Page 83 of Taking Denver

Though, I guess if he had, I’d already be in handcuffs.

Axel still isn’t home, but that’s an issue I have to fix alone. I’ve covered for him with Ranger, but I can’t do it for much longer. There’s so much mess, and I keep creating more.

“Mrs. Ledger.”

Ugh, I hate the way Hayes says my name. It’s like he’s always surprised to see me, as if he doesn’t follow me fucking everywhere.

“About time,” I say, standing.

Ranger can’t come in with me, but our lawyer can. The lawyer who, for lack of a better phrase, scares me shitless.

Dennis Smith. Such an innocent name for a man like him. He is maybe a hair shorter than me, bald, with round glasses and a jolly face. But a man who can keep Ranger Luxe’s record clean is a man to be feared.

The light bounces off Dennis’s bald head, and he smiles. “Go ahead, Denver. I’m right behind you.”

I walk past Hayes without giving him a second glance and take a seat at the interview table.

They run through my details, name, address, date, and time, and I cross my leg over my knee again. I look impatient, but I don’t care.

Hayes watches me, uncharacteristically quiet. Maybe our argument at the car has made him change tact. Or maybe he’s tired of trying to get me to talk.

“This shouldn’t take long,” Hayes’s partner, whose name I’ve already forgotten, says. “We’d just like you to run through the night of May thirtieth again.”

I clear my throat. I’ve gone through it so many times and am so confident in my lie that I’ve started to doubt myself. But I know the script, so I stick to it.

“It was my birthday party at Ranger’s house. There were around eighty people there. I saw my husband last at around nine thirty because we’d just blown out my birthday candles. Ididn’t see him after that, but it wasn’t unusual for him to go out late. I got a phone call early in the morning to say he’d been killed and…” I pause, acting embarrassed to say what I say next. “I didn’t deal with it well. I had plane tickets, and I left.”

“Do you know why he left the house that night? Why would he leave his wife’s birthday party?”

I shrug. “I have no idea why he left. A lot was happening. We didn’t stay together all night.”

“What did you last talk about?”

“I don’t remember,” I say. “It could have been anything.”

“Did you argue?”

“No.”

The partner raises his brows. “You just said you didn’t remember.”

I resist rolling my eyes. “I think I’d remember arguing on my birthday. I don’t remember what was said, but it wasn’t an argument. We had nothing to argue about.”

“Not even his affairs?” the partner asks.

“I didn’t know about his affairs until after he was dead.”

Hayes still says nothing. He watches me quietly.

“Were you having an affair with Ranger Luxe?” the partner asks.

“No.”

“You don’t seem surprised by my question.”

“It’s all anybody is asking. Have you seen the hashtags?” I retort, my eyes moving to Hayes. “Detective Hayes has.”

“So, your affair with Ranger started after your husband died?” the partner asks.

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