Page 36 of What Happened Last Night

“Nothing,” she said. “We stick to our stories and we definitely don’t tell the police that I remember that night and you’re starting to. They have no evidence to prove you killed Candy, and they won’t attempt to charge either of us with no evidence because they know it would never result in a conviction.”

“So you’re saying you want me to lie to the police?” I said.

“Haven’t you already?” Carlotta said with a raised eyebrow.

I started to shake my head and then I stopped and just shrugged one shoulder. What would be the point in denying it? Carlotta knew I hadn’t told the police that my memories had started to come back.

“Well then, yes, I am. Or we could both just tell them what we remember. But I don’t think you want that, do you?” Carlotta went on.

I felt anger surge through me again. The bitch was threatening me, and now she would keep this shit hanging over my head throughout the entire investigation. I bit my tongue to keep from yelling at her. It would serve me well to let her think that she had the upper hand. To let her think that I believed all of this.

She was right about one thing—if we both just stuck to our stories, then neither of us would be charged because the police couldn’t prove which one of us had pushed Candy. And at the first sign of Carlotta changing her mind about that and throwing me under the bus, then I would make damned sure I got in first and she would be the one to go down for this.

And while she thought I believed her story and that I was afraid to anger her in case she talked, then I still had the upper hand here, and that was just the way I liked it.

Chapter Nineteen

Jamie

“Detective Del Rey? Do you have a minute?” Officer Dumont said as he poked his head around my open office door.

Generally speaking, it was accepted that if I was working from my office rather than the incident room, I didn’t want to be disturbed, but for Officer Dumont to come here like this, it was obviously something important. I felt my stomach stirring a little. Maybe this was the breakthrough we were all desperately waiting for.

“Sure. Come on in,” I said.

Officer Dumont came into my office. He held a folded-up newspaper in his hand, which he began to unfold as he sat down opposite me.

“We have a problem,” he said.

So much for this being a breakthrough. Another problem was the last thing we needed. I kind of wished I’d said I was too busy to talk to him, but that wouldn’t have made the problem go away. In fact, it might have escalated it, and I was still hoping it would be a small problem, one we could nip in the bud quickly. Officer Dumont nodded down at the newspaper and my eyes went to the front-page headline and photo. My heart sank. This wasn’t a small problem and it wasn’t going to just go away.

“Fuck,” I said under my breath.

The headline on the front page of the newspaper Officer Dumont and I were looking at somewhat sickly screamed Killers Left at Large as Police Botch Murder Investigation. I would hardly say we were botching it. We just had so little to work with. And it wasn’t like there was some lunatic killer on the loose and any of the public’s lives were in danger. This was just sensationalism, nothing more and nothing less. It still presented a huge problem for me, though. Not so much the accusation—no one of any importance really cared what hacks at tabloid newspapers thought—but what came next after the shock value headline created a problem.

Beneath the headline was the main problem. It was a huge photo of William and Carlotta Alden. This was the last thing I needed. Now the case had gone public, the chief would be breathing down my neck and the press would be hounding the Aldens. All that would do would be to make them close ranks and make the investigation even harder.

“Have you read the article?” I asked.

“Yeah. It’s pretty brutal,” Officer Dumont replied. “It just goes on and on about how there are only two possible suspects and we can’t even decide which of them is the killer. There’s also an exposé on William and Candy’s affair, and of course, there’s rampant speculation about which of the couple had the strongest motive to kill Candy.”

“Great. Just great,” I said, rubbing my hands over my face.

“I’m sorry, Detective,” Officer Dumont said.

“What for? Did you talk to the press?” I said, knowing full well that he hadn’t.

Officer Dumont shook his head quickly. “No, of course not,” he said with a frown.

“Then you have nothing to be sorry for. I try not to shoot the messenger around here, Officer. Do me a favor and try to find out where the leak is coming from. It has to be someone in the precinct. There’s no way either of the Aldens would talk to the press like this, and they certainly would have provided a better photo if they had. And no one else would have known so much about the case.”

“I’m on it,” Officer Dumont said.

He jumped up and left my office as my cellphone started to ring. It was a toss-up in my mind about whether it would be the coroner’s office whose call I was still waiting for or whether it would be the chief if he had already seen the headlines, because if one rag was running that bullshit story, then chances were that they all were. And if they weren’t then I could guarantee they would be tomorrow.

I frowned when I looked at my cellphone’s screen. It was a number I didn’t recognize. It must be one of the Aldens, having seen the day’s papers. It was always fun trying to calm down a suspect when a story leaked like this. No matter what I said to them, they would never believe I was as pissed off as they were about it.

“Detective Del Rey,” I said, taking the call but wishing I could ignore it.

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