36. She Heard the Report #2
I flashed him a reassuring smile. “I was never in any danger, okay? The Morelli family are your typical mafia bad guys. They’re not stupid enough to take out a prosecutor and end up with the entire police force on their asses.
Don’t worry. Those days are behind me.” I wiggled my eyebrows. “I work for a new type of bad guy now.”
Toby grunted. There was no love lost between him and my brother.
He pulled out a chair, and Liam was forgotten in an instant as he watched with a stunned expression as Wayne set up his computer, switched on the camera, and ran through the basics—asking Toby who he was, where we lived, and running over the process for giving a statement.
Toby leaned over. “This is just like on TV!” he whispered in the crook of my neck. He was such a dork.
Wayne squared his shoulders. “And why are you here today, Dr. Sullivan?”
Reality dragged him back to earth. “Uh, well, the woman I, um, used to work with… Kayleigh.” He took a deep breath. “She’s stalking me.”
Wayne’s eyebrow only quirked slightly, and he looked over at me. “Uh…” He’d seen the internet blow up. He was going to have to ask some tough personal questions. “Gwen, are you sure you want to be here—”
“She stays,” Toby said.
“Gwen?” Wayne prompted. “Your call.”
Wild horses couldn’t pull me out of that chair. “I’m staying.”
“Okay.” A grimace stretched Wayne’s weathered lips. “Dr. Sullivan, did you have a relationship with Kayleigh?”
Toby’s chin dropped, and he reached over to squeeze my knee. I didn’t smack his hand away. Instead, I put mine over the top.
“I think we were, technically, in a sort of…” Toby let out a defeated breath. “An emotional affair. I didn’t intend to give her the impression we were having an affair or that I was interested in one, but we spent a lot of time together at work.”
“Was your relationship physical?” Wayne asked.
“I kissed her once at a party a few months ago. I was drunk out of my mind. It was a mistake. I told Kayleigh I wanted nothing to do with her. I had her reassigned to work with someone else, but…” When he threw a cautious look in my direction, all the color had drained from his face.
He looked like he was about to be sick. “Kayleigh cornered me in the men’s changing room one morning.
I wasn’t, um, naked or anything, but I’d taken my shirt off.
She snuck in, locked the door, and started taking her clothes off. ”
I sat motionless. Every emotion, every thought screaming through my mind, was carefully hidden behind the blank stare I pinned on the dull view out the window.
I’d heard snippets of this story. Toby had told me he’d fired Kayleigh. Judy had filled in some of the blanks. But how far had it gone? More than a kiss? My fingers dug into the sides of the chair. Had he lied to me again?
“Dr. Sullivan?” Wayne prompted.
“Oh, uh…”
Toby gently squeezed my leg. He wanted me to look at him.
I couldn’t. I sat without saying a word as he continued his statement, a mask of perfect composure on my face even though my stomach tipped and dived like I was in a raft flying out of control through white water.
I knew almost nothing. He’d kept the truth from me.
So much for us being honest with each other…
It took more than an hour for Toby to spill the whole story. His face was drawn, his shoulders slumped, and by the end, he was a shadow of the man I knew.
“What happens now?” Toby asked. “Will you arrest Kayleigh?”
Wayne shook his head. “First step, I’m going to have my officers give her a warning—”
“A warning ?” Toby shot out of the chair. “She just gets off?” I tugged at his hand, and even though he latched on to me for safety, he still muttered when he sat down, his back stiff. “Beg your pardon, detective, but this is bullcrap.”
Wayne held up his palms. “Toby, look, I understand you’re frustrated. You want your family to be safe.”
“Damn straight, I do.”
“Usually, a warning’s enough,” Wayne explained.
“A couple of cops rocking up on a person’s doorstep scares them shitless, and they stop.
That doesn’t mean Kayleigh’s getting off.
We have your report. We’ve got the evidence you brought in.
I’ll send an officer to your house to inspect your car.
After that, we need to investigate and prepare a case.
We’ll take a look at her social media. If there’s enough there, she’ll be charged. ”
Toby grunted. “And how long will all that take?”
“It’s not going to be a quick process,” Wayne conceded.
“Gwen?” Toby turned to me. “How long?”
I didn’t sugarcoat it. He didn’t want that. “From now until a conviction—if we get one—ballpark, you’re looking at two or three years.”
“Two or three years ?” Toby’s mouth pressed into a thin line. “This is complete crap—”
“Toby, there’s more we can do,” Wayne jumped in. “After hearing everything you’ve laid out today and what I’ve got here”—he circled a hand over the pile of Kayleigh’s junk—“I’m going to file a restraining order on your behalf.”
Toby cocked his head. “Yeah?”
“We should also name Gwen and your son on the order. It’s a quicker process than criminal charges. We can probably get you on the next court listing. It’ll take a week, tops. Kayleigh won’t be able to come near you or your family. If she does, we can arrest her for breaching the order.”
“Do it.” Toby’s voice was firm. “I want Gwen and Noah to be safe.”
“And you, too.” Wayne’s expression was grave.
“Don’t downplay what’s happening. It might seem like a few notes and a couple of photos, but people who act like this can be unpredictable.
They can escalate. Take this seriously. Don’t engage with Kayleigh.
” Wayne reached across the desk to pass Toby a business card.
“If she approaches you, report her right away.”
Toby’s hand shook when he accepted the card.
Reality had finally knocked some sense into him. This wasn’t TV. It wasn’t a game. The decisions he’d made had consequences—and not just for him.