Chapter 19 #2
An hour later Victoria sat at one end of the long steel table, a legal pad and pen in front of her.
To her left, Alayna sat wringing her hands but squaring her shoulders, determined to do the right thing.
Reece Langley a defense attorney who Victoria had the honor of trying a few cases with and who had also gone to law school with her and Ben, sat right beside Alayna, his own legal pad and pen on the table as well.
Detective Noah Hannity, whom she’d learned was a good friend of Ben’s and a trustworthy detective with the saddest dusky blue eyes she’d ever seen, sat at the other end of the table.
He pulled a small tape recorder from his shirt pocket and pushed it so that it was now closer to Alayna.
With an affirmative nod from Reece he pressed the record button and asked Alayna to state her name and current address.
“Tell me what you know about the night Congressman McGill and his wife were killed,” he said to her.
Victoria had warned him he needed to get a completely new statement from her, that she was certain the previous one had been missing information. She couldn’t present anything Alayna had told her at the motel, that conversation had been off the record. But Alayna could and promised that she would.
“Larry said my daughter wasn’t his,” Alayna started her voice soft.
“She wasn’t. I knew that. But I thought if that witch Myrna thought I had his child she would finally let him leave and then we could be together.
” She sucked in a deep breath, releasing it on a shaky sigh.
“I know it was stupid, everything I’ve ever done has been stupid.
That’s why I’m trying to make it right now.
I’m trying to do what’s right for my daughter. Lia’s all that matters to me now.”
Noah tried to look like he wasn’t affected by the words of this young girl, but the slight slump in his shoulders said he was.
Victoria knew what he was going through because she felt it too.
Alayna was too young and too immature to have to deal with two cagey politicians and one dirty cop.
Those were probably the very reasons the bastards had preyed on and manipulated her.
Fury boiled inside Victoria at the thought.
“What time did you leave the Congressman’s house?” Noah asked.
“Almost ten,” she said. “I drove to the café at the corner and waited there for about half an hour. Larry and I would meet there sometimes, so I just thought that maybe if he and his wife got into an argument about the baby he would come looking for me.” She shrugged. “He didn’t.”
“Did you see Ramone Vega at Congressman McGlinn’s house?”
“I was leaving the café. I stepped out onto the corner and a car stopped at the red light. It was a gray car, I could tell because the lights from the café were really bright. There were two people in the front seat and one in the back because none of the windows were tinted. Plus it was kind of cool so I guess they didn’t need to run the air conditioning.
The back window was rolled down. Mr. Vega was in the backseat. ”
Noah nodded and proceeded with the questioning.
An hour and a half went by while Alayna poured out all the information she had.
Victoria’s pen moved viciously across the paper, using up more than half the legal pad for notes.
With Alyana on the stand, her case against Vega was ironclad. He wouldn’t get off this time.
As for Alayna, who thought she was safe in protective custody and was kidnapped by Timothy Hall, then continuously raped and beaten for the ensuing months, Victoria could only pray that the young girl would get the help she needed to process this traumatic ordeal and, to hopefully one day, find some peace in her life.
All too often, a mother’s trauma could seep into the life of a daughter and Victoria sent up another prayer that it wouldn’t happen this time. That Alayna’s experience with cruel men could remain a part of her past.
Speaking of which, even though she would never classify Ben as being cruel, Victoria did wonder at what their first encounter after all today’s events would be like.
He’d looked so intense at the motel, so dangerously serene after he’d shot Timothy Hall, that she admitted—if only to herself—she was a little nervous.
This thing with her and Ben had started so quickly, so dramatically she couldn’t help but remember the Speed movie where Keanu Reeves warned Sandra Bullock that relationships started under extreme circumstances didn’t end well.
The movie then ended with a long, passionate kiss between the two, amidst the wreckage of a crashed subway train that at a madman’s whim had been traveling at a high rate of speed.
The hopeless romantic buried deep inside her had often wondered how their relationship had fared after that pulse-thumping day.
Neither Vega nor Hall had instigated any speeding vehicles to cause massive damage, but they’d been deadly just the same.
Not only was Hall on Pena’s payroll, he was also the owner of TH Services.
He’d sent those regular payments to Alayna on behalf of Mayor Radcliffe.
Hall had been corrupt for years and had just gotten a little greedier where Alayna was concerned.
After a search of his apartment officers found proof that he was trying to blackmail Pena about Alayna’s existence.
It was a good thing Ben and the others had gotten to him first, Hall was definitely on Vega’s hit list.
So everything as far as the case was concerned, was falling into place. Now, all he had to do was go into court next week and get a guilty verdict.
No, she also had to deal with Ben. There was no doubt in her mind he’d be waiting right outside that door and he’d be rightfully pissed at her for leaving him in that hotel room and not mentioning that Alayna had contacted her.
As reserved as she was about their confrontation, Victoria had never been one to run from her problems. She left the interview room with her note pad firmly beneath her arm and her head held high.
She could handle Ben Donovan and whatever he dished out. She was almost positive of that fact.
Just as she’d expected Ben had been sitting at another officer’s desk, just outside the interrogation room.
The minute he heard the door open he turned to see her coming out.
She tried for a small smile but it died the moment his gaze met hers.
He was not happy, not at all. Well, okay she knew she’d been wrong by keeping him out of the loop, but really hadn’t he done the same thing by taking so long to tell her everything that was going on?
That made them even, she thought as she made purposeful strides toward him.
She was an arm’s length away when her cell phone rang.
She’d taken it off vibrate after she’d called her mother and Grace to let them know she was alright.
Now it echoed throughout the room like a siren.
Good thing it was a normal ringtone and not some inappropriate song that normally blared through their office.
Stopping, she pulled the phone from her pocket and glanced at the screen.
With a small curse she answered, “Hey Grace. I told you I’m fine.
I’m just about to leave the police station and I’ll call you when I get home,” she continued without waiting for a greeting.
Grace’s response had her pausing. “What? Okay, I’m on my way! ”
She’d barely switched the phone off when she felt his hand on her elbow.
“Grace is having the baby?” he asked.
She nodded.
“Let’s go,” he said before halfway pulling her across the room.