Page 19 of My Stupid Heart

“Has he dated any other women?”Ryker scratched at his whiskers and closed his eyes.This was getting fucking weird.

“He dated a woman named Janine Gobillot for a while.Then that ended, and he took up with Kate Gubler.”

Ryker opened his eyes and glanced at Molly and Sasha.“Do you know a Janine Gobillot?”

They both shook their heads.

“Wait, so you think that Mrs.Gubler killed Anthony because Mom dated Coach Adrian?”Sasha asked in a high-pitched voice.“So did Coach Adrian do any of what we thought he did?”

“I still think Adrian is obsessed with Molly,” Ryker said.

Chase agreed with an, “Mhmm.”

“He probably planted the cameras in the house and followed Molly around.And Kate is most likely upset by his lack of interest in her and his interest in Molly.She’s lost two men—Adrian and her husband—and is not taking the rejection well.I don’t know who is demented enough to kill a cat, but based on the fact that Molly has received two messages now calling her a slut, I would guess those were sent by Kate.She keyed your car, and she took the picture of us together and taped it to the door.”

“But you said there were two people outside the house tonight,” Sasha said.“Is she working with Coach Adrian?”

Ryker glanced at Molly and shook his head.“I think her accomplice was one of two people.Either her best friend—”

“Olivia,” Molly said as dread coiled around her gut and squeezed like a hungry serpent.

“Or her daughter.”

“Sailor?”Sasha asked with surprise.

There was a knock at the front door.“It’s Officer Linden,” he shouted.

Molly left her spot at the island where her tea of salvation resided and went to open the front door.The officer’s dour expression offered her little comfort as he stepped inside.“I found something around the far side of the house where you keep your trash bin.”

Ryker and Sasha joined them in the foyer as Officer Linden, cleverly wearing gloves, opened his left palm to reveal a small teardrop earring.

“Does this belong to either of you?”the cop asked.

Molly and Sasha both shook their heads fervently.

“I just have sleeper hoops in my ears,” Sasha said, pulling her dark hair back to show off the three holes she had in each ear that only had cute, tiny silver hoops.She had a seventh hoop in the top cartilage of her left ear, also known as the helix.She desperately wanted her nose pierced, but Molly wanted her to wait until she was sixteen.

Molly shook her head and pulled her strawberry-blonde locks away from her ears.“I’m a simple girl with simple cubic zirconia studs that I haven’t taken out in years.Just one hole in each lobe.”

“Do either of you recognize this earring?”Officer Linden asked.

Molly shook her head.So did Sasha.

“Kate was wearing them this evening,” Ryker said without hesitation.

“You remembered that?”Molly asked, gaping at him.

“I remember what each woman was wearing, each piece of jewelry—that I could see—and I know that Olivia used to be a nail-biter and probably still would be, but she gets those hideous bedazzled acrylics to probably stop herself.But the amount of times she brought her fingers to her teeth and chewed was noticeable.The woman is nervous about something.The question is: what?”

“I’ve never noticed that before,” Molly said, dumbfounded.

“You’re not trained to notice that kind of stuff.I am.”

“But Kate tucked her hair behind her ear several times and I noticed the earrings.Olivia had rose gold hoops with a small clear stone on the bottom of the hoop.Rosalie had pear-shaped diamond earrings, small and understated.Sienna wasn’t wearing earrings, and Evelyn had two studs in one ear and one in the other.I didn’t see what Susannah was wearing in her ears because she had her hair covering them the entire time.She did, however, have a white-gold necklace with a small infinity symbol in the center.”

“Okay, so we—” Molly was cutoff by the cop’s phone ringing.

“Excuse me,” Officer Linden said, stepping into the living room and bringing his voice down to a hush.

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