Page 68 of Sinful Seduction
Her chin wobbles with emotion, and fresh tears spill onto her cheek.
“We need names. We need direction. If you want us to find out who did this, you need to help us.”
Tori shoves to her feet and repeats, “Detectives.”
“Ben is dead. You loved your boyfriend. You’d made plans with him. You had a lifetime of ideas and adventures all teed up. You were going to change the world, researching the topics that mattered and blasting them on every news channel across the globe. Starting with Copeland City’s dirty underbelly and the teens being pulled into a life few survive, right?”
“She doesn’t have to answer your questions,” Tori presses. “She has a right to privacy while recovering from major surgery. More importantly,she has a right to her parents’ presence when the police are questioning her. After discharge, when she’s had time to rest, I assure you, she’ll call, and you can organize a suitable day and time to talk this out.”
“She also has the right to a thorough investigation.” Fletch steps forward, meeting me side by side. “She’s the victim of a serious crime, Ms. Baylor. And there’s a very real possibility that whoever shot Ben might want to clean up any loose ends. The fact Molly is the only known witness to Ben’s death leaves her at the tippy top of a short list the shooter might like to take care of.”
“She’s fine! She’s not in danger.”
“Tori,” Molly scowls. “Stop.”
“I’m going to law school after I graduate, detectives. Molly has a right to representation any time the police wish to speak to her.”
“Not sure why she’d need it,” Fletch counters seriously. “We’re trying to help.”
“What kind of trouble did Ben get into?” I repeat. “He was a street kid, right? With a spotty past and a rap sheet any cop worth his salt might take a second look at.”
“He’s dead.” Her breath catches in her throat. “What does it matter what he did? Why are you trying to get him in trouble? He’s not here anymore to defend himself.”
“It’s a matter of understanding the people around him. He won’t be charged for anything. Like you said, he’s dead. But it’s important we see the bigger picture, sooner rather than later. We need to know who he was outside of what his record says about him.”
“He was trying in school, right?” Fletch softens his tone. He gentles his words and draws both sets of eyes his way. “He grew up in a bad world, which means he probably saw some bad stuff. Worse, he might’ve tried his hand at those bad things, too. His dad split before he was born, but he came around a time or two in Ben’s early years. Then he died, too. He was shot in the street and bled out long before an ambulance was even called.”
Molly clamps her lips shut, but she can’t stop the way they wobble. The way they bounce and give her away.
“Bad kid turns good-ish. He’s got a reputation around school as a troublemaker. His grades are in the toilet, and his attendance rate is worse. He’s hanging with the wrong crowd.”
“Not only is he hanging with them,” Fletch inserts. “He’s leading them. If anyone wants to take a crap in that school, he knows about it. If anyone even looks at you, he’s gonna find out about it.”
“He liked you. He was enamored by you. The world he came from, the only one he knew, made him hard. He had no choice but to be that way. But you, Molly. You allowed him to soften. You made it okay for him to sign up for an art class. For him to do better during tests. You made it okay for him to actuallytry, and dammit, he realized there was a way out of that hard world and into something better. Something safer.”
“He saw how your parents did it,” Fletch continues. “I don’t know if you know, Molly, but on the streets, no matter which crew you belong to, everyone knows everyone. Everyone knew about everyone else. It’s no secret where your dad came from, and even if he walked, his name would still be on the tongues of those who stayed behind. Some would call your dad a hero for getting out and staying out. Others might’ve called him a Nancy. A traitor. Because leaving the streets, to some, is considered running away. But no matter what’s said, Ben would’ve known about Grant Freemon long before he was old enough to wipe his own ass. Then he grows up a bit, he falls in love with Grant’s kid, and holy shit, Molly, life is amazing on this side of the tracks.”
“Please stop,” she whimpers. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore?—”
“He tried, Molly. For you. He pulled himself out of that hell and turned Fs into Bs. He took his non-existent GPA and transformed it into a 3.0. He worked hard, and even if his only motivation was to impress the pretty girl, he still did it.”
“But then he slipped, didn’t he?” I tilt my head to the side and hold her glassy eyes. “Maybe he thought it wouldn’t be a big deal, since he feltaboveall that mess now. He’d stolen cars before, and he still got to make a success of himself, so what’s another car? It’s money in the bank. He’d run pills in the past, and everything worked out okay. He was fast on his feet and already had contacts, so why not accept another quick job? A man needs money to start a good life. He needs money to buy a big house and have a family and staygood enoughfor the good girl.”
“You need to leave now, Detectives.” Tori folds her arms, showing me exactly who she could be ten years from now. “She asked you to stop. Legally, you have to listen.”
“He asked you to steal the gun from Miranda London, didn’t he, Molly?”
She bursts out in tears, choking on her breath and holding her side when her sob causes her pain.
“Maybe things on the street got a little too hot,” Fletch presses. “Maybe someone was threatening him. He needed a weapon, couldn’t swipe onefrom your place, since there are none, but he’d seen Miranda waltzing around the Channel Seventy-Nine studio with hers. She’s rich. She’s fancy. She can get another, and hell, she’s ditzy enough, she probably wouldn’t even notice hers was missing.”
Molly digs the back of her head deeper into her pillows. “Please go away.”
“Where’s the gun now?” I ask. “Where’d you hide it?”
“I didn’t—” She shakes her head.No. No. No. No. No. “I didn’t leave the bay, except in an ambulance.”
“Not you.” Smug, I slide my gaze across to Tori. “Where did you hide the gun, Victoria?”
