“This year?” I asked. “That’s only a few months away!”
“Hot and heavy, Princess,” April said smugly. “He’ll snap you up before you have a chance to get away.”
“No freaking way,” I told her. I didn’t yet know what hang-ups Elijah had, but I was sure they existed.
“Ignore her, Van. Write it down. I want May twenty-fifth.”
“That’s a Thursday,” Violet said, looking at the calendar on her phone. “I’ll take May Twenty-Seventh.”
“You’re both nuts,” I murmured, but they were too busy squaring off to hear me.
“That’s not fair!” April said. “This isn’t the Price is Right. You don’t just get to bid two days over mine to knock me out of the running.”
“You’re the idiot who chose a Thursday,” Violet said.
“I’m not an idiot! You’re a cheater,” April countered.
“What are you talking about?” Violet stood taller and looked really pissed.
Vanessa, Candace, and I exchanged looks of confusion. What the hell was going on here and where was the source of hostility coming from? They’d been back and forth since the moment I walked through the door.
“You used a calendar,” April replied accusingly. “That’s cheating.”
“Where was it stated that we couldn’t take a minute to look at a calendar before we gave a date?” Violet asked calmly. “Oh, that’s right. There were no rules, but you acted impetuously like you always do. Or maybe it was just ‘the alcohol talking.’ Does that sound familiar to you, April?” I would’ve known Violet was repeating words she heard by the tone of her voice alone, but her use of finger quotations added an impressive dramatic flair. Milo would’ve been proud.
April slapped her hands on the kitchen island. “I thought we got past this, Vi.”
“Apparently I didn’t.” Violet closed her eyes and shook her head slightly to get herself under control. When she reopened them, she was once again the calm woman I was used to seeing. “Um, I think I’m going to head on home.”
“No,” Vanessa, Candace, and I said at once.
April started to follow Violet into the living room, but she was stopped by a scalding look. “Why are you following me, April?”
April swallowed hard, looking uncertain how to answer our friend. “You’re my ride home, Vi.”
I could tell that was the wrong answer by the way Violet’s skin paled and her mouth popped open. “Call Marley Kasey to come get you.” Violet turned and left without saying another word, only pausing to grab her coat. As if we didn’t already know she was pissed, she slammed the door hard enough to rattle the frame.
“Oh my God. I’ve been such a fool.” April covered her face and dropped in the seat next to me. I wrapped my arm around her while Vanessa and Candace circled the island to stand on the other side. We huddled together in an awkward group hug. April cried into her hands while Vanessa tried to communicate telepathically with me and Candace whispered soothing words in April’s ear. Telepathy didn’t work so well, so we resorted to body language.
Vanessa’s widened eyes said, Oh my God! What do we do?
I tilted my head slightly and grimaced to say, I don’t have a fucking clue.
“I’ve loved Violet for as long as I can remember,” April finally said. “I never realized she had feelings for me too.”
“What happened and when?” I asked softly.
“After her last breakup with that guy named Doug, Violet came over for dinner. She got a little tipsy and told me that she’s been attracted to me for a long time. I wanted to believe her, but I was too afraid to trust my heart to her. She had only dated men, only expressed desire for men. I didn’t want to be an experiment to her. I knew it would ruin our friendship if that happened, so I told her it was the wine and heartache talking.”
“Oh, honey,” Candace said. “When was this?”
“Six months ago,” April said. “She kind of laughed it off and said I was right. Things were awkward between us for a few days, but we fell back into our old groove. I really thought it was a meaningless, drunken pass.”
The timer on the oven chimed, interrupting us. Wow! All of that happened in ten minutes. Amazing how quickly a person’s life could change. Vanessa pulled away to remove dinner from the oven. I just kept rubbing circles in the center of April’s back.
“I’m sorry, April. I think it was my fault for bringing Marley up. I had no idea that Violet had feelings for you either. I never would have brought it up.”
“It’s not your fault, honey.”
“I feel bad though.”
“You know what?” Vanessa asked. We looked up and found her standing there with her oven-mitted hands on her hips. “We’re going after her. You two are too drunk to drive. Let’s pack this up and I’ll drive us over to her house. You girls can talk things out. We can’t let this continue.”
“She doesn’t—”
“No arguing,” Candace said bossily. “Besides, I didn’t get to pick a date for Maegan and Elijah’s wedding.”
“Me either,” Van chimed in.
I groaned. “I was hoping we would forget about that.”
“Fat chance,” April said, rising to her feet. “I want a do-over now that I know I can look at a calendar.” She looked me up and down. “Maegan isn’t a summer bride anyway. She favors fall weather and colors.”
“Dammit, I was going to pick fall,” Vanessa said, zipping the casserole into a carrier. She looked at me. “Don’t just stand there looking all in love and cute. Grab a damn storage container and start filling it with rice and beans. Damn, do I have to do all the matchmaking around here?”
“Don’t hold your breath,” April mumbled.
“Shut up!” Van, Candace, and I all said at the same time then burst into giggles.
God, it felt good to be with my girls and forget about murder and mayhem for just a little while.
THE USUAL EUPHORIA THAT CAME with arresting a murder suspect was missing when we processed Jessica Hansen back at the police station. We didn’t walk through the station with our chests puffed out collecting high-fives as we went. There was nothing thrilling about arresting a woman who felt she had no other recourse but to take the law into her hands after the system failed her. In a turn of events, Jessica was the one who walked tall and proud through the precinct in Bowling Green, Kentucky, while Adrian and I looked like whipped puppies.
I didn’t expect her to basically surrender and confess to us when we showed up at her office. I figured she would make us show hard evidence that she committed the crime, but maybe she knew it would just delay the inevitable. There was a high probability that her fingerprints were somewhere in Renzo’s car or in the house. We also had the hotel clerk in Goodville who could identify her from a photo. If he identified her, he’d do the same for her sister, which we knew she didn’t want. She couldn’t protect Kayla from Thom Renzo, but she could save her from going to prison. I knew damned well that she saved Maegan from a similar fate—or worse—as Kayla.
We couldn’t just put her in the back of Adrian’s car and drive her back across state lines without going through official channels. The first of which was to take her official statement on camera where she waived her rights to have an attorney present. Jessica kept her eyes locked on mine as she detailed everything that happened from her sister’s attack to the moment she bashed Thom’s head in with a marble statue she found nearby. She denied her sister rode along with her and had a reasonable explanation for how she pulled it off by herself. She said anger and outrage made it possible for her to walk for miles in the frigid temperatures to retrieve her car that she’d hidden.
She didn’t show any emotion until she circled back to her sister. “One day my sister is a vibrant, happy young woman and the next she’s a ghost walking through life. Do you know she tried taking her own life, Detectives? She couldn’t live with what that animal did to her. My little sister was on suicide watch for a month at a hospital. Do you know what
it’s like looking into the eyes of someone you love so much and not seeing them? Do you? How would you like seeing your sister’s or girlfriend’s wrists restrained to the bedrail so she couldn’t end her misery? Where was her justice? Why wouldn’t that cop listen to her?”
“Do you remember his name, Jessica?” I asked softly.
“Like you care.”
“Oh, I do care,” I countered. “I promise you that I’ll do everything I can to make sure he never treats another victim in the same way.” I wanted to assure her that he’d lose his job, but that was a promise that I couldn’t make. It was her word against his. He had a union to back him, she had no one. Well, she had me, but my power was pretty limited. Her best bet would be to find a hungry journalist who wouldn’t let up on the story until something was done.
Jessica relented and told us his name after a few minutes. Patrolman Dennis immediately left the room and I figured he was going to seek out the cop’s supervisor. Jessica continued with her story, explaining that she didn’t really plan on killing Thom. She said she started following the man to prevent him from hurting anyone else and hopefully catch him in the act that would open an investigation into his activity.
“There was no way a sick fuck like him didn’t have a computer full of incriminating material,” she said. “I knew that stealing his computer wasn’t enough because you guys wouldn’t be able to use it. I didn’t have a concrete plan in place; I just needed to do something. Then I saw the look on his face when he tossed a black duffel bag in the trunk of his car.” She closed her eyes and tears streamed down her face. “I knew he was going to hurt someone else and this sense of calm washed over me. I knew what I had to do. I don’t regret it either.” She scrubbed the tears off her face with her hands. “I only regret upsetting your girlfriend. I never intended for her to think she was the target of my anger. I just wanted to help.”
There was so much I wanted to say to her but couldn’t with the video rolling. We sailed through processing and interviewing her, but hit a snag when she refused extradition.
“I’m not making that easy on you, Detectives,” she said with a wry smile. “I understand that I’m going to serve hard time, but I’d rather do it here so that my parents and sister don’t have to travel so far to see me on visiting day. I’d like to call my parents so they can arrange for a good attorney.”
I didn’t think she’d have much luck avoiding extradition, but then I realized that maybe we could help her after all. We could talk to our county prosecutor and see if she was willing to allow her sentencing trial to occur in Kentucky. The crime may have occurred in our county, but both Thom and Jessica were Kentucky residents.
“Your parents and sister are already here,” Patrolman Dennis said when he returned to the room. “I told them that we were about to wrap things up in here and they’d have a chance to speak with her before…” His words trailed off.
“It’s okay, Patrolman Dennis. I didn’t expect to get away with killing someone.”
“I think we’re done here,” I said to Patrolman Young so that he could end the video. He nodded when it was off. “Listen, we’ll talk to our prosecutor when we get back to see if she will waive extradition and allow you to stand trial here. You’ve admitted to the crime, but you can either retract your statement and insist on a jury hearing, or you can waive the right to a trial and go straight to a sentencing hearing where you’ll be able to call witnesses to speak on your behalf in front of a judge. You have options.”
“I will never ask my sister to testify to what that monster did to her. I’ll spend the rest of my life behind bars if it comes down to that,” Jessica said, raising her chin in pride.
“We’ll see what kind of charges our prosecutor will want to file against you once he’s had a chance to review the evidence we collected from Renzo’s apartment,” Patrolman Young said. “You’re going to be our guest until you have a bail hearing though.”
“That’s fine,” she replied. “Can I please see my family now?” Her chin wobbled slightly and I figured she was probably more scared than she wanted us to believe.
“Sure,” Patrolman Dennis said.
The four of us rose to our feet and headed to the door. I looked over my shoulder before I left the room. Jessica lifted her head and met my gaze. “Best of luck to you.”
“Thank you, Detective.”
Making eye contact with her family was difficult, but I had to remind myself that I wasn’t the one who committed a crime. I slowed down as I approached her mother and mumbled three words that I thought might help her daughter.
The four-hour drive back to Blissville was quiet as Adrian and I were both lost in our own thoughts. As sworn officers of the law, we could never encourage what Jessica Hansen did, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t understand her motivation.
“I doubt Prosecutor Buxton meets with us today, but we can try.”
It turned out that she was eager to meet with us, thinking we carried good news. That changed when we told her that Jessica was fighting extradition. “What were her reasons? Did she just want to delay the inevitable?” she asked us.
“Ma’am, she wants to go to a prison closer to her family to make it easier for them to visit her.”
Prosecutor Buxton snorted. “Seriously? She thinks that I’ll agree to that?”
“I think you will when you find out the circumstances and hear about the evidence we found at Renzo’s apartment. This guy wasn’t some innocent victim cut down in the prime of his life. I’m sorry that his parents died, but not sorry they didn’t have to see the animal their son had become.”
The prosecutor sat back in her seat, looking less confident about her previous statement. “I’m listening, Detectives.”
Adrian told her about the evidence he found on the laptop, and I shared details about the movies we suspected to be homemade. She looked as sick as we felt.
“Ma’am,” Adrian said respectfully. “I saw the suspect’s sister at the station, and I can confirm that she was in some of the photos we found on Renzo’s computer. It looked obvious to me that she was drugged and not a willing participant in a consensual act.”
“Oh,” the prosecutor said. “I want to do the right thing here, Detectives. I just don’t want to lose the confidence of the people who elected me.”
She wanted to give in, but needed an incentive to force her hand. “Ma’am, the media is going to be all over this case when they get word of it.” Thanks to me, I was pretty certain it would happen within twenty-four hours. “How do you think your constituents will feel when they find out that Thom Renzo had every intention of causing great harm to one of their favorite residents?” Hell, I’d only lived in Blissville a few weeks and I saw how much people loved Maegan. “There are times when we need to pick a battle, and crusading against Jessica Hansen probably isn’t the one I’d stake my career on.”
Prosecutor Buxton crossed her arms over her chest and raised a brow. “Because I’m a woman?” I knew that Jessica’s fate could be determined by my answer. She stood a better chance with a jury of local peers, people who could relate to her.
“Because you’re human, ma’am.”
She closed her eyes and breathed deeply into her lungs. “Okay, I’ll make the necessary calls to law enforcement officials to let them know that we’re waiving extradition so she can be tried there.”
“Thank you,” Adrian and I said in relief.
“You better hope this doesn’t come back to ruin my career.” She made shooing motions with her hands. “Get on out of here so I can prepare a statement. I want to go public with my decision before the details of the case are leaked to the press.”
We left her office at once.
“Media, huh?” Adrian asked once we were back in his car. “Is that what you said to the mother?”
“Yeah, I told her to call a reporter.” I released a breath of relief. It had been a long fucking day, but I was glad to have the case behind me. It was too bad that I couldn’t
say the same thing for Jessica and Kayla.
I got to go home and hold Maegan in my arms knowing that she was safe and healthy. It could be a very long time before Jessica breathed as a free woman and Kayla would never be the same. I prayed like hell that she took comfort knowing that Renzo couldn’t hurt her or anyone else again, but she’d never get over what happened to her. I hoped she could find peace and realize that her life was worth living.
“I thought it might give her a fighting chance at a lesser sentence and bring shame down on the officer who allowed Thom to continue on like nothing happened without even talking to the guy,” I explained.
“We can hope that Mr. Titus gets hit with a class action lawsuit,” Adrian said. “What a fucking douche.” He shook his head in disgust then said, “I can’t wait to get home and hug my wife and kids. They remind me why I do this job.”
“Same here,” I replied. Adrian’s brow rose high on his forehead. “Well, not the wife and kids part; I’m not living a double life. I meant I’m ready to give Maegan a tight squeeze.” And so much more. “She’s doing dinner with her friends tonight though, so it will be a while.”
“You want to come over and have dinner with us? You can borrow my wife,” Adrian offered. It was my turn to give him a questioning look. “Not like that, jackass.”
“Nah,” I answered. “I really appreciate it, and I’ll definitely take you up on that offer another night, but I think I’ll just decompress and sort out how I want to break the news to Maegan. I can’t let her read about this in the paper or see it on the news.”
“Town gossip is a terrible thing. Hell, news of Jessica’s arrest probably beat us back to Blissville,” Adrian told me.
“Let’s hope not,” I replied.
When we got to the station, we gave the captain a quick rundown of everything that transpired. He agreed with the prosecutor’s decision to let Jessica be tried in Kentucky. He too offered to feed me when my stomach growled loudly to protest the way I neglected it, and I declined his invitation also.
The Lady is a Thief (The Lady is Mine Book 1) Page 21