Page 48 of The Devil's Bargain
“That’s why she stayed single all these years. She couldn’t get over him.”
She’d been rude to Cal in the beginning, when he’d first arrived back on planet for work, but the two of them had moved past that. Bruce had gotten through to her that Calix was innocent, and she’d seemed to believe it.
No, she had believed it.
“Amory would never hurt Bruce,” Calix stated plainly, and this time it was Mitri’s turn to give him the odd look.
“If you were so sure of that, why did you allow her to get caught up in this?” he demanded. “Why have you stood by and allowed her good name to be dragged through the mud? If you’d cleared her, she would have been back already.”
“She isn’t coming back.”
“She will. We just have to clear her name.”
“By killing me?”
“I wanted it to be Titus,” he repeated his earlier sentiment. “His death would mean the most to her.”
“Why? If she dislikes him because he helped me clear my name at that trial, then shouldn’t I be the one she’d want dead? If she doesn’t like him, she must hate me.”
“She doesn’t,” Mitri insisted. “She wanted to, but the same thing happened with you that happened with Bruce. That was why she became a police officer. She was hellbent on catching Bruce conducting shady business, abusing his power. But then she started working with him, got to know him, and one thing led to another.”
“She knew Bruce hadn’t done anything wrong,” he guessed.
“He was too good of a person, of a cop, to bend the law for anyone. Once she saw that, she gave up on her plans for revenge. She figured if she could be wrong about him, perhaps there was a chance she was wrong about you and Titus Mercer as well. She wasn’t willing to risk it and harm the innocent to appease her anger.”
“You clearly don’t have the same problem.”
“I don’t. Amory is all I have. You have to understand.”
He snorted, but it took a lot of energy. All of this was taking a lot of energy, and it was getting harder and harder to stay conscious with each passing second. It felt like there was a heavy weight sitting directly on top of his chest, crushing his lungs.
“Heart attacks aren’t like this,” he said without meaning to.
“Experienced many before, have you?”
So, Mitri had murdered Bruce for Amory.
Mercy had mentioned they’d found Amory nearby. She’d been at the scene…
Had she witnessed Mitri killing Bruce?
Had she been shocked, and that’s why she’d run? They’d also said it was clear she was hiding something from them, but they’d never gotten the chance to get it out of her. Calix had arrived, she’d gotten loose, and the rest…well.
“You cried,” Cal remembered. “You examined his body and you cried.”
“Those weren’t fake tears,” Mitri said. “I was just crying for myself and for Amory as well, that’s all. Bruce shouldn’t have doubted her.”
“You have a screw loose.”
“I’m desperate. Desperate people do crazy things. We’ve both seen it. Come on, in this line of work? It’d be stranger if I didn’t lose my mind now and again.”
“You aren’t going to get away with this,” it was such a cliché thing to say, and yet the words spilled out of Cal’s mouth anyway.
“No one is going to suspect me,” he replied confidently. “You didn’t even have a clue, and you’re praised for your instincts.”
True. Had wanting a friend blinded him? Or had it been the guilt over knowing what actually happened to Amory, watching the way Mitri worried and yearned for her, and keeping the secret anyway?
Or, maybe, Calix hadn’t noticed because he simply hadn’t cared.
