Chapter 45
“I don’t know if this is such a great idea.” Foxe’s voice is crystal clear through my comms.
“It’s going to be fine. Thank you for killing the feed.”
She grumbles something that sounds a lot like “You’re welcome,” but then she adds, “I think we should call Alex in as backup.”
“I don’t need backup.” Nor do I want it. Foxe has turned the Chatelains’ security cameras onto a loop so no one will know I’m here. And Ava won’t know someone is in her house until it’s too late.
Ryan is at the country club and Ava should just be getting off work. And after everything Foxe just told me she found, Ava and I need to have a serious conversation.
“She’s pulling up,” Foxe says a few minutes later. “You’re sure—”
I kill the comm because I can’t deal with her worry anymore. Instead, I sit in the dark in Ava’s office, waiting like a total psycho for her to walk in.
I feel like a psycho too.
That rage I’ve been keeping at bay is off the leash. I skate my fingers over the small pistol I’ve set on the desk right on top of her closed laptop.
Moments later I hear a door in the distance open. Sounds like the one from the mudroom. Then I hear movement in the kitchen, and approximately three minutes later Ava walks into the office sans shoes and a glass of red wine in hand.
When she flips on the light and sees me sitting at her desk she lets out a short scream and nearly drops her glass. Instead she sloshes it all over her cream blouse, her eyes wide. “Sloane, what the hell—” Her gaze lands on the pistol.
“Sit down.” I pick it up, point it at her, then motion to the nearby seating on the opposite side of the narrow office.
It overlooks the water and tonight is a full moon.
Not to mention the pool is lit up like a New Year’s party.
But no one is on the lake, no one can see in here. It’s just the two of us.
“What the hell are you doing? This isn’t funny.”
I move around the other side of her desk and stand in front of the entryway, effectively blocking her exit. “Not supposed to be funny. Now, sit.”
She seems to register that I’m serious and collapses into one of the tufted seats. There are two of them with a little table in between. I don’t take the other one, but stay right where I am.
“You visited Cara the day she was murdered.” I don’t shy away from the word murder this time, even though it slices deep. “Right before she was killed. You didn’t tell the cops that. In fact, you told them you were home working in the hours that led up to her murder.”
“I know,” she whispers.
“And you’ve been covering up the testing at work for the air taxis.”
She freezes, her eyes going wide, but she shakes her head. “No, no. We’re figuring things out. It’s going to be fine before everything goes live. This is just the way it is with stuff like this.”
To my ears, it sounds like she’s trying to convince herself, but I’m not objective enough to know for sure.
She tosses back the rest of her wine then sets it down, her hands trembling as she does. “Why are you here?” she rasps out.
“Pretty sure that’s obvious, Ava.” I snap out her name.
“You lied to the police about seeing Cara on the day of her murder. And I know you were arguing with her in the weeks leading up to her murder. She told me she found something at work, that she saved something. And then when I was on the phone with her, she was surprised by her killer. But not the kind of surprise where she didn’t know the person.
Did you kill my sister, Ava?” I’m screaming now, the rage I’ve tried so hard to contain making everything inside me want to burn this place to the ground until I find out the truth.
“You don’t understand, Sloane! Of course we were fighting!
We were so close to getting this right. And this contract is so huge.
The bonus would have changed both our lives.
I only tweaked a couple of the test results but it wouldn’t have mattered once we fixed everything.
” She’s crying now and I can’t make out what she’s saying because all I can hear is the blood rushing in my ears.
Did she kill my sister over money? The most bullshit reason in the world.
“Put the gun down.” Marcus’s hard voice snaps me back to the present.
I turn to find he’s five feet away from me, but I don’t move my weapon away from a weeping Ava. “No.”
His gaze is hard. “If you shoot her, I’ll shoot you.”
“But you’ll still lose, because the woman you love will be dead.”
“So will you.”
“I don’t care.”
“I think you do.”
“If she killed the woman who raised me, it’ll be worth it… And I think you’re a piece of shit for wanting to cover up my sister’s murder. Someone you claim was your friend!”
“She didn’t kill Cara.” But there’s a hint of doubt in his voice.
“You have proof?”
“Everyone put down their guns.” Alex steps out of the shadows like a wraith.
Ava’s sobbing is the background music of this ridiculous scene.
Damn it, Foxe! I can’t turn my comms on without making a movement (and despite what I said, I don’t actually want to get shot), but I know she called in Alex. Just because I muted her didn’t mean she couldn’t hear me. And she must have seen Marcus.
“Tell her to put hers down.” There’s no give in Marcus’s voice and he doesn’t turn in Alex’s direction. Smart man.
“Nope. Because if you shoot her, I’ll put a bullet in your back.”
Marcus’s jaw tenses, but then to my surprise he lowers his weapon. He doesn’t sheathe it, however.
And I don’t put mine away at all.
“Now you,” Alex snaps at me.
“No.”
“Garcia is two minutes out, Sloane. I called him, but he was already on the way. They’re arresting Ava.
He must have found out the same thing you did.
You need to put your gun away. And so do you, Marcus.
All guns out of sight right now or the three of us are going to get pulled in for questioning.
And I don’t think any of us want to talk to the damn cops.
If she killed Cara, then she deserves to go to jail.
She deserves to stand trial. You’re not a judge or jury.
” Alex is staring at me hard, but she still hasn’t lowered her weapon from Marcus.
Because the man is a threat with or without his gun. And it would take him two seconds to snap up his arm and kill me.
To my surprise, Marcus lifts his jacket and tucks his weapon out of sight then holds up his palms and basically does jazz hands.
Alex does the same minus the jazz hands. “Now it’s up to you,” she says, taking a step closer to me. “Do you want your nieces to lose you now? They’ve just lost their mom, and their dad is a mess. You can’t die on them—they need you.”
“I hate you.”
“And I love you too.” Alex moves fast toward me, clearly knowing I’d never hurt her. She takes the pistol from my hand and releases the magazine. “It’s not even loaded,” she mutters as she tucks the gun in the back of her pants and slides the magazine into her jacket pocket.
I didn’t come here with a loaded gun. I hadn’t trusted myself not to use it.
Marcus is kneeling in front of Ava when Garcia and two uniformed officers stride in minutes later.
Garcia looks at all of us as Marcus says, “Don’t say a word until your lawyer arrives.”
Ava simply nods and stands, tears tracking down her face. She looks at me. “Sloane, listen, I’m sorry—”
“Not. A. Word.” There’s no give in Marcus’s voice as one of the officers starts reading Ava her rights and putting her in handcuffs.
The fact that the officer is quoting the Miranda rights tells me everything I need to know.
Despite what happens on TV and in movies, cops don’t have to quote Miranda rights to every suspect.
It usually only happens when someone is officially being brought into custody for questioning (aka an interrogation).
And if Garcia is the one who will be interrogating her, he’ll read them again.
But these cops are wearing body cameras and are clearly going above and beyond right now. I hope that means something.
Garcia looks between Alex and me, then nods at the officer who takes Ava out, Marcus hot on their heels.
“What are you doing here?” Garcia demands.
“I talked to Lucy Kowalski today.” I go for honesty. “She told me she saw Ava leaving Cara’s house before the murder and that she looked upset. I’ve also uncovered some information that leads me to believe Ava was trying to cover up stuff at work that could affect a huge contract.”
“So you decided to confront her? Someone you suspect is a killer?”
“I thought I’d take her off guard.” He hasn’t asked if I broke in and I think he might be assuming that I just came over and Ava let me in. If that’s the case, I’m going to let him keep thinking that.
He scrubs a hand over his face. “Can I trust you to drive yourself to the station? I’m going to need you to give a statement.”
Alex slides up to us then. “Of course. I’ll drive her myself.”
“Good,” he says. “Because you’ll need to give one too… Thank you for calling me.”
Alex nods, and even though I want to tell her everything on my mind and definitely yell at her, when we get to her car she pulls out Ava’s laptop from under her puffer jacket and sets it in my lap.
“What the hell?”
“I grabbed it when the officer wasn’t paying attention.”
I blink at her. “I hate you a little less now.”