Page 63 of Ice Cold Christmas
The abduction was real. Everything about that nightmare was real. And she didn’t like the scowl on Angus’s face. The man seemed pissed that she was alive. Call her crazy, but she didn’t think cops were supposed to respond that way when they found a missing victim.
“I’ve got uniforms checking into the hospital story,” Angus groused.
“Good for you,” Melody muttered.
His eyes narrowed. “You just got home? That’s the story you want to stick with? You seriously expect me to believe you simply sashayed back into town after being dead to the world for a year?”
“I didn’t sashay.” Jerk. “I scrimped and saved my money, and I followed the trickle of memories that I had back to Richmond.”
“Uh, huh. Followed on a fake ID.”
“Not like I woke up with my driver’s license and passport on me in that hospital. If I had, then I would have known exactly who I was. I would have known where my home was. Months passed with me knowing nothing. I thought I would stay like that. Having no one. Nothing.”
A low rumble came from Victor.
Her chin lifted. “Then I started to get flashes. Bits and pieces. I’m in Richmond because I want to know what happened. I want to put all of those broken pieces back together. I almost died. I think I deserve to know what happened to me.” She leaned forward. She also ignored the light hand that Amaya tapped against her shoulder. She was getting that the other woman wanted her to stop talking, but Melody couldn’t. Not yet. “I had hoped that you could help me,” she told the detective. “I wanted to see the files you had on me. I wanted to see what suspects you had in my disappearance.”
“Oh, I can absolutely share that intel with you.” Angus pointed toward Victor. “Suspect number one.”
“Victor didn’t do anything to hurt me,” she scoffed without even glancing his way. “He wouldn’t.”
“Exactly the same shit you told me before,” Angus muttered back. He gave a disgusted shake of his head. “Still singing that same old tune, are you?”
His words caught her off guard. “What? Why would I tell you that? And when would we have talked?”
The tension in the room seemed really, really thick.
Victor took a step away from the mirror. “When in the hell did you talk to Melody?”
But Angus wasn’t looking at Victor. His stare was only on her. “You really don’t know, do you?”
“Give the man a cookie.” She snapped her teeth together. “This isn’t some game or some joke. It’s my life. I was attacked. Bleeding in the snow. Someone took me. Someone hurt me. I’d like to know who the hell that person was, and I’d prefer for you to arrest that individual, not threaten to cuff me.” Okay, those words had come out fast and angry. She should probably take a breath. Or maybe a sip of stale coffee. Do something to calm herself down a bit.
“Huh.” Angus sucked in the side of his left cheek. “Huh.”
She sipped the stale coffee. Almost immediately spat it out again. That was truly the stuff of nightmares. Melody pushed the coffee cup away.
“Detective, you never told me that you knew Melody.” Victor stalked across the small room. “You never told me about any conversation you’d had with her.”
“I didn’t? Odd, isn’t it, how people can leave out details?” Angus shuffled the manila files in front of him. “And it’s those little details that matter a great deal.”
“How did you know Melody?” Victor questioned, voice harsh.
Angus glanced at Victor.
So did she.
Oh, yeah, he definitely looked pissed. “Victor, it’s okay.” It probably wasn’t, but she didn’t want the man taking a swing at a cop. If he did that, then Victor would be the one winding up in jail. She’d prefer for them to both get out of there without an arrest, if possible. Was that too much to ask? Melody didn’t really think so.
“It’s not okay,” Victor gritted back. “This detective grilled me again and again while you were gone. Like he just said, I was suspect number one. I wanted his help to find you. At first, he refused to even consider the fact that you’d been taken. Thought you’d left on your own. So much fucking time was lost because I was the only one who knew you were missing from day one. Everyone else—including this prick—thought that you’d just walked away.”
It was probably not the best idea ever to call the detective a prick. To think it, sure, but to say it? The animosity between the two men was clear. Super, super clear to see.
“The first forty-eight hours after a disappearance are vitally important.” Victor’s voice thickened with fury. “Evidence is strongest. You can find physical evidence faster—you can preserve it. Use it. That’s also the best time to get leads because any witnesses still have fresh memories.” His jaw clenched. “The more time that passes, the less likely you are to find the missing person alive.”
A shiver skirted down her spine.
“Yet here you are,” Angus murmured. “Alive.”
