Page 122 of Three for a Girl

“I’m only saying you did have time to say more than a hello.”

“I barely saw them.” Carter snorted. “And if that is your so-called evidence…”

“When I met you on the road—”

“When you almost killed me.”

Chad swallowed. “Yeah. When I almost crashed into you. I could smell smoke on you, smoke and bleach.”

“I work in a hospital, and I enjoy my nicotine fix.”

“You don’t smell like smoke now, and you don’t smell like bleach. You finished at 5:00, right? No smoke on the way home to relieve you of your stressful day?”

“I didn’t feel like it.”

“Do you have any cigarettes on you? In your car.”

Carter lifted his chin. “At home. You’ve got nothing.”

“You smelled like fire smoke and when I checked the woods I found ashes. The building had been bleached clean. You smelled like that bleach. You acted suspiciously—”

“I was acting suspiciously?” Carter laughed. “What about you, detective? Exploring in the countryside barefoot. Barely able to stand still. I could smell the alcohol on your breath, you threatened me to keep quiet.”

“What?”

“You have no real evidence, and if you come for me, I’ll take you down, and who will people believe, a heroic doctor or a fallen detective?”

“I haven’t fallen.”

“You’re clinging on by your fingernails. What kind of detective gets his kicks from being strangled? What kind of man needs to see a therapist as a condition to go back to work?”

Chad lowered his gaze, and the air was beaten from his lung by Carter’s words.

“They all know you’re cracking, barely holding it together. Your sergeant begged us all to keep quiet about you bursting into the theatre. You’re under a lot of stress, trying your hardest, you’ve had a tough few years, but I could see it in her eyes, she knows you’re unsalvageable. You’re broken beyond repair.”

Chad couldn’t lift his eyes from the desk. Carter’s words swirled around in his head.

“If you pursue this, no one will believe you.”

Chad bit his lip, nodding. “That’s why I’m not pursuing it. I’m not gonna tell my DI of my suspicions. I’m not gonna push to have you arrested, or charged, or locked up.”

“Then why even bother?”

“I need to know that my gut feeling is right.”

“Your gut feeling?”

“It won’t stand up in court. Neither would my statement of seeing you that night. My evidence is based on smell—it would be laughed out of court—but I need to know.” Chad’s eyes burned, and he blinked back his tears before fixing Carter with a pleading look. “So, I’m asking you to help this broken man, this unsalvageable being, and put him out of his misery. Admit it for me to hear. Just once. I won’t tell anyone, I swear.”

Carter shook his head.

“Please.” Chad said, scrunching his brow. “Can’t you see I’m suffering.”

His eyes swam with moisture, blurring Carter. “I need this. You’re a doctor. You’re supposed to help people in pain.”

Carter licked his lips before patting his hands under his chair. He leaned over checked beneath his chair before searching the cabinets either side of the desk.

“Where’s your phone?”

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