Page 11 of Crashing Without Justice

I dropped my head back as she hung up. I honestly didn’t know what to do, or even if there was anything that Icoulddo. It was hard to stay on the moral side of righteousness when you were in the wrong, and I was definitely in the wrong here. Still, there had to be a better way to go about this.

Truthfully, with the way that this was going, I wasn’t even sure if I should meet her privately. She was doing things that I hadn’t ever expected, so what would stop her from making up a story that could get me arrested? Yeah, that might sound a bit paranoid, but this was also a woman that thought it was a good idea to go through my contacts to harass innocent people.

Just then, my phone chimed, and I was almost afraid to look at it. At this point, it could be anyone, and I was tired of explaining something that couldn’t be explained. Yeah, I could chalk it up to a woman scorned, but most scorned women went after the man or the mistress; they didn’t go after random people.

Nevertheless, I checked my phone, and it was to see a text from the real estate agent that had sold us our house, telling me that Paige had called her to tell her that she was sorry for her wasted time.

Jesus fucking Christ.

Chapter 8

Paige~

Ididn’t care about lying to Harding since it was the least that he deserved. Still, I’d been too emotional to give any real consideration to my phone number being the source of the calls and texts, so to remedy that error in judgement, I’d gone to the store for a burner phone to finish what I had started. Especially, now that I was armed with more information about Trista Preston than I could have ever hoped for.

Now, while I was still trying to find a way into her social media accounts, I had both of her parents’ phone numbers, including her ex-husband’s. They needed to know what was going on because her ex-husband had a right to protect his children from their whore of a mother. He had the right to choose which type of people should be around to influence his kids, and now I could see why he had divorced her.

Of course, I had no idea who had divorced whom, but that didn’t matter. Right now, considering what all I knew about his ex-wife, Frank Indigo had the benefit of the doubt. In fact, we were probably going to become good friends since we had betrayal as a common denominator. Yeah, I was going to have to dig deeper to find out why they’d gotten divorced, but I had no doubt that he was going to end up on my side no matter what. I could already feel him becoming a kindred spirit.

I stared at my phone, re-reading my latest post.

When you are duped by an imposter, you’re only choice is to look to God and prayer as you grieve the loss of all that you once believed. While family and friends are what you need to hold you through the rough times, only God is strong enough to save your mental and emotional wellbeing. You also have to find strength to resist Satan as your heart bleeds for justice. Luckily, when your faith is strong, it helps you choose the Christian path of righteousness, and that’s been proven by how I have chosen to rise above all the hurt and betrayal that has been thrust upon me through no fault of my own. I will continue to look to my faith, family, and friends, and let my character speak for itself. Everyone that knows me can attest to how puremy heart is and how I have always chosen peace. Negativity is not well for the soul, especially a troubled one.

Satisfied with my latest post, I let out a steady breath as I dialed Lloyd Preston. Yeah, it was a bit late in the evening, but it was also reasonable to assume that law enforcement didn’t keep regular working hours. Besides, I was counting on Mr. Preston to be too upset to care about minor details.

I dialed his number, and my heart might be racing if it weren’t for how angry I was at what his daughter had done to my marriage. In fact, once I was done with this conversation, I was going to call her ex-husband for a little chat.

When the call went to voicemail, I wasn’t exactly surprised. These days, no one ever answered phone calls, especially from numbers that they didn’t recognize. So, I dialed the number again, and I would continue to dial his number until he answered.

Finally, after three calls, Lloyd Preston’s voice came over the line. “Hello?”

“Mr. Lloyd Preston?”

“Yes.”

“This is Detective Nancy Jenive, and I’d like to ask you a few questions,” I said, proud of how calm my voice sounded.

“Uhm…okay,” he replied hesitantly. “What about?”

“Trista Preston,” I answered, and I could actually feel his surprise through the phone.

“Trista’s my daughter,” he confirmed. “What’s this about?”

“She’s currently being investigated for fraud, and we’re looking into other possible victims,” I continued, honestly just making it up as I went along. “Has your daughter been in trouble before, Mr. Preston?”

There was a moment of silence before he asked, “And who did you say you were with? Which police department?”

Shit.

“Just please answer the question, Mr. Preston,” I said, knowing that lots of people weren’t brave enough to stand up to law enforcement most of the time.

“Actually, I don’t think that I will,” he said, and if he thought that he could get away with this, he was wrong. “What I’d like is your badge number and your supervisor’s name, so that I can verify that I am actually speaking to an actual detective.”

“Mr. Preston, are you saying that you are refusing to cooperate with a police investigation?” I asked, adding more depth to my voice. “That’s obstruction of justice, sir.”

“I am not saying that at all,” he denied. “I’m merely asking for confirmation of who you are and what this is about.”

“Well, if this is the response that we get for trying to do our jobs, it’s no wonder your daughter has turned out the way that she has,” I bit out, upset that he wasn’t cooperating. “When people have no respect for law enforcement, they have no respect for themselves or anyone else.”

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