Page 50 of Off the Hook

“She was wailing, like you wouldn’t believe. And I thought I saw a red mark on her cheek. Probably from all that crying. Who knows? But it was a misunderstanding.”

There was that word again. Misunderstanding. But it ended with Coulter in jail and never charged. Something wasn’t right. “And yet you took him in?”

“Yeah, I didn’t know what else to do at the time. I couldn’t leave him there and have her turn up dead the next morning.”

A chill ran through me. I smoothed the standing hairs on my forearms. “Did the victim say that he was violent toward her?”

“No, she said he hadn’t hit her. But I’m sure you know that’s not uncommon in domestic violence situations,” he added defensively.

“But you didn’t arrest him?”

“No, I just wanted to let him sleep it off.”

“So you took the threat of domestic violence seriously enough that you felt the need to remove him from the scene, but didn’t book him? That’s highly unusual.”

There was a long pause before he answered. “Once I got him to the station, I started to book him. But another officer toldme to wait. Next thing I knew they’d taken the boy to a holding cell and told me they’d take care of it.”

“Who was that?”

The long silence on the line was telling. Finally, he said, “I don’t recall.”

Yeah right.I started to call him out and press harder, but he continued. “The girlfriend showed up early the next morning just at the end of my shift, hollering that we’d better let him go. She looked me square in the eye and said ‘I told you last night that he didn’t hit me. Why did you take him to jail?’ I tried to explain that it was protocol in a DV case. But she was fit to be tied. They told me not to worry about it and to go on home.”

“And do you recall who told you that?”

“I don’t,” he said without hesitation, but that didn’t make it believable. Frank was loyal to the code. He wasn’t going to implicate anyone on the force. But his story matched Coulter’s to a tee.

I let out a relieved breath. “Thank you Officer Jenkins, this helps a lot. And you’d testify to this in court?”

After another long pause, he said, hesitantly, “It was a long time ago.”

Now we were talking perjury, so he was backpedalling like a motherfucker. I’d get the DA to subpoena his ass if I had to. I hoped it wouldn’t come to that. “I understand, Officer. Thank you so much for your time.”

“Happy to help.” Just as I was about to click to end the call, he asked, “Detective? Why are you asking about that night after all these years?”

I bit my lip, debating whether to be forthcoming. But Kylie’s death was public record. “The girlfriend was murdered a couple of weeks ago.”

“Oh dear lord.” He sucked in a sharp breath. “That’s awful. Were they still together?”

“No, they broke up a couple of years after that incident.”

Officer Jenkins sighed. “He was a nice kid. I’d bet a hundred dollars he had nothing to do with it.”

If only my partner had an ounce of Officer Jenkins’s resolve. I had to sound impartial, though. “We’re just exploring every lead.”

“I hope you don’t waste much more time on this one.”

“Thanks again for your help,” I said. “Have a nice evening.”

Trying to clear Coulter’s name was anything but a waste of time.

CHAPTER 26

COULTER

Iwoke up, feeling the cold, empty bed beside me. Even though we’d barely spent 24 hours together, and I’d only woken up with her in my arms once, I missed that feeling. I missed Faith.

The room felt unbearably quiet, with the sounds of her soft breath echoing in my mind like a distant memory. I swung my legs over the side of the bed, pulling on a pair of old board shorts I’d left on the floor. They looked clean enough. The tile floor was cool, chilling my feet before I slipped on my topsiders and threw on a shirt. I jumped in my truck to head over to dad’s house. I didn’t want to be alone.

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