That day.
"The day he drove you home?"
The day I should've put a bullet between his eyes.
"Yes."
Ethan shoves the photo back in the box and covers it with the scarf, placing it on the other countertop behind him.
I survey the room. Lilly sits up straight again, nodding at her friend. An unspoken message passes. Denielle shifts in my embrace. Her arms snake around me, and she intertwines her fingers.
"The day Collin drove me home…" She pauses and draws in a deep breath. "Charlie met me outside of La Déesse. We had just gotten back from lunch with Denis. Charlie gave me the scarf. He said he thought I might want it back since it was from Kelly." Denielle recalls how seeing the present triggered hercondition, how Collin intervened and drove her home. Every so often, she squeezes my midsection. When she reveals that Collin knew about her haphephobia, that her father had used Collin to spy on her, and that the little shit tried to blackmail Denielle to come back to him, my body goes rigid. My skin is too tight, my fingers itching to wrap them around the throat of a certain upper-crust shit stain.
My hold on Denielle turns to a vise, and she winces.
"I'm sorry, baby." I hug her gently.
"So, you're saying Collin threatened you?" Jenn's neutral tone causes my jaw to clench. This woman is scarier than my boss when she is in her natural element: violence.
"I…guess. I haven't seen him in almost two weeks, though. Not since I pulled a pair of scissors on him."
Jenn chuckles, and she holds out her fist. "Attagirl."
Denielle bumps her knuckles against Jenn's, and I shake my head.
"Wesaw him." Ethan redirects everyone's attention. "When Denielle was, uh... He was there when we left for the hospital."
Denielle recoils from my embrace, staring up in shock. "Why didn't you tell me?" She scans everyone's faces. "That was on Monday. He was supposed to have left the Friday before."
Was he now?
"I had other things on my mind," I point out, not admitting that I forgot about the little twat. My mind was spinning from what Denielle did to me by simply breathing the same air—not something that should happen in my line of work.
"I want to speak to Denis," Jenn declares. "If he wasn't supposed to be in town, yet he was when all this happened, we would have our main suspect."
"What about Charlie?" Rhys inserts himself. "He's been showing up everywhere D has been. It's fucking weird."
Agreed.
"I left the scarf in Collin's car," Denielle defends her ex. "How would Charlie have gotten hold of it? Let alone a picture of…" She cuts herself off, a visible shudder running through her body.
"Maybe they work together. Two scorned exes." Ethan shrugs.
"This is not like Charlie." Lilly looks at her best friend, who gives her a pinched smile.
"Have you talked to Charlie lately?" I inquire.
Denielle shakes her head. "No, not since the day we had lunch, and I…"
"Let's figure out what Liberman's deal is first. Then, we look into ex number two." Jenn takes charge. She glances at her wrist, pressing the button on the side of her watch.
Huh,The Cleanerand I share the same watch.
"Let's get you to work." She looks pointedly at Denielle. "But first, you need to change. I don't think this outfit is suitable for your high-end clientele." Jenn winks, and for the first time, I acknowledge Denielle's appearance.
She wears wide sweats that oddly look like the borrowed ones I'm wearing. No, they are mine. What the—?
Denielle nods. "I'll be ready in thirty."