“What?”
“I told him why I brought him in, how we found the gun, and he said some very unladylike words and demanded a lawyer.”
Jamie closed her eyes. Oh God. A morning shooting and an afternoon arrest. This day just kept getting worse and worse.
“Please tell me you let him make the call,” she said with a sigh.
“Of course I did. I’m aware of the whole ‘you have a right to an attorney’ part of the Miranda. Only thing is, his lawyer’s flying in from Chicago, so the guy won’t be here for another two hours.”
A headache began to form at her temples. She reached up to massage the ache, wondering how everything had spiraled out of control in the blink of an eye.
“What about my shooting?” she finally asked.
Finn blinked. “What about it?”
“Did your deputies find anything in the woods, a shell casing? Maybe my shooter used the forty-five and then went to the dump and got rid of it? Because if that’s the case, it couldn’t have been Cole. He was in the house when I got shot.”
“We didn’t find any evidence in the woods,” Finn replied, promptly bursting her bubble. “And the dump operator said nobody dropped anything off today, which means the gun was already there when you got shot.”
Disappointment crushed her chest. “Okay. Fine. What about prints then?”
“Our forensics guy is testing it now.”
“Cole didn’t do this,” Jamie whispered. “He couldn’t have done this.”
“Why? Because you’re sleeping with him?”
She stared at him in disbelief. “I can’t believe you just said that.”
“I’m sorry, but it needed to be said.” He lowered his voice. “You can’t just ignore evidence because you’re obviously sweet on the guy. He was at the dump. The gun was at the dump. He wanted his greedy ex-wife out of the picture. She died. What do you expect me to do? Look the other way?”
Jamie was surprised to feel tears stinging her eyelids. Oh God. Not now. She didn’t cry. Ever. And this wasn’t the time to start.
“I know you care about him,” Finn finished, his tone so infinitely gentle her tears threatened to spill over. “But you’re a professional, honey. And we’re splat in the middle of a murder case.”
“I know.” She cleared her throat, trying to control her emotions. “You did everything by the book, Finn. I’m sorry if I made you feel otherwise.”
Their eyes locked for a moment, and the empathy on his face was almost too much to bear. She knew he was right. As an investigator, she couldn’t disregard evidence just because it pointed to a person she cared about. She had to think logically here, remain neutral and open-minded and forget that the man in that interrogation room happened to be the one who’d made incredible love to her only hours ago.
She took a breath. “Let me talk to him.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Jamie.”
“We both know he’s not going to talk to you. So unless you want to wait two hours for the lawyer to show up, you need to let me speak to him.”
Chapter 14
Cole lifted his head when Jamie walked into the room, relief pounding inside of him like tribal drums. Thank God. Maybe now they could put an end to this ludicrous mess. When the sheriff had told him that the murder weapon had been found—at the place where Cole had dropped off some damn garbage a couple of weeks ago—he’d wanted to laugh out loud. Instead, he’d cursed like a sailor in a fistfight, unable to believe that this was actually happening.
Teresa was making him as miserable in her death as she had in life. When would it all end, already?
“Hey,” Jamie said, her voice quiet. “Are you okay?”
He gestured around the barren room, from the narrow table to the plain white walls. “What do you think?”
She looked at him with tired eyes, then sat down on the chair in front of him. Not next to him, he noted with growing unease.
“Let’s talk about why you went to the dump three days after Teresa died.”
His jaw tensed. “Are you kidding me?”
“Cole…please.” Her expression became tortured. “Just talk to me. This isn’t an official interview. I just want to make sense of this.”
Despite the warning bells going off in his head, he forced himself to see her point of view. The discovery of the murder weapon was a shock to everyone. Maybe if he convinced Jamie that this whole thing was a stupid coincidence, she’d talk to Finnegan on his behalf.
“I went there to dump something,” he muttered. “Isn’t that why people go to a dump?”
“What did you get rid of?”
Indignation coursed through his blood. The implication was crystal clear and he didn’t appreciate it one bit. “Jesus, Jamie, do you actually think that if I killed my ex-wife, I’d leave the damn murder weapon where anyone could find it?”