Page 7 of Off the Hook

“Guilty,” I joked, but regretted it immediately. That was not a word to joke about with the detective investigating your ex-girlfriend’s death. “I mean, yes, I’m Coulter.” I shifted nervously. “What can I do for you?”

“Follow me. I just want to ask you a few questions.” She turned on her heel and headed down the hallway.

I glanced at Waylan, who held out his hand, motioning me to follow her. I entered the small interrogation room and sat in the chair across from her. Her brow hitched as she watched Waylan sit in the chair in the corner. “Somehow it still surprises me almost every day just how small this town is.”

“That’s an understatement.” I forced a chuckle.

“I didn’t realize you and the Sheriff were close or I’d have called him myself,” she said, openly sarcastic.

I laughed nervously. “Waylan and my dad grew up together back in the old days, when Smuggler’s Cove was still full of smugglers.”

“I see,” Detective Pierce said without even the faintest sign of amusement at my attempt at humor as she thumbed through the papers in the folder on her desk. She looked up and said matter-of-factly, “I presume you’ve already heard about the drowning yesterday then. How did you know Kylie?”

My skin started to feel damp, my nerves heightening under her steely blue gaze. “We grew up together,” I said as steadily as I could.

“When was the last time you saw her?” She watched my reaction.

“A few weeks ago?” I tried to remember the exact day. “I’m not sure. I saw her at Lorelei. She was at work.”

“So that was the last time you spoke?” she probed, and it felt like she was searching for inconsistencies in my story.

“I didn’t speak to her then,” I clarified, taking a deep breath. “She was working. I was eating. I saw her from across therestaurant.” I cleared my throat, a knot forming in my stomach.

The detective pulled a paper from the stack and placed it on the table in front of me. “Well that’s strange. It looks like your number was one of the last to contact her yesterday.”

I stared at the print out of screenshots of the text messages. “I didn'tspeakto her, Itextedher. And as you can see, she didn’t answer my last couple of texts.”

“The ones where you said you needed to see her in person?” She leaned forward, eyes boring into mine.

“Those are the ones.” I could feel Waylan’s eyes on me and I hesitated to meet them. “I’d been trying to talk to her, in person.”

“Why’s that?” Detective Pierce asked.

“If you have the texts, you already know, don’t you, detective?” I sucked in a breath, trying to quell my nerves. “Kylie texted me a few days ago to tell me that she’d gotten engaged. I wanted to clear the air.” The truth was I’d wanted to talk to her in private to know that she was sure about marrying this Jake character whom she barely knew.

Waylan chimed in, with surprised eyes. “Clear the air?”

“After I heard Kylie was getting married, I wanted to wish her well. Let her know there were no hard feelings.”

The detective's eyes narrowed. “Why would there be hard feelings?”

“Because I was engaged to Kylie, briefly. A long time ago. I wanted to tell her that I was happy for her.”

Her serious stare stayed fixed on me. “You needed to do that in person?”

“Iwantedto do that in person,” I said, resenting my trembling voice. “But I never got the chance.”

“When did your relationship with Kylie end?” the detective asked coldly.

I felt embarrassed to admit it since I hadn't had another real one since. “Six years ago.”

“And did it end on good terms?” Detective Pierce asked without a morsel of emotion.

“Do they ever end on good terms?” I glared, but she just stared back at me, stone-faced. “She broke off our engagement after less than a month,” I added, to show just how insignificant my relationship with Kylie had been.

“And you’d been together for how long?”

I bit my lip that threatened to quiver and then sucked in a breath through my nose, pretending to think of my answer. “Since we were kids…nearly ten years.”

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