Page 60 of Closer Than You Know

Holy hell. “How about the two of you sit down, and you,” he said to Eve, “start from the beginning?” Might as well hear both sides of the story—not that he expected either one to be the whole truth.

The two sat, Suri sulking and Eve leaning forward, looking determined.

“You have the right ...,” Bent said.

Eve waved both hands in the air. “I know my rights, and I waive whatever I have to waive. I do not want an attorney.”

“Vee won’t like it,” he warned.

“Do you want my confession or not?” Eve snapped.

Bent held up his hands. “By all means, proceed.”

Suri dropped her face into her hands and started to sob in earnest.

Bent got up and went to the door. “Myra, can you take Ms. Khatri to the lounge for ... a few minutes?”

“Sure thing, Sheriff.”

Myra hustled into the room and ushered Suri up and out in no time flat. Myra knew how to deal with emotional visitors. Bent was immensely grateful she had stayed when the former sheriff retired.

He closed the door yet again. “All right then, where were we?”

“I don’t know all that Suri told you,” Eve began as Bent settled behind his desk once more, “but if she told the whole story, then you know I was there when Gates showed up and attacked her.”

“She told me about Gates and the things that happened when she was his student. She explained that she didn’t report it out of fear of being failed in his class—which was required for her certification.”

Eve nodded adamantly. “The man was a piece of shit.”

“Tell me about when he came back into her life.”

“We were out shopping one day and ran into him, and, I don’t know”—Eve shrugged—“it like tripped some forgotten obsession, so he started showing up around here. Watching her. It felt like he was following her. Then he came to her house and tried ...”

“I got that part,” Bent assured her, when she couldn’t seem to find the right words. “What didyoudo when this happened?”

“It was Saturday, and I’d spent the night. He didn’t know I was in the house, so when I heard what was going on, I ran in there. I grabbed the first thing I saw—a cast-iron skillet—and I hit him with it. Then I—”

“Let me stop you right there, Eve.” Bent held up both hands once more to shut her up. According to Suri, she had wrenched free of him and grabbed the cast-iron skillet and done the deed as he tried to grab her again. At least the two women agreed on the murder weapon.

Eve blinked twice. “But why? I’m trying to tell you the truth.”

“Because”—he lowered his hands and took a breath—“Suri is the victim. The DA will look at this from an entirely different perspective if Suri is the one who killed him. It won’t be quite the same for you.” At her look of frustration, he urged, “I’m not trying to tell you what to say or what to do about this. What I am suggesting is that the two of you find your story and stick with it. I appreciate that you want to protect each other, but be aware of the consequences either way you go. Because once the statements are official, it’s damned hard to go back.”

Just when he had thought his day couldn’t go any farther downhill, this situation walked into his office. He would be more than happy to get the Gates case off his plate, but this was not exactly how he’d expected it to play out. He’d learned not long after the remains were identified that Suri had been a student of Gates’s, and he’d suspected that one or both of the older Boyett sisters knew the whole story of how he’d ended up in that cave. But he’d figured, when he had no choice but to get around to it, he would have to dig that truth out bit by bit from one or the other. He sure as hell hadn’t expected a confession from not one but two sources.

One thing he could count on in this job: there was no end to the unexpected.

The door opened, and Suri was back. She’d pulled herself together—for the moment anyway. She sat down next to Eve.

“Why don’t I give the two of you a minute to figure out how we’re going to proceed?” He got up and walked out, closed the door.

Myra raised her eyebrows at him. “I know,” he said.

This was more than a little unorthodox.

Bent checked his cell. Reviewed the latest text messages he’d received. Nothing new. In just a few hours thisEricguy would arrive. He wondered again about the relationship between him and Vee. Jealousy spiked inside him, and he kicked it aside. He had no right to be jealous of her in any shape, form, or fashion.

“Sheriff?”

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