Page 17 of A Forgotten Mistake

“Okay,” I say as I try for his lips and am relieved when he gives me a gentle kiss back. I really don’t want to fuck this up.

“You’re going to make me fret to death,” he complains.

“I wouldnever.”

“Never, my ass,” he grumbles as I step out of the bathroom. When he comes out, he looks like he’s not worried in theslightest. It’s convincing enough that no one seems to suspect a thing as we make our way to the room she’s being held in.

Her head, which had been lying on the table, snaps up the instant she sees me enter.

“I’m Detective Paige and I believe you’ve already met Detective Hyde,” I say, hoping she plays along and pretends she doesn’t know meoverlywell. Obviously, everyone knows she’s aware of my name, but just knowing my name doesn’t mean I’ll be removed from the case. But if they knew we were in the same foster home together, I would be moved off to another case.

She stares at me while I turn off the recording device and have a seat. The audio of the camera recording us is already muted, but they’re not aware at this moment.

“You have minutes before someone realizes the audio has been muted, Abby.”

Her eyes coated in thick eyeshadow latch on to mine. Clearly, she spent as much time applying her makeup as she did trampling around the crime scene. “I’m not the killer.”

“You can say that all day long, but at the end of the day, proof is the only thing that can talk.”

She raises an eyebrow. “Proof? We need proof? That’s what fixes everything? So… say my proof is twenty-two years old, what are your thoughts on that? Is it still proof?”

I grin as I lean forward. “Abby, Abby, Abby. You really don’t want to fuck with me.”

Her eyes narrow, like she’s prepared to fight me on this. “I will not go to prison.”

“Then prove that you’re not involved.”

She looks away before meeting my eyes again. “I… don’t know what more I can say or do to prove it. But I guess that’s what you’re here to do,” she says. “I mean… you’re a homicide detective? You? How cute.”

I give her a smirk, just daring her to say more.

“If you’re innocent, we will prove it. But we’re not going to be blackmailed,” Gabriel growls.

“Oh? He knows? Well, that’s fun,” she says.

“Abby, you’ve never been very good at asking for help. You think the only way anyone will ever help you is by conning them or seducing them. If you’re innocent, act it.”

She hesitates before looking away because she hates it when people know her. She always has, and evidently, she hasn’t changed. There’s a knock on the door, drawing our attention off each other as Chris comes in. “Excuse me. Technical issues,” he says. “You should be good now.”

“Thank you,” Gabriel responds.

Abby takes a deep breath and then rubs her face. She’s always been a good actor, so I have to pick through pieces of it to tell what’s the truth and what are lies. She’s conniving, manipulative, and feeds off others.

But that’s how she was able to survive.

“I was swinging by to see my friend Mitch. It’s his house. I knocked, but he didn’t answer, so I assumed he was playing video games. He knew I was coming over, so I let myself in like I usually would.”

“If he knew you were coming over, why wasn’t he there?” I ask.

“You’d have to ask him. I don’t know. I let myself in, and that’s when I saw the person in the chair. Thinking it was Mitch, I hurried over and grabbed him… that’s how I got the blood on my hand.”

“You didn’t see the blood on the floor?” Gabriel asks. “Or smell it when you walked into the room?”

“I don’t know, I guess I’m not used to the smell of blood,” Abby says, which is a lie. “And I was distracted, staring at my phone as I walked in. I just… I didn’t think anything was off, so I didn’t catch anything beforehand. When I touched him, I sawthe blood and rushed around the chair where I saw… where I saw that it was a man I didn’t know… who was clearly dead.”

“What happened then?”

“I assumed the attacker was a robber, and I was afraid that if they saw me holding something, they’d attack me, so I threw my iPad on top of the cabinet and ran out the back door. I heard a gunshot, and in my panic, I broke the window to the neighbor’s house and hid inside.”

---