Page 44 of Southie
Does he want the same things I want?
He sighed, raking his hands through his hair. “Let’s get this over with first, and we should sit down and have a long talk, Camilla.”
“That doesn’t sound good, Liam.”
“I feel something between us, and I want to explore whatever it is, but there are things we need to discuss before we move forward, no matter how we move forward.”
“Okay.”
We both had our secrets, but I hoped that whatever his secrets were, I could handle them. And I hoped he wouldn’t walk away because of my drama and the shitshow that would happen once Franklin’s trial started and I returned to the national spotlight.
With our hands joined, we strolled into the police station to sit down with the officers and discuss the murder of Mrs. Daugherty.
* * *
Police officers roamed around seemingly without a care in the world. After a forty-minute wait in a lobby full of other people who were also waiting, and Liam threatening to walk out of the police station if someone didn’t come to take my statement, a detective sauntered up to us. The way Liam stiffened, he was familiar with the detective.
The detective reached out his hand to me which I took. “Ms. Jennings, I’m Detective Eric Rizzo. I’m the lead detective in Mrs. Daugherty’s case.”
Liam released a groan.
I quickly looked at him then back to the detective.
He ignored Liam’s displeasure and continued. “I’ll be taking your statement today.”
“Nice to meet you, Detective Rizzo. I’ll do anything if it’ll help Mrs. Daugherty.”
He smiled, but as soon as he turned to Liam, his smile dropped. “Daugherty.”
Liam moved closer to the detective, and a smirk crossed the detective’s face. I placed my hand against Liam’s chest. His anger rushed against my palm just like at Mrs. Daugherty's that day.
“Liam,” I called out to him.
He looked down at me, eyes softening. “Let’s get this over with. We got shit to do.”
He looked back at the detective.
Detective Rizzo shook his head and motioned in front of him for me to go ahead down the corridor. “This way Ms. Jennings. Last door on the right.”
“I need Liam to come with me.”
“No problem. I’d like to ask him some questions, anyway.”
Liam scoffed as we made our way through a bustling work area full of officers answering phones and tapping computer keyboards, and then down a corridor to the last room on the right. Instead of it being an office, as I assumed it would be, it was an interrogation room.
Why are we in an interrogation room?
I looked to Liam. He pulled my chair out from under a plain white table that had handcuff rings attached to it. He didn’t look concerned, so my anxiety subsided some but not enough for my guard to falter.
Liam interlaced our fingers and placed our joined hands on his thigh. Detective Rizzo sat down across from us and placed a manila folder on the table. I peeked at Liam, but he remained focused on the detective.
“Okay, Ms. Jennings.” I fixed my gaze on Detective Rizzo when he called my name. “Can you start from the beginning when you arrived at Mrs. Daugherty’s home?” He placed a notepad on top of the folder.
“For the past few months, I’ve been visiting Mrs. Daugherty throughout the week just to have coffee and spend time with her,” I explained as he took notes. “With her being elderly, I thought she may need a friend or someone to talk to. To be honest, I don’t have any friends here, so I enjoyed her company.”
“So, you’d say you two were friends?” the detective asked.
“Yes.”
