I got up and opened the door. It was Detective Cameron, but he didn’t look like Detective Cameron, because instead of a dark suit, he wore faded jeans and a white T-shirt. His hair was jagged, and there were dark shadows under his eyes.
“Is she here?” he asked.
Oh, Shelly, what have you done to him? “She’s not.”
“She’s with him, isn’t she? I knew it. I just came from there, but the fucking butler insisted—”
“No, she’s not with Philip either,” I said. “She got her own place.”
“Oh.” He blinked. “She’s okay?”
“She’s fine. Recovering well.”
He understood that I wasn’t going to tell him, not that I could hold him off for long. He would track her down at some point if he wanted to. But if Shelly didn’t want to be with him, what good would it do? It seemed today was the day for breakups.
“Come in if you want.” I opened the door wide.
He tilted his head, trying to glance around me. “Are you sure? I figured I’d have to fight him just to talk to you.”
“He’s not here,” I said. His eyes met mine as he caught the finality in my tone.
“Oh,” he said.
“Yeah.”
He glanced behind him before stepping inside. In the living room he gave Bailey a curt nod of introduction. She gave him the cryptic message, “bagel,” before turning back to her show.
I poured him a cup of coffee, and we sat down at the dining room table.
He contemplated the black liquid. “Was it because of…”
“Yes,” I said. Colin had left because of what had happened that night. I’d fucked up, or he just didn’t trust me anymore, but either way it was over. “You really like her, huh?”
He glanced up, his eyes hooded. “Who?”
I rolled my eyes. “Whatever.”
“What did she say about me?” he asked cautiously.
“She said—” She said you two had never had sex, paid or otherwise. It made me wonder why you’d never paid for it if you like her. But then, we all have our hang-ups. “She said you guys weren’t a couple.”
“Yeah,” he said flatly. “I guess that’s right.”
“Did she move there for you? In with Philip?”
He paused, then shrugged. “I never know why she does what she does.”
“But you think it’s your fault she got shot,” I mused.
The guilt that flashed in his eyes said I was right.
“If it’s any consolation, I think she likes you back.”
“Thanks.” He grimaced. “Could be worse, right?”
We sat there, both of us rejected, trying to imagine what could be worse. Aside from death or grievous injury, there didn’t seem to be much, but that was the kind of morning it was. The morning after a breakup.
“There was something else. We found this at the site. Shelly told me it was yours.” He pulled an envelope from his back pocket and slid it over to me. I didn’t even know how he’d sat down with that in his back pocket, it was so thick. I recognized it, of course. It was filled with money, unless someone had taken it.
“It should all be there,” he said. “But you should count it.”
I didn’t even know how much had been in there to begin with, how much money Colin had wanted to give me so that I could run away with Bailey after betraying him. Flicking open the flap, I saw the green, crisp bills.
Blood money, or was it? No, it wasn’t born of hate or violence but something nicer. Andrew had started the little fund when he’d given me the money he’d been going to use for the lawyer. Then Colin had taken it, only to return it at the warehouse with even more money. They’d both wanted me to be safe. I slapped it shut.
“I’m sorry about the way it happened,” he murmured. “And about my partner. He was a troubled person. Not that I’m making excuses for him.”
“What do you mean was? What is he now?”
He looked surprised. “You didn’t hear?”
Oh God, Colin, what did you do? “Tell me.”
“He got hit by a car. Dead on arrival.”
“When?”
“That night. He was running across a three-lane highway. Even at night he didn’t have a chance. I guess he was trying to get out of the area. He’d have been exposed after that.”
Cameron took his leave after that. I didn’t show him out, just sat dumbly at the table.
Explosions and gunshots and this guy ends up hit by a car. What were the odds?
Accidents happened.
But then, Colin had taken off after him. Had he caught him and fought with him? An image flashed through my mind of the man cornered, possibly injured, deliberately steered into a busy street he had no hope of crossing. Colin hadn’t struck the killing blow; that had been done by a ton of steel, but he might have played a part.
Did I even care if he had? I’d been so adamant that he shouldn’t be involved in anything criminal, anything violent, but I knew as well as anyone that being innocent couldn’t protect us. It just made us more vulnerable. And aside from Cameron, for whom I had a grudging respect, I had no love for cops.