Primal Force (19 page)

When she didn't respond he looked up. The sight of her kicked him in the gut. She was standing very still, the only movement the fingers of her right hand shifting the loose end of her braid. But her soft mouth was pinched by sadness, the same sadness that slouched through her body and made her seem smaller and more vulnerable. It was as if she'd just heard the guilty verdict delivered all over again.

He wanted to go to her, to touch her, but he didn't dare. He was being a cop now. A professional would just move on. He could only move forward.

“Tell me about your relationship with Erin Foster.”

She looked startled to hear the name. But she didn't question why he was asking about the woman. “We belonged to the same sorority. But she was three years ahead of me. Graduated after my freshman year. She was in law school with my brother. So I saw her only from time to time on campus and at college functions.”

“Friendly?”

Something flashed across her face. “We weren't friends. She and Brody were together until just before we met.”

“Is that significant?”

“Only that Erin never let me forget it. Whenever we happened to run into each other she made a point to ask about Brody and then imply that she had recently seen him. As if she thought I'd be jealous.”

“Were you?”

She just stared at him. Clearly the answer was no. He was pretty sure after what he'd learned that she was wrong about Rogers. It irked him that she still believed the douchebag. “For the record, I think you were used. A man who hides his stash in his girlfriend's place is looking for a scapegoat. Pimps and dealers do it all the time. Rogers had a plan if he was caught. You were his patsy.”

He tried to ignore the sick look that washed through her expression. Jesus. He thought what he said would help break the spell of Rogers. But the echo of his words in his ears sounded coldhearted.

Even as he was freaking at the possibility of making her cry, though, the detective part of him noticed that she didn't look so hurt. She did look angry. He watched that emotion smooth the pinched look from her face until her eyes were bright with it.

“I know I was stupid. I was a sorority girl with bleached-blond hair and all the right clothes dating a member of the Tice family. I was self-involved and while not totally an all-about-me girl, I knew that marrying Brody would make me a fixture in society. It was only when I accepted his ring that I discovered I didn't want it, any of it.” She looked straight at Law. “I wasn't going to marry him.”

Law knew she was talking to herself as much as him. He kept eating, just to have something to do that kept him from staring as he listened to her answers. To his surprise, Argyle appeared on his lap and tried to make herself at home. But she kept sliding off his stump. Law grabbed her and tucked her in his right arm. “Tell me more about the night he died.”

She made a turn around the room. “It was late April. I'd been trying to get up the courage to give back the ring almost since the day I accepted it.” She glanced down at her left hand, as if expecting to see the engagement ring she'd once worn. “I was glad he wasn't staying regularly at the apartment. He'd begun making excuses about not showing up for the weekend, or until Saturday night. Then leaving first thing Sunday morning. I didn't even ask why. I wanted out.” She glanced at Law again. “I didn't love him. Not really.”

Law broke off a bit of frittata and fed it to Argyle. “Then why did you go down without a fight?”

“What are you talking about? We had a big wicked fight that night. I threw the ring at him and told him to pack and get out.”

This was news. It wasn't in the court record. “What did he do?”

“He said a few ugly things and left.”

“What did he take with him?” Argyle purred and rubbed herself against Law's Henley.

Jori frowned. “Nothing.” Her voice trailed off in thought. “He did go into the bedroom. I thought he was going to pack so I didn't follow him. But when he came back he had nothing except the leather backpack with his laptop that he carried everywhere.”

“How long was he in the bedroom?” Argyle pawed lightly at the hand Law ate with.

She frowned. “I don't remember. I just wanted him to leave.”

Law waited a beat. “When did you learn about the accident?”

She flinched. “When the police came to my door at five a.m. with a warrant to search the apartment. I don't even think I heard anything they said after they told me Brody had died when his car went off the highway and crashed.” All the blood had drained from her lips.

Ridiculously jealous that a man who'd been dead more than four years could make her so sad, Law pushed on quickly. “Why didn't your attorney use the breakup as motive for you being framed by Rogers?”

“He said what happened between me and Brody wasn't relevant. That I had been found, independently, in possession of illegal substances and that I was being tried for drug possession.”

“But they wouldn't have searched your apartment if Rogers hadn't been found in possession first. Your defense attorney wasn't worth spit because he didn't argue cause.”

She rounded on him, her face flushed. “My parents hired the best lawyer they could find. They tried everything. It didn't work.” She was back on the brink of emotions Law was pretty certain he couldn't handle. So he pushed on, again.

“Did you tell your counsel that Brody was cheating on you?”

Jori waved a hand. “Brody wasn't cheating.”

Law licked a greasy finger clean then touched his keyboard until he found what he wanted. “According to the statement of a woman named Erin Foster, Brody Rogers had been with her on the night he died.” He watched Jori's expression closely. “Did you know about that?”

Jori frowned. “Where did you get that information?”

“It was in the affidavits presented to the grand jury looking into Rogers's death. In her interview, Foster says Rogers came to tell her that he'd broken off his engagement to you, that he said he'd been having second thoughts for a while.”

She was blinking hard. “That's so like Brody!” She paused and jerked her head as if tossing off some burden.

Law was losing patience. “And your counsel never thought it might be a good idea to follow up and see exactly what they were doing together?” He saw her face. “I don't mean screwing each other, Jori. Rogers was high the night he died. Think about it. Some people drink their troubles away. Addicts get high together. Didn't you ever wonder who Rogers's customers were?”

Jori nodded slowly. “I used to lie awake in my cell and think about that.”

“My guess is he was the friendly campus drug dealer. The popular frat boy, a known quantity welcome at all parties. He was safe, exclusive.” Law fed another bit to Argyle without even thinking about what he was doing. “No clandestine buys on corners in not-so-nice neighborhoods. It must have played well with everyone involved.”

Jori's jaw began to work. “Every friend I had deserted me. In the beginning I thought it was because they were shocked and didn't want to be associated with someone who'd been accused of dealing drugs.”

“Or maybe they just didn't want their own secrets outed.”

She looked at him for confirmation. “They thought I was guilty because
they
were?”

“That's a fair guess. They must have expected you to start naming names to cut a deal with the D.A. and save yourself.”

“But I couldn't.”

He gave it to her raw. “They didn't know that, did they? Not until you went to prison, anyway,” he added under his breath.

She had sharp ears. “You mean they knew I was innocent only because I was found guilty?”

Law couldn't answer that. But it made sense. He did have another theory.

“Don't you think it's odd that no one else was arrested behind the revelation of Brody as a drug dealer? Not one client was discovered? Why didn't your defense attorney at least go after Erin? She could have been drug-tested.”

Jori opened her mouth to reply then snapped it shut. For five long seconds she stared at him with a hard expression. He held her gaze with dogged determination. He owed her that.

“Why are you telling me all this now? And what's in it for you?”

Law had to smile. She had finally caught up with him. Smart. He liked that. Liked her. A lot. He owed her his trust, even if it blew up in his face.

“I think there's a connection between Brody, your case, and Tice Industries. Tice and I go way back to my early years as a state trooper. We've suspected them for over a decade of transporting drugs. Twice while I was on patrol we caught a trucker for Tice with contraband. Both times, the trucker was an independent. Tice attorneys successfully claimed the company couldn't be held responsible for what a contract worker did in his spare time. The truckers went to prison and kept their mouths shut. That kind of loyalty requires incentive of both the financial and the physical kind.”

“You mean they were paid to go to prison?”

“And/or threatened. That's speculation. That's all the state police ever had.”

“What has any of that to do with me?”

“I was hoping you could tell me. Rogers was a Tice relation. And he worked for the family business. If they're running drugs, he'd have had an inside track.”

“That can't be true. Maybe Brody was dirty, but Luke Tice always was such a straight arrow his frat brothers called him Mr. Clean.”

“The guy now running for the state senate?” When Argyle made a move to hop up on the table and help herself, Law pushed her back into his embrace with a hand.

“Yes. I never knew Luke well. He and Brody were six years older. And they'd had a falling-out by the time we met. Brody said Luke was jealous that he was working with Luke's dad at the company headquarters while Luke spent his time in the D.A.'s office at much lower pay. But Luke will inherit the major portion of the company, so that never made sense to me.”

“So Rogers lied to you.”

“He didn't lie … Right. He lied to me a lot, in a lot of different ways.”

“Don't beat yourself up about that. Sociopaths like Rogers are masters at not being caught. You never know you're being lied to because you're never not being lied to.”

That statement brought her up short. She turned a gaze on him reflecting her own suddenly darker thoughts. “What about you? You just said that you're after Tice Industries for drug dealing. Is that why I'm here? You hoped I'd be able to name names and give you the inside scoop on how they deal drugs?” Her outrage grew as she said the words aloud. “Oh my God! I'm such an idiot!”

Law stood up, Argyle dumped onto the floor. “Jori, it's not like that.”

Trembling, she backed away from him. “I need some air.” She turned abruptly away, grabbed her North Face vest off a chair, and headed out his front door.

 

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

The chill blast of air surprised her. The weather was turning quickly, as it often did in December in the Ozarks. The evening sky was clear but there was a ridge on the northern horizon that spoke of a Blue Norther headed their way. But Jori didn't pause to go back for hat and gloves. She tucked her hands under her arms to protect them, bent her head to protect her eyes, and hurried down the gravel pathway that led back toward the main road hidden by the trees.

Her boots made so much noise on the gravel that she didn't realize she had been followed until a hand snagged her elbow from behind.

She swung around to meet Law staring down at her, his Henley and sweat shorts the only protection against the wind. He didn't say anything, just stood, big and solid and powerful even on crutches, waiting for her to offer some explanation.

Suddenly she was angry, angrier than she had allowed herself to be at any point in four years because it didn't matter. Nothing worse could happen.

She tried to jerk her arm free of his grasp and stepped away from him, putting up a hand to stop him from advancing again. “I kept thinking that if I just held on, held it in, things would get better. Or at least not get worse. I was innocent. I didn't know anything. But that didn't stop anything. My whole life went to hell and I couldn't do anything to stop it. Nothing!”

Law felt her pain like a jab. He knew about how quickly things could go sideways. One second perfectly fine. The next, jagged bits of one's life were flying away, having burst into a million tiny obscenely painful pieces that would never, ever fit back together properly. The difference was he'd known the risks, and accepted them as part of a job he wanted to do. She had never seen disaster coming.

He didn't know what else to do so he held on to her arm. When she tried to pull away again he applied only as much pressure as was necessary to hold her in place.

She looked down at his grip that completely wrapped around her upper arm, and then her cinnamon-brown eyes met his in blazing anger. “Let me go.”

“I believe you, Jori. I. Believe. You. Are. Innocent.” He said the words separately, hoping they would sink in and take hold in her thoughts.

She held his stare a moment longer. “I was okay when people dropped me as a friend. I'd done something stupid. So maybe I deserved what happened to me. But not my family.” The wind was whipping her voice away but she didn't seem to care. “Many of my parents' so-called friends disappeared, too. They found themselves abandoned at so many social functions they simply stopped going. My dad is a director of academic affairs at UAMS so it didn't really make a difference in his professional life, but my mother's clothing boutique suffered. People came to spy on the mother of the felon, but they didn't leave their money. She nearly closed her doors that first year after I went inside. I brought that shame on them. And they did nothing to deserve it.”