Page 136 of I Replaced His Husband
Feeling flustered, I told Marco and Adam that I needed some air. However, the moment I stood up, Kay jumped up too.
"Kay, I’ll be back in a few minutes, okay? I promise." I squeezed his hand lightly, his wide navy-blue eyes fixed on my face. Then I leaned in and kissed his full red lips. Only then did he slump back on the sofa, though he still didn’t look happy.
Frowning, I stepped outside into the garden and called Detective Moor.
He’d left me his private number, just before they put us in the ambulance the day before.
"Detective Moor?"
A hoarse voice answered, "Yeah, this is Detective Moor. Who's calling?"
"Rain Nolan."
All I got in response was a grumpy grunt.
"I’ve got a question. Who called in the attack? You guys didn’t just show up on a hunch."
Moor sighed. "The dispatcher got a call from a burner. The person was whispering. The voice was unrecognizable, reallyquiet, lots of static, like they were moving, maybe running through the woods."
"Any chance I could listen to the recording?"
"That’s part of the investigation. And honestly, I don’t see the point. Our techs couldn’t get much out of it. The person just said, 'Shooting at Adam Darnell’s house, three victims.'"
I paused. "Still… could I get a copy? If it’s not too much to ask. I really need to hear it."
"And I need peace in this town! Not more damn bodies and killers no one can catch!"
His frustration was justified. But so was mine.
"Believe me, I want peace too. Kay’s just been attackedagain."
"Then you all need to leave White Cliffs. I don’t know if you’re aware, but people are starting to think Kay’s cursed for real, that bad luck just follows him around. Many folks want him out of town. Some even openly call him a 'cursed beauty’. There's always some kind of trouble around him."
So Kay’s own words kind of caught up with him? Other people picked up on the way he used to describe himself?
For a few seconds, I was stunned into silence.
Then I shook it off; it needed to be addressed. "How can you say that?! Is it his fault? Are these people brainless, or are some of them thinking only with their genitals?!"
My anger flared hot. I vividly remembered what Kay had once told me: the same cruel nickname had been circulating around campus after he’d survived seven attempted assaults. It felt like fate was playing a sick joke on him.
Moor didn’t answer anything for a long time.
Then, finally, he said, "I’ll see what I can do about the recording. I’m not heartless. I know he’s pregnant, and these attacks… I hate that this kind of stuff happens in my town. The chaos, the fear, and at the center of it, like it or not, is Kay."
"Not by his choosing!"
Nothing. Silence.
"So, will you get me the recording?" I snapped, my irritation rising.
"I said I’ll see what I can do. Only because we haven’t had anything like this here in a long time. It’s like fate’s got it out for you. On one hand, it made you True Mates, and on the other, it keeps throwing one disaster after another at you."
I listened, surprised. I’d suspected Moor before, maybe even thought he was the shooter. But my gut told me that wasn’t it. Moor didn’t like us much, but he really didn’t want more trouble in White Cliffs.
"I’ll be waiting for that file. I’ll text you my email in a second," I said firmly.
We hung up. And just three minutes later, imagine my surprise, an email from an unknown sender appeared in my inbox, with a small audio file attached.
