CHAPTER 46 JESSALYN
JESSALYN
“Stay here,” an officer told me as Greenway Park descended into chaos. Sirens, shouting, and the thump of rotor blades threatened to drown out his words. “We have everything under control.”
Violet jumped out of the way as a purple-haired teenager whizzed past on a hoverboard, live-streaming as he went. “I’m not so sure about that.”
The police were trying to round up the podcasters, who’d joined forces with Dawson and the Wednesday Walkers to search for Shiro.
Six camera-toting fame-seekers had turned into fifty as word of the tragedy spread, and it wasn’t every day a celebrity chef shot the man who’d murdered her estranged husband.
Several show hosts tried to interview me in their quest for ratings, but Violet told them to back off unless they wanted to ride home in a body bag, and that went viral too.
Ten minutes ago, Jerry had sauntered past with Ari, ducked under the crime scene tape a cop was stretching between trees, and disappeared into the gloom. The cop took two steps in their direction, then stopped and shrugged.
“They don’t pay me enough for this,” he said.
I wanted to go with them, but my ankle was the size of a softball and swelling bigger with every passing second. A medic told me I should get it checked out at the hospital, but I didn’t have money or insurance, so I’d waved them away. Now I was regretting that decision.
“I need ice,” I said to Violet.
She waved at a cop standing nearby. “We need ice.”
“Do I look like a waiter, lady?”
“Asshole,” she muttered.
Then she pulled out her phone and told her three million BuzzHub followers that the police had left me sitting on a rock in the freezing rain with a swollen ankle, and I got ice, a blanket, and an umbrella.
Special Agent Rimer finally showed up, and she looked stressed. Good.
“What happened? What the hell happened?”
Violet squared up to her, hands on her hips. “You arrested the wrong person for Amie Carlson’s murder, and the right person just tried to kidnap my friend.”
Rimer looked past Violet to me. “So you shot him?”
“He took my dog to lure me out of the yard, he murdered my husband in front of me, and he was chasing me with a gun. What in the hell did you expect me to do?”
“Why would he—”
I got to my feet. Well, foot. I hung on to Violet so I didn’t lose my balance.
“How should I know why? I’m a chef. I bake cookies on camera and teach my best friend how not to burn dinner.
I escaped an abusive husband, fell in love with Justin Norquist, and then watched as you tore his life apart.
” Could I get arrested for yelling at a police officer?
Honestly, I didn’t care. “I told you he was innocent, but did you listen? No. You locked him up and left me on my own and now two people are dead, and I’m done.
” Shakily, I began hobbling toward the house. “I’m so freaking done.”
“I’m not finished with my questions.”
I threw my hands in the air. “I don’t care.”
“Do you want me to arrest you?”
“Sit down.”
The voice was low and dangerous. And female. I turned to see Jerry Knight squaring up to Special Agent Rimer, and her eyes reminded me of the blond man’s. Hard. Murderous. Her hands were streaked with blood, and there was no sign of Shiro.
The hope I’d been holding on to fluttered away.
“This is an active investi—”
“Sit the fuck down.”
Jerry didn’t shout. She didn’t have to. Rimer sat on the rock.
“You have an innocent man in jail. Two, actually. We told you numerous times that Justin didn’t touch Amie Carlson, and your pig-headed ignorance has left two men dead. Arguably, they both deserved it, but Jessalyn didn’t need that kind of trauma in her life.”
“But—”
“Shut it. You fucked up. The question is, why did you continue to ignore all the evidence and lock Justin in a cell? Either you’re dumb as a box of rocks, or you know something we don’t.”
Ari took over. “You have a good clearance rate, better than your peers. You get good scores in every test. So what went wrong this time?”
“I—”
“You let the past influence the present. Blackstone House. That case came down to a choice—Levi or Justin. You picked Levi, and you convicted him.”
“A jury convicted him.”
“On the evidence you presented.”
“I wasn’t the lead on that investigation.”
“Exactly. You’d just been promoted to Special Agent, and you were trying not to rock the boat. But something always felt a little off, didn’t it? Something didn’t sit quite right. And when Amie disappeared, you saw your chance to finally put Justin where you thought he belonged: in prison.”
“Levi Sykes’s conviction was justified. The evidence fit.”
“And yet…here we are. This is a real mess, isn’t it?”
For the longest moment, Rimer just sat there. Finally, she rose gracelessly to her feet and waved a hand at me.
“You’re free to go.”
“You can be part of the problem, or you can be part of the solution,” Jerry called after her as she walked off. I was shaking. So was Violet. I wasn’t sure who was holding up who anymore.
“Damn,” Dawson said when Rimer was out of earshot. “What the hell was that?”
“It’s become apparent that there was a monumental blunder in the Blackstone House case,” Ari said.
“They attempted a cover-up of the cover-up of the cover-up, and this was the result. Think about it—Serafina Hennessy started poking around months ago, and whoever started this got wind of it. They knew if she dug deep enough, she’d prove Levi was innocent, or at least cast enough doubt to overturn his conviction, so they had to point suspicion in a different direction.
Away from them. Justin was the obvious candidate.
They set him up to take the fall for Amie’s murder, but there was one variable they couldn’t control. ”
“Me,” I whispered.
“Yes. Their plan began to unravel from the moment you showed up on his doorstep.”
I let her words sink in. I’d fallen for an internet scam and accidentally stumbled into Dante’s Inferno. So many “what ifs” flew through my mind. What if I’d told Tiffany to get lost? What if the car had broken down a half hour earlier? What if Justin had sent me packing?
“Ten years,” Jerry said. “Levi’s been in prison for ten fucking years.”
“So what do we do about it?” Dawson asked.
“We work out what happened, and we fix it.”
But it wasn’t that simple. Justin had been locked up for two days, and I’d already heard the change in his voice.
The fear. The hopelessness. He had all of us reassuring him, updating him, promising him we’d work until he was free.
Who had been fighting for Levi? Nobody, not until Serafina came along.
If he truly was innocent, my heart ached for him.
And he wasn’t the only victim.
Ruby.
Amie.
Shiro.
“Did you find him?” I asked. “Shiro?”
They hadn’t brought him back to me, and I hated to think of his body out there in the forest. He’d died alone. He thought I’d abandoned him.
“Yeah, he got medevacked.”
“What?”
“I’ll be honest—he doesn’t look great. But we packed the wound with a haemostatic agent and winched him onto the helo. They’re taking him to a trauma centre. When we find out which one, Dawson can drive you.”
“The helo?”
Jerry pointed to the sky. “Helicopter. The big black machine that flies.”
“I’m not an idiot. Can they even do that? For a dog, I mean.”
“I just told them they were doing it, and they did, so… For fuck’s sake, don’t cry.”
“I c-c-can’t help it.”
“Try.” Jerry started walking toward the house, and the rest of us followed. “Nice shooting, by the way.”
“Uh, thanks? And thank you for finding Shiro.”
We had to walk past Ridge’s body to get home. The police had covered him with a sheet of plastic, but I still looked away. Even though he’d been a monster, I’d never wanted him to die.
Jerry glanced in his direction. “At least you don’t have to worry about a divorce now.”
A sob burst out of me, and Violet tried to offer comfort with an arm around my shoulders.
“Jerry…” Dawson warned.
“What? Someone had to say it. Guess that’s me, again.”