Chapter Fourteen #2
The dimple in his cheek told them he was beyond amused by all of this. The last time he’d crossed paths with Honor while working, she told him that he made her twitchy.
Well, someone was about to twitch up a storm.
“Laugh it up, Chuckles,” Honor said. “You’re lucky you’re one of the least annoying PIs in the town,” she stated.
He snorted.
“The love, Honor. I feel it to my soul.”
Yeah, well, she was three days past exasperated with this whole situation. They’d tagged an innocent man as guilty, he’d died, and they were still playing chase—but with a freaking psychic.
This was her nightmare scenario.
Her partner took over.
“Thank you for joining us,” Bishop said. “We would have explained over the phone, but we wanted to keep this on the DL as much as possible.”
Honestly, he didn’t mind.
He and Lennox were in lockdown mode at their house, but he was also packing a pentacle charmed by their resident witches. There was NO FREAKING WAY he was playing reindeer games in Salem.
And neither were his wife and kids.
PASS.
For now, he felt safe, simply because no sketchy pentacle had showed up at his house to show he was marked to die.
“No problem. I was shocked Honor wanted me here. You know, psychic and all. I believe she said something along the lines of ‘a snowball’s chance in Hell of it ever happening again’ last time.”
She laughed.
“Once upon a time, I was a cop not married to a witch and not married into a family of psychics. I was able to detect without you meddling kids up in my business. Crazy. I know. The mighty have fallen flat on their goddamn faces. Trust me. I’m questioning my life choices.”
Clearly.
He patted her on the back as Bishop reassured him.
“Take solace in the fact, Hart, that you’re her favorite psychic out of them all. At least your gift is helpful. Case in point as to why we called you to ‘consult’.
He laughed again.
“Consult, huh? Okay, I’ll bite. What’s up? You said it was urgent. I’m assuming it’s related to the situation, but I don’t know how I can come in handy here.”
Oh, well, sharing was caring.
Here was the fine line for both of them. It wasn’t that Hart wasn’t a cop. They knew the man could keep his mouth shut. It was all because of Ridge.
No one wanted to air his dirty laundry all over the town, but they were having to do just that.
Neither woman wanted it to come across as them gossiping about this situation.
But they needed his help and had to get him caught up.
Because Wynter’s phone had closed again, and they only had the pictures that Honor took of what they’d found, they showed him.
As they pulled them up, Bishop told him what was going on.
“We went for an autopsy update, and to get into Wyn’s phone,” she said. “It’s locked with her fingerprint.”
So far, that sounded normal.
“Okay, and? I know you were also scheduled to question the doctor because he’s been in contact with the patients.”
And that was why they were here in front of his office.
The rest…
Well, that was the sketchy part.
So, they told him.
“She was seeing him, too. We think depression post-partum, but on top of that, we found this.”
He pulled off his sunglasses and took the cop’s phone. As they showed him the text that was on Wynter’s phone, and Hart read it, his eyes went huge.
That was when he looked up at them, and he said the obvious.
“Oh, you can’t tell Ridge this. He’s already a mess. This is going to push him over the edge and make him suicidal.”
Yeah, they were aware that there was one more problem related to this case.
Only, they needed to do it.
They knew he wasn’t a suspect, since he’d been with everyone as they raced to Raven’s shop to check on Genesis.
So that wasn’t a concern, like it normally would be.
He’d been cleared.
What it would come down to was Lucian staying with him, ensuring he didn’t do anything ridiculous.
Because the man had a right to know. If his wife was having an affair, he might be able to get past the guilt once he had time to heal.
Either way, no one wanted to break Ridge, despite having to tell him the truth.
Yeah, this was a shitty predicament for all of them to be in as they were investigating it.
“How many people know?” Hart asked. “We should probably keep this to a minimum.”
That was the plan, since there were only so many people in the office, and then Hart, who they called in.
Bishop told him.
“Us, and Bodhi, since we had to get a full autopsy done instead of the quick one that he originally did. Then you, so far. We’ll have to update Tori and Julian, since we’re the ones actively working this.”
Hart agreed there.
“Is anyone thinking that maybe, this man killed Wynter and slipped it into the mess to hide it?” he asked. “Because that’s where my head goes.”
Yeah, you could tell this man had been a cop, and a decent one. Despite knowing that this was all about a psychic, you still had to eliminate EVERYTHING.
Bishop was honest.
“We both went there in our heads.”
He could see why.
“I mean, weirder things have happened,” he admitted. “She could have threatened his job, and he panicked. I’ll be able to tell if you ask him if he killed her.”
That was the plan.
Now that they were all on the same page, it was time to confront the doctor.
For Ridge and Wynter.
“Let’s get this done. Then, we have to update Tori and Julian. I know they’re out retracing Wynter’s steps, and then we’re going to keep this to ourselves, right, Fam?” Honor asked. “For Ridge.”
They all agreed to that.
As for the rest of this case, for Honor, this was all wild and so far out of her comfort zone.
Here she was, updating the PIs when she shouldn’t have to do that. Then again, she wasn’t catching a psychic killer who was getting people to hang themselves without help.
It was a lose-lose for her.
Like lose her badge if one more person turned up dead and her boss found out that they were using the Littlemoons.
There was no doubt that their boss would want the FBI called in. He’d been threatening it since Lonnie Jackson was found dead, and they didn’t have any other suspects.
The clock was ticking for her and Bishop.
“Let’s see what the asshole has to say for himself,” Bishop said, cracking her knuckles.
Oh, someone was angry, and honestly, it was definitely appropriate.
The doctor had violated at least one patient by crossing a line.
Heading inside, they found the man sitting behind his assistant’s desk. It was clear that he hadn’t had Romy Calder come in to help out.
Which was good.
Because Bishop was going to go hard on this one and didn’t need a witness. By hard, she might just put her boot in the man’s ass for having an affair with a married woman who was ALSO HIS PATIENT.
When he stood, he held out his hand to the police, and the other person with them.
Oh, Hart shook it, but mostly to lock in on the man’s energy. While being a lie detector, he could get even more accuracy by sensing the energy as he read his aura.
Now that the introductions were done…
“Thank you for seeing us,” Bishop said. “I’m Detective Bishop Monroe, and you remember meeting with my partner, Detective Honor Littlemoon. Well, this is Everhart Rose. He’s working with us on this case.”
The man lifted a brow.
“Is this the case where my patients are turning up committing suicide?" he asked. “Because I told you yesterday that I needed a warrant,” he said, focusing on the cop he’d met yesterday.
Well, Honor shut him down.
This man wasn’t going to spout the law at them when he was breaking it by sleeping with patients.
Oh.
Hell.
No.
Bishop acquiesced to her partner on this one.
“Well, this is about the woman who came with me yesterday. Maybe you remember. Her name was Wynter Hunterhurst?”
He kept a very neutral face, but they all knew he was thinking the same thing that they were. He was trying to determine if they knew what he did in his spare time.
Honor dropped the bomb.
“Well, now, she’s dead.”
They watched the fallout because that news hit him hard. There was that flicker in his eyes, and the blank facade he had on his face faltered.
Momentarily.
That was all they needed to know. That was enough to tell them he’d been up close and personal with Wynter.
Well, shit.
Their concerns were now confirmed.
Poor Ridge.
Poor Wynter.
As he stood there, Hart was watching him, and there was an aura shift.
A.
Big.
One.
Oh, someone was about to start lying. His aura went a muddy yellow-green color. To Hart, whenever he saw that color, it meant someone was jealous, or about to lie their asses off.
Since his hand had been caught in the Hunterhurst cookie jar, he knew the fun was about to begin.
Hart was betting it was both. He was jealous and about to lie his ass off.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Leon admitted. “I’m not sure what that means for me, since you’re here.”
Yeah, well, he was about to be really sorry.
Honor went in for the kill.
“Did you kill her?” she asked, skipping all the other questions she’d normally ask, and instead, going right for the jugular.
He gasped.
“NO!” he said.
When they both looked over at Hart, he nodded, signaling he was telling the truth.
Well, damn.
So much for catching a killer with this evidence. Now, it was time to go after him for the second part.
“How long were you sleeping with her as your patient?” Bishop asked.
That’s when it happened.
Someone clammed up.
Pretty.
Damn.
Fast.
When Honor pulled out her phone, she pulled up the pictures she took of Wynter’s and showed him their evidence. He might not have killed her, but he could have contributed to her death by keeping her depressed and fucking with her mind.
If that was the case…
They’d make sure he paid.
“You were sleeping with her every Friday at three. Your office closed at two, just like it did yesterday. Now, you can lie, but that’s going to make us think you murdered her. Someone shot her in the head last night, and we’re going to get to the bottom of this,” Bishop stated.