Page 24 of Train Wreck

Chapter Thirteen

Fluorescent lights buzzedto life over our heads, thrusting the room into view. Boxes were stacked neatly against the back wall. Teddy’s guitar was sitting in the stand covered by the blanket I’d put over it. That was his prized possession.

I pulled the blanket free as Hugh headed straight for the boxes. I strummed the string. The sound broke through the silence.

“He used to love that thing,” Hugh said as he ripped the tape off of one of the boxes.

“He used to claim the music was the real him, but that accounting paid the bills. He used to play it every weekend. That’s how we met.”

Hugh pulled item after item out of one of the boxes, examining, then setting each piece aside.

“Growing up, he wanted to be a singer. He claimed the guitar was going to be his claim to fame to help him get there.”

I put the blanket back over the instrument. “That’s an intimate detail to share with a jail mate, no matter if you’re a cop or not.”

Hugh pressed his lips together into a stern line but didn’t explain. I don’t know why Hugh knowing that intimate detail irked me. Maybe it had to do with the fact that Teddy had shared that with me as a secret. Had he been telling his secrets to everyone?

“Let’s get this over with. I’ll start at this end, and we’ll meet in the middle.”

Hugh was working through his second box while I was still digging through the first.

“It would have helped if you labeled these,” Hugh said.

I met his eyes with a glare. “Yeah, well, be glad I didn’t toss it all in the trash or set it on fire.”

Silence sliced through the room.

“If you liked the guy enough to let him move in, then why didn’t you ever visit him in jail? Did you not want to hear his explanation?” Hugh asked, turning one of the music books over and shaking it as if looking for something to fall out from between the pages.

“How dare you,” I growled, dropping the clothes in my hands. “Who are you to come in here and judge me after what I went through?”

“What you went through wasn’t anything compared to jail.” Hugh raised his gaze to meet mine. “Why didn’t you cut him loose? You didn’t love him.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” I growled.

“You stopped caring, apparently. You didn’t go to his trial. You just vanished from his life.”

“You think whatever you want,” I said, shaking my head. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I was there,” Hugh accused, his deep voice lowering another octave. “I didn’t see you at all.”

I lowered my head and sat on one of the folding chairs that I’d put in storage on my last visit. “I tried. He wouldn’t see me. He kept sending me away. I didn’t understand why until later.”

Hugh shoved Teddy’s crap back into the box he’d just finished unloading.

“What happened later to make you understand?”

“He sent me a letter telling me he was sorry. That he didn’t love me. That if he had he wouldn’t have never stolen the money.”

“And you believed him?” Hugh asked.

“His letter was delivered by the mistress he was keeping on the side. A little barfly.”

“She could have been lying,” Hugh offered as he opened another box. “He could have asked her to do it as a favor.”

I lifted my gaze to Hugh’s and cleared my throat. “She wasn’t lying. The toddler she brought shared Teddy’s eyes. The kid was his.”

Hugh’s eyes narrowed. “He’d told me he had a kid and that it was before he ever met you. She was lying. For some reason, Teddy wanted you to stay away. If I had to guess, it was to protect you from Victor. Gena wouldn’t have done it for any other reason.”

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