Page 30 of Fatal Attraction

“She does,” Harley declared with a serious one and done nod. “Or at least, sheshould. Charlotte’s always been one of my favorites, and between the three of us, before all of this shit happened, I was making the preparations to promote her as my new ADA. I understand she wants to help, but she’s doing more harm than good, Detectives. At this point, the only thing that’ll save Karl is if the jury finds him innocent. The death threats won’t matter.”

“Why not?” Phoenix asked at the same time I spoke, “But what if Angeldoeshave proof?”

“What I mean,” she said, responding to my partner’s question first, “is that either way, it still won’t be enough to free Karl, not with the evidence stacked against him.” To me, she stated, “IfAngel has proof, then hopefully Charlotte was smart enough to convince her to come forward and speak with Ben. The problem, however, is that Kate died almost a year ago, and we have nothing concrete that connects Karl and Kate’s relationship, or her death with our other cases. Plus, Kate’s death wasn’t documented as a homicide.”

“It’s considered irrelevant,” Phoenix murmured, cursing as he scrubbed his hands down his face. “Which means Angel doesn’t have to come forward if she doesn’t want to.”

Harley did not hesitate to nod. “That would be correct, Detective Rhodes. Now, I’m not saying Angel’s testimony won’t help, because it will. Depending on what she knows and what proof she may or may not have in her possession, Ben can use it to help sway the jury. But it has to be Angel’s choice and it has to come from her mouthonly. She cannot be forced into it.”

Great.

Just fucking GREAT.

“I expect you’ll want a full update once we’ve spoken with Charlotte?”

Harley smirked, her brows pinched tight. “You seriously had to ask?”

“We’ll be seeing her soon,” Phoenix promised. “As soon as we know, you’ll know.”

Harley thanked us and strode back to the conference room. As we turned and headed for the elevators, Phoenix asked if going down to Narcotics and speaking with Gibbs and Hammett was even worth the damn hassle now that Peter had been cleared.

“Oh, we’re talking to them. Just because Peter isn’t our guy doesn’t mean a damn thing. It just means there’s more pieces to the puzzle we need to gather.”

He nodded, his throat bobbing. “I… I don’t want to do this, Spike. I’d be fine if it was just us, but I don’t want to use Charlotte as bait.”

“Neither do I, bud.” I swallowed hard, unsure how the hell we were going to pull this off. “Neither do I.”

Fifteen

Charlotte

Iwas drunk.

Well, not completely, but I was well on my way there.

“You might want to slow down,” Carter said, looking a bit concerned as I chugged back the…Shit.

What number shot was this again?

A sound that didn’t remotely sound pleasant evaded my throat when I swallowed, causing Carter’s head to fall back against the couch cushion and the most boisterous laugh I’d ever heard sail through the room. Apparently, there must have been a hole in my lip, because there was liquor dribbling down my chin and all over my dress.

“Well,” I grumbled, licking around my mouth and then glancing down at my dress, smirking at the mess. “That’s embarrassing.”

“Sit tight for a second. I’ll get something to clean it up.”

I wasn’t quite sure what time it was, but I knew the sun was still shining and to be frank, I wasn’t exactly sure what I did with my phone. Carter was an absolute peach and held down the fort while I was gone being an absolute fucking failure and assured me the coast had been clear. There were no signs of trouble, and nobody tried to break in while he was alone. That brought me some relief in spite of the complete and utter fucking bullshit I went through with Angel Seigler.

I didn’t know what to do.

Karl was going to prison and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

Carter appeared from the kitchen with a roll of paper towels, and I thanked him as he ripped some off the roll and passed them over to me.

“Are you hungry?”

“Yeah, I could eat. I don’t have much in the fridge, so I guess one of us will have to go get something.”

“You,” Carter said thickly, “are not driving. What do you want? I’ll go pick us up—”

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