Page 77 of False Evidence

After the breakup, JT had sold the townhouse, no longer able to bear being in the place where he and Lex had planned a future that wouldn’t be. When he’d visited DC, he stayed with Lee at the Watergate.

Kendall and Brent had been on again/off again, and Lex had been forced to tolerate the man when she moved back in with Kendall.

After Drake and his father were arrested, JT took possession of the family’s Maryland estate. Lisa had divorced his dad and moved to Florida to be with her sister. JT moved home, relocating to the DC area permanently. Lex had lived with him but continued paying rent on a room in Kendall’s home, maintaining a place to land when JT inevitably destroyed the relationship that had become a shell of what it had once been.

“Was Kendall with Brent in the end?” he asked.

“No. They broke up for good about two years after we did.”

“Were they still in touch?”

“I don’t really know. Kendall and I…we had our own falling out. She and Brent threw a party—at our place—and Brent invited Russ.”

“I’m so sorry Lex. That must have hurt.”

“Almost as much as the night you ripped my heart out.”

He swallowed. “I will never be able to convey how sorry I am. I hate myself for what I did to you.” He took a deep breath. “And I know this sounds like an excuse, but I did it on purpose. I needed you to give up on me. For both our sakes.”

She shrugged, and he understood. He’d gone too far that night. There was no excuse.

She cleared her throat. “She never really believed Russ or Brent were guilty of anything. She hated you for holding Brent back at work.”

“I was protecting you.”

She raised a brow. “Don’t put it on me. Your vendetta against Brent outlasted any feelings you had for me by several years.”

“That’s not true. But I get your point. I know I was a prick, but I won’t ever understand why Kendall believed Brent over you.”

“For her, there was no proof. He fed her a lot of lies about you having it out for Russ, even before that night at the holiday party. She didn’t trustyouand believed you’d set him up.”

“But you and I were dating.”

“She and Brent were dating. She thought I was as blinded by you and your money as I thought she was blinded by her feelings for Brent.” She gave him a piercing stare. “She wasn’t the only person who accused me of being more interested in your money than you.”

“I will regret that to my dying day.”

She sighed. “So, what now? Williams is dead, but it can’t be a coincidence that he was involved both then and now.”

“It changes everything. We have a place to start looking now. This all connects back to what happened then. Kendall’s death looks pretty damn suspicious now.”

Lex nodded. “She’d always battled depression, but as far as I know, she’d never been suicidal. And from what Tanya said, she’d been doing really well. She’d found meds that worked for her and had been working with a great therapist for nearly three years. She had a new guy and was happy. Tanya was stunned when she got the call that Kendall killed herself.”

“What did the boyfriend say?”

“He told Tanya that Kendall had broken up with him a month before she died. She cut him out completely.”

“How did…how did she do it—supposedly?”

“Carbon monoxide poisoning. Car left running in an enclosed space. She was in the garage, but not in the car.”

“The car being the Jetta?”

She nodded.

“Okay. I’ll get Raptor to look into her death. Look for more connections with Williams.”

“The problem with the Williams connection—it does give me motive for murder. Especially if he’s behind the evidence against Russ being lost.”

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