Page 83 of Shattered By the Currents

“Lottie Fuller.”

“The old woman who didn’t like Raven? She was murdered at the community center?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“They wouldn’t tell me.”

Connor pulled into the station parking lot. Thank God the place was close. “I’m here. Thanks, Ryan.”

He hung up and sprinted inside, straight to the desk. “Is Raven Price here?”

An older woman sat at the front desk. Her brows shot up. “Young man, you can’t?—”

“It’s okay, Mara.” Ward stepped out from the hall and touched his belt as he stopped in front of Connor. “We’re almost done with her.”

“What the hell do you mean, ‘almost done with her’? Where is she?”

“We’ve been questioning her.”

“For how long?”

“Son, watch that tone. I’m doing my job. Her issues with Lottie are well documented?—”

“It wasLottiewho had a problem with Raven.”

“Actually, there’ve been quite a few incidences where Raven openly scolded Lottie.”

“So what? You think she killed the woman?”

Ward pulled him into his office. “The coroner put Lottie’s time of death as yesterday, and there’s an hour between Raven leaving Deep River Residence and checking into a local motel where she’s unaccounted for.”

Connor frowned. “What?”

“She says she was driving around, but…”

“Maybe she was.”

“There’s also blood on her top and her shoe.”

Connor stilled but then shook his head. “She wouldn’t have killed anyone. I want to see her, and I want to see hernow.”

An ache throbbedthrough Raven’s head as she rested her head in her hands.

She was tired. No, not tired, completely exhausted. Bleary-eyed, couldn’t-hold-her-head-up kind of exhausted. She’d been sitting in this stupid plastic chair in this tiny room for so long the walls had started closing in on her. And the headache—God, the headache. She knew it was from a lack of food and water, but every time she even looked at the glass the deputy had set on the table, she wanted to be sick.

Lottie’s dead body flashed over in her mind again. The blood. The woman’s lifeless eyes staring at the ceiling.

Her belly twisted and she squeezed her eyes shut.

The questions from Ward and his deputies were relentless. And they’d been the same ones over and over again, like they were trying to catch her in a lie.

They obviously thought she’d done it. They didn’t need to say it out loud for her to know that. It didn’t help that they’d asked for her previous day’s clothes. She’d gone to Connor’s and grabbed them on her way to the station, completely forgetting about the blood stains on her shirt and shoe. The stains were tiny, and she’d shown Ward the cut on her finger. He hadn’t cared.

It was fine. The stain would be tested, and they’d find it wasn’t Lottie’s blood. That she hadn’t stabbed Lottie to death.

Her stomach pitched again.