Page 23 of Sweet Like a Psycho (Secrets of Suburbi 2)

“If you find him.”

“When I find him.”

Montgomery laughed. “Just don’t get yourself killed.” He nodded at me and walked back over to Doyle.

I tapped my fingers on the top of my desk. After my night with Violet, there hadn’t been a doubt in my mind that she didn’t deserve her nickname. She had a nervous OCD thing. It was barely noticeable. But there were so many more layers to her than that. She was sweet. And kind. I stared at my screen showing the lack of records for her pistol. And a felon.

I realized I was tapping my fingers, just like she had done last night. I started tapping keys instead, searching for Joel Walker. Unlike Violet, he did have a Facebook page. At least, I was pretty sure it was him. His account was private, but there was a picture of him standing in front of the Hollywood sign. Alive and well in LA, just like he was supposed to be. I debated whether or not I should send him a friend request. That would be weird, right? I stared at the image. It was taken from several years ago, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything. I hadn’t updated my profile in years either. I was rarely ever on Facebook. Maybe Joel was the same way.

Besides, Montgomery was hinting that Joel had never even made it to LA. This picture proved him wrong. I closed the browser and leaned back in my chair. Maybe he left because Zeke wasn’t his. Not the other way around. I wished I could just ask Violet about it, but I couldn’t exactly bring up that I knew about Joel without revealing that I had snooped around her house last night.

What I needed to do was hear about all the rumors circulating about Violet. Maybe I could piece together some kind of truth if I heard everything. Sally Bennett popped into my head, the nosy neighbor I had met at the crime scene the other night. Might as well go straight to the source. I put her name into the database so I could find her number.

“Morning,” Damien said and slapped my shoulder as he walked by me.

I exed out of the browser, but probably not before Damien had seen my screen. Shit.

He parked himself in the desk across from mine and propped his feet up on it. “I tried to call you last night to see if you wanted to get drinks but your phone went straight to voicemail. Where were you?” He raised both eyebrows like he was hoping for something scandalous.

“Sorry, it must have died. I was just at home watching the game.”

“Huh. Funny you should say that, because I drove by your house and your car wasn’t there.”

I stared at him. “Are you stalking me now?”

He leaned forward. “You were with Violet, weren’t you?” He angrily whispered at me.

I could have lied, but he’d see right through that. “Yeah, but it’s not what you think.”

“You swore you’d drop the case, man.”

“I did. I wasn’t there because of the case.” Half a lie was better than a whole one.

“Then why were you there? I told you she was nuts.”

“And why do you think that? Tell me the exact rumors so I can figure it out. As far as I can tell, she has a nervous OCD thing. That’s it. That doesn’t make her crazy. And saying that she’s crazy with no proof to back it up means nothing to me.”

“I’m not done talking about last night yet. I asked you to call me if you went to her house. You went in without backup. Her crazy is clearly running off on you.”

She’s not crazy. “It’s cute that you were worried, but I don’t need you to babysit me, Damien.”

“Clearly you do.”

The click of the captain’s heels made us both pause our whisper yelling match.

“There’s a distress call,” she said. “Who wants to take it?”

Damien and I both looked at each other. There were cops out

on patrol right now. Why was she asking the ones here?

“Torres. Reed. Great, thanks for offering. I’ll text you the address. Feel free to take your time, it’s not an emergency.” She turned on her heel without waiting for a response.

Apparently she wasn’t asking the cops sitting around. She was targeting us. It was like she was trying to get us out of the office for a while. “What the heck did you do to her?” I asked. “She has us handling cops' work.” I went to grab my jacket but my hand came up empty again. I needed to either buy a new coat or ask Violet for mine back.

“I didn’t do anything. She’s probably pissed at you. You do realize she has access to our search history, right?”

Shit, this probably was about me. “Do you think I should talk to her?”

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