Page 62 of Little Empty Promises

I crossed my arms, gritting my teeth as I said, “You know what would be great?You being honest with me.It would make my life a whole lot easier.Then we wouldn’t have to go back and forth about what’s the truth and what isn’t.You followed me yesterday, and we both know it.”

“Okay, so … maybe I did.What are you going to do about it?”

His tone was more humble than arrogant.

“I haven’t decided what to do about it yet,” I said.

Donovan glanced down at his phone, which had flown out of his hand when he tripped and smashed onto the sidewalk.The glass had shattered into a million pieces.He reached down, cursing as he picked it up.He pressed a few buttons, trying to get the screen to come alive, but there was only the black screen of death.

He cursed a few more times, this time toward the sky, but even the heavens couldn’t help him.

“My recordings, I can’t believe they’re …”

He slapped a hand against his mouth, as if realizing he’d said something he shouldn’t have.

“Yourecordedme?”I asked.

“I never said I recordedyou.They could be recordings of anything.”

We were back to where we started.Donovan denying what he’d done, and me struggling to get to the truth.

“You recorded me, and if I had to guesswhatyou recorded, it would be the conversation I had with Cordelia’s neighbor, Kayla,” I said.

“I … I just wanted to be sure I had my facts straight about what was going on in the investigation so far.”

His hands were trembling.

“So, you’ve been stalking me, and?—”

“I wasn’tstalkingyou,” he said.“This may sound crazy, but I am in awe of you, the way you do things, and how you get people to tell you stuff.If anything, I want to learn from you, learn your process.”

Flattery didn’t faze me most of the time but the sincerity in his voice was something I couldn’t ignore.Not to mention the way he kept offering me quick, fleeting glances and then looking away.He reminded me of a timid boy who’d just met his celebrity crush.

“Listen, you can’t record conversations in California,” I said.“You’re a reporter, and you know that.It’s a two-party consent state.You needmyconsent to record the conversationandKayla’s consent, and I’m never going to give it to you.If the recording is gone because your phone is broken, consider it a good thing.”

“I wasn’t going to record you, at first.I mean it.”

“Then why did you?”

“Has anyone ever told you you’re a fast talker?I was taking notes, and I couldn’t keep up.Recording you so I could replay it later seemed like a good solution at the time.”

If I was a speed talker, it was news to me.

“I’m sorry if I upset you,” he said.“I never meant for any of this to happen, and I wasn’t going to report on anything you said.”

“If you weren’t going to report it, you wouldn’t have recorded me.”

“When I started the recording, I had no idea what was about to be said.I thought it was just going to be a basic interview, until it wasn’t.I didn’t expect to hear most of what I heard.”

“Who else have you spoken to about my conversation with Kayla?”

“Just Benjamin.”

“I’m not sure I believe you.”

“It’s true.I’ll do anything to make it up to you.Just tell me what you want, what I can do to make things right.”

I thought about what I wanted and came up with a few things.

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