Acquainted With the Night (14 page)

“Yeah,” Frank jumped in now that Chris had done the heavy lifting. “She said Morrow didn’t call anybody all evening.”

It was the same story Alex had from Patty Herron last March. “What about July Fourth?” Alex asked. “What was Stephanie Morrow up to then?”

“Herron didn’t have any idea,” Frank said. “They had broken up and she told us she hasn’t spoken to Morrow in months.”

Alex sat back, reflecting. All the frustrating problems she’d had with Stephanie Morrow as a suspect in her automobile accident last March were still there. Presumably Stephanie had no idea she would meet Alex that night, although she probably anticipated seeing CJ again at Vivien’s party, so how could she have set up the attempt on her life in advance? There was no evidence, other than a motive, linking Stephanie to the crime.

“What about the interview with Morrow?” Alex asked.

“What a clusterfuck that was,” Frank said, half amused, half annoyed. “She did
not
want to talk to us. We went twelve rounds on ‘Do you have a warrant?’, ‘I’m gonna call my lawyer’ and ‘She’s harassing me again.’ Jesus.”

“I see,” Alex said appraisingly. “What was your assessment of her?”

“She was pissed off,” Frank answered succinctly.

Alex frowned at him, and Chris stepped in with, “She was mad, but I think that was all, Captain. She didn’t seem afraid, or defensive, just nasty. Of course, she could be hiding something else but I don’t think so. She assumed you had sent us over there to harass her about the car accident again. When I told her we were investigating a murder, she seemed to calm down a little.”

“And once you got there, what did she have to say?”

“Nothing that would help us,” Chris answered.

Alex noticed the way she’d unconsciously taken over the report from Frank. Was it because she’d taken the lead in the interviews? Alex somehow doubted it. Chris was settling down nicely from a slightly reckless officer into a very sound detective. She’d always been a hard worker, but Alex was seeing signs of maturity and good judgment, too. She wondered if this was Beth Rivera’s stabilizing influence on her lover.

God knows CJ changed me for the better
.

“To summarize,” Chris continued, “she didn’t know anything. She didn’t run you off the road, she didn’t murder Castillo, she hasn’t seen or spoken to St. Clair since the cocktail party. As she put it in no uncertain terms, I hope I never see the bitch again. End quote. If she’s harboring a secret obsessive passion for St. Clair, she’s hiding it real well.”

“And you think she’s telling the truth?” Alex pressed her.

“I do,” Chris responded, meeting her eyes. “But we thought we’d drop in on her again around the end of the week, just to see if she remembered anything. Mostly to remind her we’re still around.”

“Good plan. Anything else?”

Frank said, “Like we said, we’re seeing Bradford later. We’ll let you know how that goes.”

He shot a warning look at Chris, who subtly shook him off. What were they disagreeing about? Alex wondered.

Chris lifted her chin an inch and said, “Captain, we wondered if we should consider another possibility. Another motive.”

Frank made an unhappy noise, and Alex could see that he didn’t want Chris discussing this with her, for some reason.

Gently, Alex said, “Frank, it’s all right. What’s your theory, Andersen?”

“Maybe this whole thing is just what it looks like. Somebody who’s interested in hurting you, end of story. Both attempts seem to have been directed at you. And short of killing you, what’s the one thing somebody could do to harm you? Hurt your family, or…”

She left the rest unsaid. Alex finished it for her.

“Take CJ away from me,” Alex said quietly.

“Maybe that’s what this is. Not someone after St. Clair. Maybe somebody who hates you enough to mess with your life in every way they can.”

Frank shifted uncomfortably again. Alex said, “I have to grant you that it’s possible. But if it’s not CJ’s family, then it’s got to be a pretty limited pool of suspects. I haven’t been working a caseload for a lot of years now. We can count the arrests I’ve made in the last six years on one hand.”

Stubbornly, Chris said, “Then it should be easy to locate all those perps, shouldn’t it, Captain?”

Alex said tersely, “It’s your case, Detectives. If you think you should pursue this line of inquiry, do it. I have a strong instinct that tells me this is about CJ, not me directly, but I could be wrong. In the end, all that matters is finding out who the bad guy is. So go do that.”

Chris looked fiercely determined as she said, “We’re on it, Captain.”

* * *

Alex closed her office door after lunch and went online to find the telephone number she needed. It took a couple of minutes to get through to Roger Edgarton, senior partner in one of Savannah’s oldest and most prestigious law firms. She finally had to invoke CJ’s name to do it, remembering at the last minute to call her Belle, from Christabelle, the name she’d grown up using.

While she waited for Edgarton to come on the line, she remembered the first time she’d talked to him. He had called her the day after CJ had been hurt, the only conversation of any length she’d ever had with him. She had talked to him briefly a couple of times since, when he’d called the condo for some reason, but she didn’t know him at all except through CJ’s stories. He’d been a friend of her grandfather’s, the grandfather who had left her a sizeable trust fund which had financially cushioned the blow of her family’s rejection of her. It made Alex sad every time she thought about it. CJ’s mother and brother refused to have any part of her life because CJ was gay. Even her father, who would have accepted her, cut off contact with his daughter because of his wife. What a foolish waste.

A man’s deep voice boomed in her ear. “This is Roger Edgarton.”

“Mr. Edgarton, this is Alex Ryan. I’m Belle’s partner, as you may remember.”

“I do, indeed.” She caught a note of something she couldn’t define in his voice.

“I’m calling for your help. I’m not sure if you can help us, but if you can, I would be very grateful.”

The note of hesitation was stronger. “I’m not sure if I will be able to assist you or not,” he said. How could he say that when she hadn’t even asked her favor yet? Alex wondered.

She explained what she wanted. When she was finished, there was a moment’s silence on the line. “I may be able to help with that,” he said carefully. “I’ll make some calls.”

Alex said, “I thank you for this, Mr. Edgarton. If CJ were here, she would thank you as well.”

He rumbled, “I am sure that you are acting in her best interests. My client and I have discussed you, Miss Ryan, as you may be aware. I confess that I did a background check on you when you and Belle first became involved.”

Alex hadn’t known, but wasn’t surprised. “I’m sure you were acting in her best interests as well,” she said calmly. “I know CJ has a lot of money.”

“Yes. Well. She seemed very happy with you, Miss Ryan. I’m very fond of Belle, as if she were one of my own daughters, and I was very pleased that she was happy in her life. Having to leave you made her very—”

He stopped abruptly, and Alex found herself gripping the telephone so tightly her fingers went white. Why hadn’t she thought about this before? “You know where she is,” she said, making the words a statement rather than a question.

He cleared his throat, a sound like a low growl. “Any information I might or might not have would be covered by attorney-client privilege,” he said. “Especially since I have been clearly instructed not to reveal that information to you except under very specific conditions.”

“What?” Alex asked, thunderstruck. “Are you saying you
could
tell me where she is?”

“I have been instructed not to discuss this with you unless you can verify your identity to me, in person, and provide me with satisfactory evidence that the threat to you has been removed. Short of meeting these conditions, I am not authorized to discuss this matter with you further. Except for this: I was instructed to provide you with a few pieces of information if you should contact me.”

It was as if someone were providing her with a breath of fresh air after she’d been held under the water for a long time. She gripped the phone impossibly tighter and said, “What is this information?”

“She asked me to repeat to you her request for you to refrain from seeking her out,” he said. “But I can tell you that she is well, or she was when we last had contact. And she did ask me to tell you that she is sorry, and…” He cleared his throat, and finally added, “She asked me to tell you that she loves you.”

Alex gulped more air into her lungs, as if she’d been a hairsbreadth from drowning. CJ was all right.

She still loves me.
“Thank you,” she choked out.

“I’m pleased that you contacted me,” Edgarton said. “I thought this was information that you needed to hear. I will contact you soon about your other request for information.”

“Yes,” Alex managed. “And I hope, Mr. Edgarton, to meet you in person very soon.”

Chapter Thirteen

Alex stared at Elaine Wheeler and said, “I don’t understand. Are you saying that nothing has changed?”

“Not at all,” Wheeler said. “Certainly your understanding of CJ’s motive for leaving casts many of the facts in a different light. What I am suggesting to you is that not everything has necessarily changed.”

Alex shook her head.

“Let me ask you this,” Wheeler persisted gently. “How do you feel now?”

“Everything is different,” Alex said forcefully. “I’ve had three decent nights’ sleep in a row. I have energy to work, I’m even eating better. It’s like turning a corner.”

“Those are all good things,” Wheeler conceded. “But let me rephrase the question: how do you feel about CJ now?”

Alex stared at her again. “I feel the same way about her as I did before,” she said.

“How was that?”

“I love her,” Alex said angrily. “I loved her before, and I still love her.”

“Yes. And how else do you feel?”

“How else…” Alex stopped, trying to calm herself, trying to understand the emotions roiling inside of her.

Wheeler waited patiently.

“I’m still sad,” Alex finally admitted. “She’s still gone, I’m still alone. When I’m working, it’s better, but when I go home at night, she’s not there. I just miss her. I miss her singing in the kitchen, I miss talking about our day together, I miss holding her.

“And—”

“Yes?” Wheeler said encouragingly.

“I’m angry,” Alex admitted. “I’m mad she didn’t come to me, mad she couldn’t trust me with this. I understand why she left, I do, but part of me wants to scream at her for not being able to trust me to handle the situation. She just ran away. I mean, she thought she was doing the right thing, I know that, but I’m still angry at her. And damn it, I feel guilty about being mad at her. None of this was her fault and she did what she thought she had to do to protect me. I just wish she hadn’t left.”

When she ran out of words, Wheeler looked at her. “So, despite discovering the reason CJ went away, you’re lonely, angry and feeling guilty, is that about right?”

Alex sat back and gave her a wry smile. “Yes, but other than that, I’m fine.”

Wheeler returned the smile. “What do you want now?”

“What do I want? I want her back. I want to solve this, and I want the life we were making together back again. That’s what I want.”

“But you know,” Wheeler said, “all these feelings you’re having won’t just magically go away. If CJ were to walk into the room right now, you’d still have a lot to get through. And so, I imagine, would she.”

“Yes,” Alex said, half in agreement and half a question.

Wheeler continued, “You’ve been feeling very sad for a long time now. And fearful and perhaps even hopeless. And angry.”

Angry? Yes, she admitted, without even knowing where to direct her anger. At CJ? Herself? God or fate or karma? Suddenly she asked, “Do you think CJ is angry, too? At me?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know her. But it’s certainly possible. Regardless of the circumstances, she’s uprooted her entire life and she’s suffering from many losses, too.”

Alex thought about that for a minute. She knew CJ better than anyone, and Wheeler was right. Wherever she was, CJ was lonely too, missing her, and no doubt feeling guilty about leaving. She was undoubtedly angry at whoever had caused all of this. And maybe she was angry with Alex, for not solving the case sooner, and letting her come home. Alex was a good detective, but she could see now that grief had made her careless, and depression had robbed her of the energy to act.

She’d thought all she had to do was find the bad guy, solve the case, and that would fix everything. They could return to normal and be together again. She saw now that the road back was long and twisted, blockaded with recriminations and grief over what had happened: the attempt on her life, David’s death, and their painful separation.

“You look sad,” Wheeler said softly.

“I am sad,” Alex conceded. “I’m not sure we can ever go back to where we were before. And it makes me angry to think that whoever is doing this to us could damage our relationship from the outside. I thought no one would ever be able to do that. I guess I was wrong.”

Wheeler said, “So, grieving, guilty, lonely, angry, and wrong as well?”

Alex looked up quickly to see that Wheeler was actually joking. “Well, yeah,” Alex said, trying to shift the sadness that had settled around her shoulders. “Think I might need therapy?”

Wheeler said, “Yes. But I don’t want you to feel hopeless. You can work through grief and anger and sadness. If you can’t go back to the relationship you had before, look at it this way: relationships are never static. Your relationship would have changed in some ways in any event. Instead of seeing this as a tragic circumstance, you can use it. Together, you may even be able to make your relationship even more solid than you thought it was before. Sometimes going through difficult times makes people, and couples, better and stronger. If you—and CJ—are willing to work at resolving the emotions you’re going through now, you may come out the other side even better together.”