Stirred (32 page)

“I didn’t catch your name,” I said.

“Matthew Reed, Detective, Seattle PD, East Precinct.”

I nodded with a forced half-smile. “Look, Officer—”

“Dee-
tec
-tive,” he corrected phonetically, slow, like I was a moron.

“Sorry. Detective. Look, I’m a third year law—”

“I know exactly who and what you are, Mr. Bennett.”

I sighed and bit back a retort. “Can you at least tell me what you’re investigating?”

“Double murder,” he replied with a certain amount of smugness.

“What? Who?”

He hoisted a single brow and said, “Your lover’s husband and his girlfriend,” before moving back down the hall.

My heart thumped against my sternum. “What the fuck?”

I raked my fingers through my hair, my mind racing at warp speed. Double murder? My lover’s husband and his girlfriend?
He must be referring to…

Oh my God, no… Eden!

“Wait!” I yelled in panic. “What about Eden? Tell me she’s okay. Tell me she’s not hurt!” But Detective Reed didn’t bother to answer. He let me stew in my own fear.

Calm down. Think.
Reed would’ve mentioned if she was hurt. He would’ve said if she was involved. Jesus Christ, Declan Ross…murdered. Holy shit! And his girlfriend, too. But…was that Eden’s best friend…or mine? They were both seeing him. Damn, I prayed it wasn’t Trin.
Please, don’t let it be Trin!
But as concerned as I was about her, I couldn’t stop worrying about Eden. I kept telling myself
,
the cop would’ve said if she was involved; he would’ve taunted me if she was hurt.
No, Eden’s fine. She’s safe. Stay calm and think. Think, damn you, think!
Then I wondered how they’d connected me to Eden in the first place.
Fuck…I bet they saw our text messages on her phone.

“Crap,” I muttered and glanced over at my nightstand. I always charged my cell phone there while I slept. But I couldn’t remember going to bed, so…had I even put it there? Fuck!

Breathe. Stay calm. Eden’s safe. Think. Just think. One thing at a time…

With a deep breath, I leaned over and swiped the search warrant from where I’d left it. By law, warrants had to be specific on where the authorities were permitted to search, but, glancing at this one, it was pretty broad, and the cops were allowed to search anything within my residence, including my cell phone and computer. Either would connect me to both Eden and Trin. So who was the source?

“All clear,” the forensic officer searching my dresser reported. From there, he packed up his equipment and moved into my bathroom.

“All right, you can get dressed,” the uniform standing guard announced.

“Gee, thanks,” I replied, but the derisive sentiment appeared lost on the cop as he settled back at ease with his hands behind his back and his eyes forward.

Easy
, I urged myself.
Don’t exacerbate the situation.

I sifted through the mess of clothes the forensic guy left piled on the floor until I found something appropriate to wear. Slipping my boxers on beneath the sheet, I spoke to the uniform without looking at him. “I need to use the toilet.”

“You’ll have to ask the officer searching your bathroom,” he replied.

After I pulled on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, I wadded up the sheet and threw it back onto the bed on my way to the master bath. But, before I even made it to the door, the guy inside yelled for Detective Reed, who hustled back into my room.

With a hand to my chest, he pushed me out of the way and said, “Sit back down,” adding, “What d’ya got?” to his forensic guy once he entered the bathroom

Disregarding Reed’s warning, I stepped into the doorway and glanced around. With his hands encased in blue latex gloves, the forensic guy held out two large, clear plastic evidence bags with the date, location, and my name scrawled across the label. Reed took the bags and examined the contents.

“These yours?” he asked me with a brief glance.

I stepped closer and took a long look at the bag’s contents.

“Grey U-Dub sweats,” Reed added.

I swallowed hard, not sure how to answer.

“Sorta,” I said at first. “I mean, no, they don’t
belong
to me, but I was wearing them last night.” I shook my head. “I mean…I borrowed them from a friend when I got mud all over my clothes.”

“Who’s your friend?” Reed asked. “What’s his name?”

“Um…her,” I clarified. “They belong to a girl, I mean…a woman. Trinitee Marsh. We go to school together.”

Reed handed the bags back to his guy and whipped out his smartphone. “Can you spell that?” he asked and jotted the information down. “Trinitee. That’s an unusual name.”

“Well, she’s an unusual girl,” I said without thinking.

“She live nearby?”

“Um, yeah. Maybe five miles, in Redmond near Microsoft.”

Reed simply nodded as he tapped on his phone. His reaction—or lack of one—suggested her name didn’t mean anything to him, which probably meant it was Eden’s friend who was killed along with her husband. Not Trinitee.

I closed my eyes and breathed a sigh of relief. Even though I was still very angry at the games Trin had been playing with my life, I certainly didn’t wish her any harm. When I opened my eyes, Reed had pocketed his cell and stepped closer to his forensic guy still holding the bags.

“So, how’d you get mud on your clothes,” Reed asked as he took one of the bags back and inspected it more closely.

Just thinking about last night made the heat of Eden’s betrayal wash over me. I gritted my teeth and tried to shrug off the heartache.
Calm down
, I kept telling myself
.
Eden was in trouble. Her husband had just been murdered. “I…um…I slipped in the rain and fell.”

“Is that how you got all chewed up?” he asked.

“Excuse me?”

He pointed at me. “Your hands. They’re a bit…ragged.”

I lifted my hands and looked them over. Sure enough, the flesh along the heel of each hand and across my knuckles was bruised and tattered. “I, um…I guess.”

“You
guess
?” Reed echoed. “You aren’t sure how you injured your own hands?”

I raised my eyes to his. He glared at me with intensity.

“Well, I…uh…last night, I…I was pissed and—”

“At what?” he interrupted.

I narrowed my eyes, like it should be obvious. “At falling down and ruining my clothes.”

He pressed his mouth into a frown, yet nodded like it made sense. “So where’re your muddy clothes?”

I thought for a second and shut my eyes. “Ugh. I left them in Trin’s bathroom.”

Reed smiled. “That’s okay. I’ll send someone over there to pick ‘em up.”

“What?” I asked. “Why?”

Same pleasant smile, like this was all just routine, which it might be for him, but it wasn’t for me. I started to feel like I was being played…again. And that’s when I realized I’d probably said too much.

Fuck.

You’d think I’d be smarter than to allow some schmuck cop to manipulate me into answering questions when it was my right to remain silent, and doing so was the much-wiser choice. No doubt Trin would have a grand laugh at that. She’d told me I should’ve walked away after having Eden that first time, that nothing good would come of it, and, like always, it appeared she might be right, dangerously so.

My heart rate ticked up a notch. I suddenly felt like the walls were closing in on me, and, when Reed asked what was all over Trin’s sweats, and the forensic guy replied, “Tests positive for blood; same in the shower and sink,” those walls began to crush me.

“What the fuck?” I swore as I began to back out of the bathroom.

Reed turned and stepped toward me. “I think it’s time you and I had a more serious conversation.”

I continued to back up into my bedroom, stepping toward the open hallway door. “Wait,” I begged, pointing at Reed.

“Don’t make this difficult, Mr. Bennett.”

“I haven’t done anything. I swear. Please…”

Reed shook his head. “Stop right there,” he ordered before stomping after me.

I turned and dashed down the hall, but I’d barely made it to the kitchen when one of Reed’s men blocked my path. I crashed into him, and Reed slammed into us both. He grabbed one of my arms while his guy held fast onto the other. Reed slapped a pair of cuffs around my wrists the moment they had my hands at my back.

“Sean Bennett, you’re under arrest in connection with the murder of Declan Ross and Aurelia Wylde.” He seized my arm and hauled me toward the front door.

“I didn’t do this.”

“You have the right to remain silent, Mr. Bennett. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law…”

“Please, Detective, I’ve never even met those people.”

“You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you.”

“This is a setup. I didn’t kill anyone!”

“Do you understand the rights I’ve just read to you, Mr. Bennett?”

“Please, Detective—”

He stopped and looked me hard in the eye. “Mr. Bennett, do you understand the rights I’ve just read to you, yes or no?”

“Yes, of course, but—”

“With these rights in mind, do you wish to speak with me?” he asked, his penetrating gaze a silent warning, but to what, I wasn’t sure.

I wasn’t sure of much of anything. There were huge gaps in my memory over the last twelve hours. I worried Trin might have had something to do with it, but it was the hours
before
I saw her that I was most concerned with, so it couldn’t be her, could it? Which meant…

Eden.

I couldn’t help but wonder if she’d somehow set me up.

Fuck
.

A million questions raced through my mind during the car ride from Bellevue to the Seattle police station up on Capitol Hill. What the hell happened to Declan and Aurelia, and who on earth killed them? Where was Eden, and was she safe?
Please, God, please, let her be safe!
How was she coping, and what had she told the police? Why was there blood all over the sweats Trin loaned me, and, most pressing of all, whose was it?

I did a mental check of my own body. Besides the irritating sting along the mangled flesh of my hands cuffed behind my back, I didn’t feel any other pain that might indicate an injury. Then again, I understood enough biology to know the extraordinary amount of adrenaline coursing through my veins might very well be overriding all other sensation. My heart felt ready to explode with it. I just prayed the blood was mine, because any other possibility was inconceivable.

Shit, why couldn’t I remember anything? I was missing those four hours between running from Eden’s house and meeting Trin over at hers. And again between the time I’d collapsed at home and when the police had barged in. Both times, I’d woken up with no memory of how I’d gotten there, but I felt certain I’d moved under my own steam, whether I was conscious of it or not. So, why couldn’t I remember, and what had I done during that lost time? Was I capable of killing Eden’s husband? While I hated the thought of him, killing or even harming him had never crossed my mind. Even with the obstacle he’d presented in my relationship with Eden, never in my wildest dreams would I ever kill him, or anyone else, especially someone I didn’t know.

I considered how angry I was when I saw Eden accept her husband’s advances. It was because I loved her so deeply that it hurt so much. Her betrayal ignited feelings in me I didn’t even know I possessed. Even after all Hayley had done, I’d never felt rage to the extent I had while watching Eden and her husband. Had that rage served as some kind of switch? Had it triggered something in me, some kind of monster who could take the lives of others?

If
I
couldn’t recount where I’d been and what I’d done, if I could doubt myself, my motives and what I was capable of, I knew the cops would have no problem slapping a full-blown murder charge on me. But I wanted to know the truth. I
needed
to know. Down deep, no matter the circumstances, I didn’t believe I had it in me to kill. Beyond that, I loved Eden way too much to put her through that, to put her at risk and take her child’s father away from him. His pain would be unbearable, and that would destroy her. I could never do that to either of them. Never.