assholes. Had she made a bad call? Hell, yes, she had, and in retrospect, she knew why. She’d been in mourning and was vulnerable, and a guy like Tommy making her feel good about herself had blinded her to the kind of man he actually was.
She was not a bad person…and that was something these cops had seemed to miss.
“Do you need anything else from me?”
Detective Newcomb looked up from the sheet of paper. “I’d like to ask you more questions.”
“I don’t know anything other than what I’ve already told you. I don’t even know what kind of car Tommy drives anymore.” Standing up, she placed her purse on her shoulder. “I’d like to go now.”
“I said I have more questions.”
Where she found the courage to sass someone like this, she didn’t know—but she suspected it had to do with the feeling of being trapped, something she’d fought to escape with Tommy. She didn’t want to feel like that again. “Am I under arrest?”
“No.”
Officer Friendly was still standing but seemed unsure. Still, he said, “Should I walk her out?”
“Do we have her contact information?”
No, of course, they didn’t. She asked, “What do you need?”
“A phone number and address would be nice.”
She told him while he jotted it on the file folder and then asked, “ Now can I go?”
“Sure—but I will reach out if I have more questions.”
“I’d expect nothing less.” As Officer Friendly escorted her back out to the lobby, she realized she was a mess of emotions—from anger to shame—but much of the fear had dissipated. During that silent awkward walk back down the hall, she again questioned herself. She was a bad judge of character and she had done a shitty job of protecting her heart. She’d listened to Kyle and done what he’d suggested and this was where it had gotten her. Instead of planning to pursue Tommy, these assholes had treated her like she’d been the criminal. And she highly doubted they would try to protect her at all.
If she was going to stay, she was going to have to find a way to protect herself and her heart.