Saving Grace (6 page)

"Grace Avery Taylor," I replied.

"Miss Taylor, can you tell me your birthday?"

I hesitated. I looked around the room a little then answered, "December 21." I started to freak out a little bit.
That should have been an easy question, right?

"Do you recall what high school you went to?" he continued.

Tears welled in my eyes and I sucked my cheeks in. It took me a minute to visual
ize
the front doors and the name written there.
Why were these questions important? Did they want to
see how long it would take me to snap? Because I was getting really tight around my neck and I squirmed uncomfortably on the couch.
"Brant Point High," I seethed.

"That's good, Miss Taylor. You're doing great. Brant Point High, that's one of the most prestigious schools in New York City. They have a great football team, eh?"

When I made no sound to
answer,
he continued with his questioning, "
Oka
y,
Miss Taylor, what's your mother's maiden name?"

My hands balled into fists. "It
was
Evelyn Canton, but she passed away about ten years ago. My father's name
was
Carlson Taylor, but he passed away the same time as my mother. My brother's name
was
Jacob Taylor, and he passed away about six weeks ago. Would you like to know about my pets as a child?"

"Miss Taylor," Detective Blood Red Lips snapped
,
"We appreciate the extent of your loss and the traumatizing effects of being a victim of such a violent
assaul
t.
Our
job is to make sure we get all the
fact
s.
We're
still trying to understand what happened, so the perpetrator can be prosecuted to the highest degree." As she
spoke,
she placed her hand on the crook of my arm. It wasn't gentle.

I waited for the riding crop. It didn't come
ou
t, but
I knew she wanted it to.

"Do you remember what happened to you?" Detective Fanning asked. I could hear Lea whimper.

"I
wa
s...
um
...
stabbed. Along the left side of my body," I whispered.

"Do you know why?"

Yeah, jackass.
A fucking fallen angel busted out of hell and had his sights set on me and taking over the heavens.
"No. I don't know."

"Do you remember how it happened?"

"I was running away from him. There had been a blizzard and I tried to run through the snow
,
but I didn't get very far. He hit me with something," I explained hesitantly. The more I talked
,
the more the haziness that blurred my thoughts cleared. "He um, kneeled over me and pinned me down. I remember the knife by my face while he talked to me, and I could see the snowflakes falling. Then he cut me. And dragged the knife down."

"And what did Mr. Maxton say when he talked to you before he allegedly stabbed you?"

"
Wh
...w
ho?" I stammered.

Detective Fanning offered me another one of his kind smiles. Immediately I wanted to rip it off his face. "Your attacker, Miss Taylor."

"You said Mr. Maxton, Detective. Are you talking about Shane Maxton?" I asked, voice cracking. A strange heat spread across my chest and shoulders. My heart pounded against my chest.

"Yes
,
Miss Taylor. Shane Maxton is being held on an Assault 1, it's a
Class
B felony."

"Excuse me? What the fuck did you just say?"
Hot tears poured from my eyes.

Ethan and Lea rushed over to me as I stood up. They each grabbed a side of me. Lea was crying and Ethan looked
as if he was
about to.

"Miss Taylor," Detective Fanning interrupted. "Shane had your blood all over him. He was saying it was
all his
fault. At
first,
it looked to be a
clear-cut
case.
A love triangle.
Shane the jealous lover."

I looked both detectives in their eyes. It was like I
had
just woken up that very minute from my coma. "I don't have a
lover
,
Detective
,
let alone a triangle of them! Shane Maxton did not attack me! Blake was there, ask Blake!"

Detective Fanning's kind smile disappeared, his deep brown eyes looked surprised and he turned to my friends with an accusatory stare. "We tried to take Blake
Bevli's
statement at the hospital
,
but he was incoherent."

"So ask him again! Shane Maxton did not hurt me physically in any way!"

Unprofessionally
,
Detective
Sorens
barked out a laugh
,
her red lips curled back like she was a demon, "Yeah, well we can ask him now can we? Dead people don't usually talk."

"WHAT?" I yell
ed. Waves of nausea rolled through my stomach
,
crashing themselves against my insides. I clutched at my stomach and looked around the room at the people who were surrounding me. Lea was cradled in Conner's arms sniffling
,
and Ethan hung his head down low.
How could no one have told me this? Or had they
,
and I was too heartbroken and drunk to remember?

Detective Fanning gently took hold of my hand and he gave Lea, Conner
,
and
Etha
n,
one last disappointed glare. "I'm sorry to have had to be the one to tell you," he said in a soft voice. "I'm truly sorry. What was your relationship with Blake
Belvi
?"

My mind whirled and spun out of my control.
I should have realized Blake would be dead.
He had to have been dead if a fallen angel took over his body. It was the only way they could be human
;
as human as they could be for a while anyway. Blake was dead before I even met him the day before the
snowstorm
.

"Uh, how...what?" I couldn't form a complete sentence. I grasped through the fog in my head to try to find the answers they needed to hear. If I couldn't, Shane would be gone for a long time and he didn't deserve that.

"He overdosed." The statement floored me. I wondered if that's what really happened to him when that damn angel had taken over.

Detective Fanning's soft voice continued probing, "What
was
your relationship with Mr.
Belvi
, Grace, you haven't answered that question yet."

I focused my eyes on the detective's. "I did not have a relationship with Blake. I had only known him for a day
,
Detective. He was Tucker's cousin. Tucker and the rest of my friends thought it would be safest for me to stay at the
Belvi's
winter house
,
because someone tried to kill me by starting a fire in my apartment." I took a deep breath, "A fire that I only survived because Shane Maxton crawled through flames and carried me out!" I started pacing the floor.

"That's the reason we need your statement about the events of the night, Miss Taylor. Things just don't add up, there are many holes in the story and we'd like you to fill them in," Detective
Sorens
explained.

I swallowed down the bile that was threatening to explode from my insides. My head throbbed and I clutched at my stomach
,
wishing that this
were
all a bad dream. I feverishly rubbed at my temples trying to clear my brain from the cobwebs it had collected over the last month.
They had holes in their story and needed my statement, needed me to fill them in on what had happened.
They had been under the impression that Shane had been the one who tried to kill me.
Shane
.
The Shane that begged me to kiss him.
The Shane that wanted to know why I had a pair of broken angel wings tattooed on my shoulder and what he could do to become the man good enough that I could love. My heart beat faster.

Both detectives watched
m
e
;
both
weighing my silence against my body language. My friends waited, breaths held, to hear the truth in my words. What would I say about Blake? Do I tell everyone the truth? That Blake was the one that held the knife that introduced my warm blood to the cold
snow.
But it wasn't Blake. It was Psycho Angel. Shane and Blake
were
both innocent. At least in the case of who tried to kill
me.

I tried to stand up as straight as I possibly could. "Detectives, Shane
Maxton did not attack me. Blake and I stumbled into an intruder when we returned to the
Be
lvi's
winter residence. Blake had just gone back to the house with me to ah, get my guitar. We were all at the resort bar singing karaoke and everyone wanted me to play."
I was not about to tell them I mistook Blake for my long lost angel and was taking him back to the house to continue the kiss he gave me so long along.

Think. Think
.
Think
.
Shane's heartbroken expression when I walked away with Blake to the bedroom. The loud crash and shatter of glass breaking.
"The intruder wore a black ski mask
and was dressed all in black. He was holding one of the
Be
lv
i's
antique glass vases when we came inside. We must have startled him
,
because he dropped it when he saw us."

I watched Detective
Sorens
give a slight glance to her partner, acknowledging the fact that I had just explained part of the crime scene.
Think. Grace think. What happened next?
O
h,
my God, was Shane in jail this whole time?

The bedroom. Blake, who really wasn't Blake, I hit him in the head with a snow globe
. "We ran into one of the back rooms and the guy with the ski mask ran after us. He smashed Blake over the head a few times with a snow globe and I tried to run away
,
but he caught me. He pulled h
is
ski mask off to try to kiss me. He had blue eyes and blond hair. He had no facial hair." I gave a detailed description of Gabriel, six foot four inches, bronze skin, muscular, between 180-200 pounds, wasn't it really the truth? Wasn't it Gabriel who tried to kill me while I was in a coma? I just didn't tell them he had wings.

"No way in hell was it Shane
,
and Blake was passed out cold. When I finally got
away,
I ran into the snow and he came after me. He hit me, I think with the same snow globe he used on Blake. That's when he cut me. I think Shane was the one who found me. I think he was the one who saved me." I looked over to Lea who stood with her hands covering her mouth. "I remember thinking he was my angel that came to save me.
And he was
."

The interview went on and on. They asked me a million questions, many of the same questions but asked differently. I didn't crack. I didn't falter. I knew how to keep secrets. I had so many of my own.

When the detectives were satisfied with my
statement,
they immediately called the District Attorney's office. I was then driven downtown to the Manhattan D.A.'s office on Centre Street to repeat the same answers to the
exact same questions in front of the District Attorney.
Great times, seriously
. I suffered through four metal detectors, had a wand run over me (and that's always fun since I have a ton of metal pins in my body from the car accident whe
n
my parents died) and a
slew
of personal questions that left me feeling more violated than I'd ever felt in all of my existence. But it was worth it to get an innocent guy out of jail. The District Attorney ended up withdrawing charges against Shane and sent an order for his release from Riker's Island.

And, that's
w
he
re
Shane had been for the five weeks since his arrest, Riker's Island. Now, that must be a fun place to be for someone as pretty as Shane Maxton.
Crap, is he really going to hate me now.