Page 64 of Ice Cold Christmas
Her gaze whipped toward him. He was staring straight at her again. His intense gaze made her feel uncomfortable. She shifted a bit in her chair. “You need to mark Victor off your suspect list. He didn’t do anything to hurt me.”
“Yes, he did.” Angus seemed certain. “I think you and I need to talk, Ms. Mage, and we need to have that talk alone.”
Amaya laughed. Hard. “That is adorable.” More laughter. She even wagged her finger toward the detective. “Here I am, representing my client, proudly using all of the wonderful years of schooling that my parents worked so diligently to pay for…and you think I’m just going to walk away from my job so that you can privately grill a victim?”
Angus flushed. “I’m not grilling her. I’m simply going to remind her of a few facts, seeing as how her memory is impaired.”
“Then remind her,” Amaya invited. “By all means. Just do so with me present.” Her smile taunted him.
Angus’s flush deepened. But his head turned toward Victor. “Not sure you want what I’m about to say to be common knowledge.”
“What the hell are you driving at?” Victor’s face darkened.
“You should ask the lawyer to step outside.”
“Amaya…” Victor directed, “don’t move.”
“Wasn’t planning on it.”
A dull ache began behind Melody’s left eye. Dammit. Not another headache. Not now. They came and went far too often. She had no idea if she’d suffered from bad headaches before her attack or not, but she certainly faced them a lot now. A fun side effect of her head injury. “I don’t understand what’s happening here.” There was a lot she didn’t get. “How did you even know I was at my house?” she asked the detective.
“Neighbor contacted me. Mrs. Belle Finley. Told her to text me if she saw anything unusual at your place. You just waltzing in the front door right after a snowstorm? That struck her as unusual.”
Yes, she could see how it might be unusual, given the last year. “Why do you want to talk to me alone?” Something that was obviously not going to happen. “Whatever you have to say, say it in front of Victor and Amaya.”
The detective didn’t say anything.
Impatience ate at her. “Then at least tell me the names of the other suspects in my disappearance. Who did you think could be involved?”
“How do you know she’s the real deal?” Angus suddenly asked. His fingertips tapped across the top of the manila files.
She figured the question was supposed to be directed at Victor.
“You running a DNA test?” Angus pushed. “Checking dental records?”
Melody automatically rubbed her jaw. She hadn’t thought about the dental records.
Victor’s phone rang. A quick, low peal.
“I know she’s the real deal.” Absolute certainty in Victor’s voice. He pulled out his phone and glanced at the screen. “But a fingerprint check will back up her claims. If you’ll give me a minute…” He put the phone to his ear.
“Oh, sure,” Angus huffed. “Take your call right now. Not like we are in the middle of anything important. Ignore me. Ignore my suspicions. If you’re just gonna chat with your friends, you can take that shit outside, you know?—”
“A match. Yes, that’s what I expected,” Victor said into his phone. “But I’m a little tied up with the local detective at the moment, so I’ll have to call you back, Hunter. What’s happening? Oh, the usual. Detective Angus Clinton threatened to arrest Melody, and now he’s busy spouting off about how I’m the number one suspect in her disappearance. It’s the same song he’s sung about me for months now.”
Angus’s brows beetled. He leaned forward, shoving his upper body halfway across the table as he got close to Melody. “I came to you before,” he said quickly. “Tried to warn you because I was working another case with ties to him. Told you that he was a liar.”
Victor wasn’t talking any longer.
She found herself trapped by the detective’s angry glare. “What has Victor lied about?”
“I knew after I talked to you that day…I knew right then and there that you were personally involved with him.”
She’d just had insanely powerful sex with Victor. Yes, they’d been personally involved before, and they were again.
Faint lines ran from the edges of Angus’s eyes. “For whatever reason, you two were trying to keep that shit quiet.”
Delicately, Melody cleared her throat. “Probably for our own privacy.”
