“Will do. You want to let Emma know or should I?”
Jayden was the one staying with her at night. “I will, and thanks, Detective.”
“I’m just sorry it didn’t turn out differently. I know you were really pulling for this one.”
“You going to try to get him on the abuse, too?”
“Yep.”
“You mind if Emma and I head over to Suzie’s to let her know an arrest has been made?” He was thinking of Emma. “I think she’d like to talk to her before anyone else gets to her, to try to get a statement out of her now that Bill’s been caught with hard evidence of harassment at least. When she talked to her on Monday, Emma said she thought Suzie wanted to tell her more than she had.”
Emma could have called the detective herself, but since he already had Chantel on the line...
“If Emma wants to go, I’m all for it. If not, let me know and I’ll send someone over to notify Suzie when we’ve got him in custody.”
Not normal protocol—but not a lot about this case was normal. On any level.
* * *
Someone was in the outer office. Emma heard her deputy talking, and then recognized the answering male voice with a familiar slide of warmth in her belly.
Jayden was there?
Rising, straightening her Lycra, calf-length brown skirt and white top, she ran a hand through her curls. They’d opened the door to becoming something.
Everything mattered more now.
Would he greet her with a kiss? It was after hours. They were virtually alone. Couples did that...
It took her a full thirty seconds to wonder why he’d come to her work at all. Why he hadn’t called beforehand. She was already reaching for her satchel before he’d even told her why he was there.
He’d explained what had happened by the time they were in his car and Chantel called to say that Bill was officially in custody. And that they’d found a dark blue baseball cap in his truck. His tire tracks didn’t match the tires found at Tuesday night’s scene, but he had an entire garage of vehicles he could have had access to. He evidently wasn’t dumb enough to use his own.
“Thank God,” Emma said after they told the detective they were on their way to Suzie’s and hung up. “I can’t believe it’s over!” She was free! Safe! Suzie was safe!
And, she realized, there was no reason that Jayden had to spend the night with her that night. He’d probably welcome a night in his own home. With his own things. Getting up to take a shower, without having to drive home first.
She wanted to ask him if he wanted to get dinner or something, to celebrate. And it occurred to her that maybe he’d had second thoughts about their talk the night before.
Then she saw Jayden’s expressionless face.
“What’s wrong?”
“I just hope they’ve got the right man,” he finally said. “I can’t explain him buying lipstick. I didn’t get a chance to speak with him, obviously, but...”
“It’s okay if you were wrong,” she told him. “The man’s a fool for not appreciating the chance you were giving him.”
He shook his head. “It doesn’t add up to me. The note on your door, I can almost see that one. But trying to drive you off the road? And beating up on his wife the second he gets out of jail? The times he got upset with her in the past—and he admits to doing so, just not hitting her—all stemmed from rational scenarios he’d built in his head. Just showing up at her house out of the blue and beating up on her...it doesn’t fit him. And driving you off the road...it’s irrational. He’s not.”
&
nbsp; Emma listened to him. Wanted to be able to help him. But couldn’t.
“I’m sorry.” She’d been right on this one. She was good at her job. Had studied the case far longer than Jayden had. Was a professional doing her job. But she was sorry that the guy he’d been standing up for had turned out to be manipulating him. “I know you thought he was different,” she offered when he said nothing.
As a professional, she could make the rest of the ride across town in perfectly acceptable silence. As Jayden’s...whatever she was going to be...she was finding the silence difficult.
“I hope to God, if you’re right and Bill did this, that Suzie will talk to you as you expected she wanted to do on Monday night. That she’ll give specifics. Something that points irrevocably to Bill.”