Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 63579 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 318(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63579 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 318(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
“Kitchen?” Western demands.
I point in the direction of the kitchen. At least, I think I’m pointing the right way. My eyes are closed again, and I’m lying down, praying I don’t vomit in front of him. A few deep breaths keep the spinning at bay, and I open one eye. I heard from a friend that if you open one eye when you’re spinning out, it settles things down. For whatever strange reason, this works.
Watching, with my one eye, I see Western come back into the living room with a glass of water. He places it down beside me. Then, he stares, his eyes raking over me from head to toe. “You good?”
Is it bad that I’m kind of flattered that he seems to care?
I need to get a grip.
“I’m not entirely certain I am,” I admit.
“Where’s your bedroom?”
Panicking, because there is no way I can lead him to my bedroom, considering there are currently newspaper articles, notes and all sorts of information regarding his case scattered everywhere. Quickly trying to come up with an excuse, I tell him, “No, I’ll stay here, much closer to the bathroom.”
Thankfully, that’s the truth. It is closer to the bathroom. Western seems to accept that answer, and then reaches down, picking up my phone. He turns it toward me as I stare in confusion, and it unlocks. That was scarily clever. He types something, and then places it down. “Put my number in, just in case.”
He put his number in my phone?
My phone?
His number?
I can’t help the little thrill that shoots through my chest.
“You know,” I say, pressing a hand over my eyes to block out the blinding living room light, “I have to pretend like I’m interested in Fury now, or you’ll go back to being in big trouble with Hazel.”
He doesn’t answer, and when I move my hand, I see he’s looking down at me with that intense expression again. I take a moment to really study his face, my eyes raking over his thick beard, his full lips, those deep brown eyes, until finally settling on the intricate patterns shaved into the side of his head. I really like them, and they suit him in a way I never thought they could suit any man. I’m not one for hair like Western’s, but on him, it’s stunning. Gorgeous.
“Better go,” he murmurs, turning toward the door.
“Western?” I call, and he pauses, his entire body going tight.
He really does hate it when I call him that.
He glances back at me.
“Why did you marry Hazel? It doesn’t seem like a choice either of you made because you wanted it.”
He thinks on that for a moment, then answers, “When you’ve got my life, you do whatever you can to keep your head above water.”
Then with that, he leaves.
Once again, I have more questions than answers.
I don’t get to ponder that long, though.
My eyes fall shut, and, before I know it, I’m out.
Finally.
9
“So, I happened to stumble across some interesting information when I was looking for your autopsy report.”
Nathan’s voice comes down the phone line the next morning, and I’m struggling to pay attention. I’m groggy and hungover as hell, but when I saw his name flash across my screen, I couldn’t help but answer it. He wouldn’t be calling me for nothing, and hearing his introduction, I’m glad I picked up the phone.
“I’m listening,” I moan, sitting up, head pounding.
“You sound like death.”
“Hungover, it’s self-inflicted,” I huff, closing my eyes. “Tell me what you found.”
“There is a lot, but I’ll start at the beginning. Went searching for your autopsy and managed to find it, as I was searching, I continued to stumble across articles on the case and got myself somewhat invested.”
“It has a way of doing that,” I agree, keeping my eyes closed.
“The only thing on the autopsy that stood out to me was that Braithe was not sexually assaulted.”
My eyes snap open at that.
“But one of Western’s charges was sexual assault.”
“Yes, it was. Curiously, I kept digging and found out that the autopsy was never used in his trial. They were told one was never done. Somehow, someone covered that up, and it took a hell of a lot of digging for me to get my hands on it. For whatever reason, it was well hidden, and I can tell you if I wasn’t a detective, I wouldn’t have found it.”
That is interesting, and it stirs up a lot of questions inside.
“I started looking around a little more, really trying to figure out why someone with no criminal past would suddenly kill two innocent people, that’s not including the bodies found in the swamp. That’s when I stumbled across a heap of missing person cases, all boys, all around Braithe’s age. They were all marked as runaways, case closed. But, they were all in the foster system before going missing.”