Page 45 of Wicked Games

“Yeah, me too,” I say, my voice wobbly. “But what does that have to do with Seth and Theo? I don’t understand Hattie’s connection.”

“I don’t either. Coincidence? It just happened to be by chance?”

“I don’t believe that, Bill. If that trashed blog post is true, she was at the park that day. She watched Theo get kidnapped, but I don’t understand how she knew to be there.”

He sighs. “Maybe she did get wind of it, but that’s the last thing I want to think. She would have stopped it if she knew something like that was going to happen. I know she would have.”

“Does Detective Mueller have any theories?”

“Nothing besides the revenge aspect, but there’s no gun so there’s no fingerprints.”

“Nothing on the bullet?”

“No. They dusted it for prints, but if there were any, they were destroyed when the bullet was fired from the gun. I already asked Mueller and that’s what he said.” He pauses. “Are you going to tell him about the draft you found in Hattie’s trash?”

“I might have to. There was a comment on the post I wrote that said she’s the reason why Theo’s dead. I didn’t want it to mean anything, but she was involved somehow, whether we want to think that of her or not.”

“You’ll tell Lockwood.”

It’s not a question, and I appreciate it. “I don’t want to keep this from him. If Hattie was involved in his son’s death, he has a right to know.”

“Whatever little love affair you’ve got going on with him will blow up. You know that, right?”

“Yeah, but what else can I do? Detective Mueller sounds like he has more brains in his pinky finger than Crane did in his whole body, or at least more motivation, and that’s paid off. If we don’t say something, they could charge us with accessory, and that’s not a great option either.”

I pour coffee and add milk, my hand trembling.

I’m going to lose Seth over this and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.

“I’m sorry. You two have been talking then? He apologized for being an asshole?”

“Yeah, and we’ve, you know. But it’s only been a week. I don’t know what I would have done if this had come up a month from now.”

“Christ, Avery. What’s your plan? You got something?”

“I’ll tell him the next time I see him and watch him explode. Then, I don’t know. Maybe I’ll come back to the city, see if the realtor will give Darren a partial refund. Julianne invited me to spend the summer with her, so, you know. Get out of here before any more shit happens.”

Bill scoffs. “They might not let you leave.”

“Why would they keep me here? If they can get a hold of me, that should be good enough. I’ll give them Hattie’s website information and they can look through things. You know, if Crane would’ve done a better job when he was assigned to her death, this wouldn’t be an issue now. I’d think about suing, really suing. They didn’t care because they blamed her for being a snitch, and this isn’t going to look any better in their eyes.”

“No, it won’t, and if they can’t find a better place to pin the blame, they’re going to go after her for Theo’s kidnapping.”

“She put Jenkins in prison. That should count for something.”

“It might not be enough.” He pauses. “Tell me when you talk to Lockwood. If you come back to the city, let me know. We have to stick together through this. She didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I hope she didn’t.”

“You and me both.” He hangs up.

At a loss, I shower, get dressed, and go outside with my notebook and pen. My novel’s coming along, actually, and maybe it’s better I chose to write fiction now than when Darren and I were married. I doubt he’d appreciate how easily the words are coming to me, not after the way he’s struggled. Winnie runs over the grass, and laughing, I sit and let her jump into my arms. After a few minutes, I get up and she hops on the wicker couch beside me. It’s nice having companionship, even if it’s a dog. Maybe it’s better that she’s a dog. She can’t give me unwanted advice. Although, I don’t need advice. I know what I have to do, and I know what the outcome will be.

I can’t sit and look at Seth’s house and I go back inside after only a little while. I putter around, do a load of laundry, and vacuum. After talking to Bill, I’m not in the mood to browse the crafts fair and I decide to go to the grocery store instead. I should ask Seth if he needs anything, but he said he’d be busy and I need to respect his space. Our conversation about Violet bothers me. I would never ask him to give up his friends, and I hurt that Brooke might have been jealous enough to leave him over something so trivial. I guess it’s not trivial if she believed they were having an affair, and I shouldn’t judge her because I don’t know what went on in their marriage. I’m just sad she left him at all. He obviously adored her and it blew up in his face for nothing.

The grocery store’s quiet and I have an easy time filling my cart. My phone chimes, and distracted, choosing which kind of cheese I want to buy, I wiggle it out of my purse. Darren’s name is bright on the screen and I frown. I don’t feel like talking to him, and I shove my phone back in my purse. If it’s an emergency, he can leave a voicemail.

I check out, load the bags in my car, and across the street, pick up a couple bottles of wine. Seth had quite a few but we aren’t together every second, and a glass of rosé tonight while I bathe sounds nice. Either I’ll be crying my eyes out because Seth said he never wants to see me again or . . . I’ll be crying my eyes out because Seth said he never wants to see me again. Honestly, there’s no other way he could react to what I have to tell him. After that, I better call this Detective Mueller. If I sit on the information I have, they’re going to accuse me of working with her, and I don’t want Seth believing that either. What he’ll be thinking will be bad enough as it is.