Chapter 10 #2
She tried not to be secretly pleased he was going a little alpha and a whole lot overboard.
She really needed to get a life if she was so giddy about it.
Technically, Damien could have gotten into a lot of trouble for showing up at her lab like he did.
And he could have gotten shot the night before when he was at her apartment.
She was happy neither happened, but both could have.
Why did that make her even more excited? What was wrong with her?
“You ready to go in?” Damien asked.
She looked up and realized they were parked in front of the police station. “Sorry. Yeah. I’m good.”
Damien got out first and hurried around to her side, his head turning from side-to-side as he moved.
A chill ran down Harmony’s spine. “Do you think someone is watching us?”
Damien didn’t look at her. “I have no way of knowing, but if someone is, I want to see them doing it.”
Harmony wrapped her arms around her waist to fend off the anxiety rippling through her. She wasn’t cut out for all this. For being stalked and followed and walking into a police station to answer questions about a dead woman.
Damien opened the front door and nodded to where Captain Patrick was waiting for them.
“I’m happy to hear you’re safe,” Captain Patrick said as he shook her hand. “And I’m sorry to bring you down here.”
“It’s okay. I understand. I think.” Harmony didn’t, but she’d never been a part of a police investigation before.
“Detective Murphy is going to ask you some questions. He is putting together a timeline of Pamela Mercer’s evening in hopes of finding out what might have happened to her.”
“Okay. I’ll tell him what I know, but we only spoke for a minute.”
“That’s okay. We need to know everything we can.” Captain Patrick looked at Damien. “I need you to stay here.”
Damien nodded and winked at Harmony before Captain Patrick led her through a secure door and into the back of the station.
Harmony looked around, feeling both safe and in danger. It was nice to know there were so many people there who could help, but she wasn’t so sure they weren’t going to be looking at her as a suspect.
Captain Patrick showed Harmony into a room, then closed the door behind her with a promise that Detective Murphy would be in soon.
Harmony looked around the room, wondering if someone was watching her from the cameras in the corners and the one-way glass along the wall.
She brushed an invisible piece of lint off her gray leggings and toyed with the hem of her teal shirt.
She looked around again, finding absolutely nothing interesting about the drab gray walls and plain metal chair she sat in.
A minute later, the door opened and the man she met that morning walked in with a folder and a smile. “Nice to see you again, although not under these circumstances.”
“You, too,” Harmony said. Was she supposed to shake his hand? Hug the man? Pretend she was excited to be there?
“I know this is awkward, and I don’t intend for it to be. I just want to ask a few questions about your night. Find out what happened. In your own words.”
“Okay.”
Detective Murphy opened the file and scanned down the sheet in front of him.
Harmony resisted the urge to look at what was in his file and leaned back in her seat, eyes on his face.
“You met Ms. Mercer at Demeter, is that correct?”
“Yes.”
“In the bathroom?”
“Yes.”
“Did you see her or speak to her before then?”
Harmony shook her head. “I definitely didn’t speak to her. If I saw her, it didn’t sink in.”
Detective Murphy’s brows tugged together. “What do you mean by that?”
“I don’t know if you’re trying to get me to say I didn’t see her and then you’re going to show me a video of me looking right at her or something. I don’t know. I don’t remember seeing the woman before the bathroom.”
Detective Murphy grinned. “I’m not trying to trick you. Who started the conversation in the bathroom?”
Harmony swallowed. “She did.”
“She walked in after you, correct?”
“Yes. I went to the bathroom, and I heard the door open when I was in the stall. When I walked out, the stall a few down from mine opened. She walked to the sink next to me and said I should be careful who I spend my time with.”
“Why did she say that?” Detective Murphy asked, making a note in the file.
“She said Damien isn’t who he says he is. She knew we’d only just met but kept running into each other. She knew he was flirting with me and asked me out, that he was trying to get to know me and asking questions about my past. She said he was trying to find my weaknesses to use against me.”
“And you believed her?”
Harmony shrugged. “I didn’t want to, but we don’t know each other that well, and it freaked me out that she said all that. She wasn’t wrong. She told me to watch my back. She knew my name.”
“She knew your name?” Detective Murphy asked, leaning forward and looking surprised by that tidbit.
Harmony nodded. “She said my name.”
“What else did she say?”
“That was it. She said I should watch my back, then she walked out of the bathroom.”
“Did you follow her?”
Harmony shook her head. “Not immediately. It threw me off. I was scared. Everything has been… Since that press conference, I feel like everyone wants something from me. Damien was the only one who didn’t, but I wondered if maybe that was his plan.
Pretend he didn’t and catch me off-guard. That’s how con-artists work, right?”
Detective Murphy smothered a grin.
“I sound crazy.” Harmony sighed.
“No, you don’t.” Detective Murphy pushed his folder to the side and leaned forward to meet her gaze. “You sound like a smart woman, being cautious. You met my wife this morning. After what she went through, I’m never going to tell a woman she should be less careful.”
“You were laughing at me.”
Detective Murphy chuckled. “I was laughing, but only because Damien Joseph is one of the best men I know, and the thought of him being a con-artist or a villain is laughable to me. But when he’s a stranger to you, you have to be careful.”
“He’s really that good of a man?”
Detective Murphy nodded solemnly. “Yes. Without a doubt. Everyone who works for Rose Protection Agency is exceptional. I’d trust all of them with my life, or with my wife, who matters more to me than my own life.”
Harmony snickered. “That’s good to hear.”
“Okay, back to Ms. Mercer. She walked out of the bathroom before you. When did you speak to her next?”
Harmony shook her head. “I didn’t. I went to the table and told Damien I had to go and left. I never talked to her at my building.”
“Never?”
“No.”
Detective Murphy’s eyebrows drew together. “But Damien told you she was there?”
Harmony nodded. “He did, but I didn’t have another encounter with her.
I rushed home and into my building. I have seen cars that looked like they were following me, and I wasn’t sure about Damien, so when I got home, I ran inside.
I heard someone outside and thought I saw her in the parking lot, but I didn’t speak to her. ”
Detective Murphy was quiet as he studied his notes in the folder. He scribbled a few things, then read through more, then looked up at Harmony. “Damien spent the night at your apartment, is that correct?”
“Yes, he slept on the couch. I was shaken up after being followed and then the police officers threatening to shoot Damien. Captain Patrick offered to let me stay at his wife’s shelter, but I didn’t want to take up a spot that someone else might have needed.
Damien offered to stay with me, and I accepted his offer. ”
“Even though you’d just worried about him being a con-artist?”
Harmony laughed at herself. “I can’t say it was rational, but Captain Patrick vouched for him and knew he was there. I figured worst-case scenario, he’d be the prime suspect if something happened to me.”
“I’m happy it didn’t come to that.”
Harmony snorted. “Same.”
“One more question. Did either of you leave the apartment during the night?”
“I didn’t. Damien was sleeping on my couch when I got up so I assume he didn’t.”
“But you can’t say for sure.”
Harmony wanted to argue, but she couldn’t. “No.”