Page 26 of I'm Watching You

‘I’ve said all I’m willing to say to you.’

‘Don’t hang up. Please, we need to talk about Harold.’

‘There’s nothing to say. The police were just here. They told me about him.’

Harold Turner may have abused his wife but that didn’tmean Jordan didn’t love him or wasn’t feeling a great sense of loss. ‘Are you okay?’

‘I’m fine. Now, leave me alone. I can’t talk to you anymore.’ Jordan’s voice sounded brittle, more tense than usual.

‘We need to talk about Harold.’

‘I have nothing to say about him.’

The questions had to be asked. ‘Jordan, you said a couple of weeks ago that you could handle him. Did you kill him?’

There was a long pause. ‘Why would you ask me a question like that? Harold was found behindyourshelter.’

‘Because I think whoever put him there was sending me a message. I think you might have been telling me that you’d handle him by killing him.’

‘He was worth more to me alive than dead. And I was handling him.’ A heavy silence followed before she added, ‘Did you kill him?’

Lindsay felt dizzy. ‘No.’

‘It makes sense that you would. I saw the way you looked at him at that charity party. You hated him.’

‘Jordan, I didn’t kill Harold.’

‘Who else would? Harold was right about you. He said you hate men.’

‘I don’t hate men, Jordan. I hate it when men hit the women they say they love.’

‘Harold did love me.’

‘Jordan, you told me he held a gun to your head and played Russian roulette.’

‘I also told you the gun was empty. If he’d wanted tokill me he would have, but he didn’t. He said he was just kidding.’

Lindsay nearly cried out her frustration. ‘Jordan, you have to understand that a man shouldn’t treat a woman that way.’

‘Don’t tell me any more of your lies. I don’t want to hear them. Harold and I would have been fine if you’d just stayed out of our lives.’

‘Jordan, you’re the one who came to me.’

‘You killed my husband.’

‘I did not!’

‘I’ll never forgive you for what you did to me.’ The line went dead.

Lindsay shoved out a breath and closed the phone. Frustration ate at her. Jordan had decided Lindsay was the cause of her problems.

Lindsay tapped her pinky ring – her mother’s high school ring – against the steering wheel. She clicked on the radio, hit ‘scan,’ and hoped for some kind of news about Harold. Nothing. Each station played a collection of songs and advertisements, but no news.

Aware that her breathing had grown shallow, she drew in deep breaths. Slowly the muscles in her chest eased.

What had Harold been doing behind the shelter? Sanctuary was the kind of place he despised and he had no reason to be there – unless Jordan really had lured him to the shelter and killed him as some kind of message to Lindsay.

‘Jordan, please tell me you didn’t do anything stupid,’ Lindsay whispered to herself.

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