Page 122 of Run Away With Me

Detective Beaufort put her papers back in the folder and caught me with her intense gaze.

‘You haven’t been charged with a crime, Jessie,’ she said, and maybe it was my imagination, but she sounded a little kinder now. ‘Seattle PD have been looking for you becauseyou disappeared after a man close to you was found dead, and no one knew where you were.’

‘They thought I killed him, though …’ I said desperately.

‘Did they?’ she asked.

‘They must have.’ I couldn’t comprehend any other reality.

Detective Beaufort leaned forward a little. ‘Jessie, listen to me,’ she said clearly. ‘You say you didn’t kill him. My colleagues in Seattle don’t think you killed him.’

Claire jumped in. ‘You were brought into custody partly to make sure you were safe, to ensure no one was making you do something you didn’t want to do, and partly so the police could ask some questions for the investigation into Mitchell’s death. We’ve established all of that now. So you can go home.’

‘Do I have to go back to my mom?’ I asked, hating how pathetic my voice sounded.

The two women exchanged glances.

‘Not necessarily,’ Claire said.

‘I still don’t get it. The police were chasing us …’

‘Chasing you?’ Detective Beaufort asked. ‘I don’t think so, Jessie. There has been an alert out for you since you went missing, because you’re only seventeen and because of the circumstances. We’ve been keeping a lookout for you, but no one was chasing you.’

I wanted to push her for more answers, to ask about the sheriff’s deputy who had stopped us outside Atlanta and the cops who had followed us in Salt Lake City and the child protection people just outside Portland, but all that felt like I was giving too much away.

Without warning, ice-cold realization crept down my spine as Detective Beaufort’s words settled in.

You say you didn’t kill him.

We don’t think you killed him.

I had never needed to run away.

No one had thought I’d torn the Creep to pieces and left him bleeding on the floor.

There was no reason the past two weeks had ever needed to happen. I could have stayed at home, in Seattle.

And if I’d never gotten into Brooke’s Mustang, she wouldn’t have met Chris and he wouldn’t have kidnapped her. Drugged her. Traumatized her.

My heart started to beat faster, and my breath turned shaky. I had to get back to her right away, to explain, to make sure she was okay. I collapsed in on myself and a high, painful whine escaped my throat.

‘Jessie?’ Claire said, rushing over and grabbing my shoulder.

‘What’s wrong?’ Detective Beaufort demanded. ‘Are you hurt?’

I shook my head and wrapped my arms around my waist, trying to physically hold myself together.

‘Are you in pain?’ Claire called out, and I had no idea how to answer that.

They’d just torn everything I knew to be true apart and scattered the pieces. Now I had to rebuild the truth – the actual truth, not just my fears – based on what I’d been told. Guilt seeped into my pores. Would Brooke ever forgive me?

Claire couldn’t come with me back to Seattle because she had another kid she was representing the next morning. She said goodbye to me and wished me luck and I tried to tell herthank you, but the words stuck in my throat. She smiled at me, though, and I think she knew I was grateful even though I couldn’t speak it out loud.

I was assigned another liaison and shipped unceremoniously back to Seattle. Sea-Tac airport was cold and dark when we arrived, and surprisingly quiet. I glanced at a huge clock on the wall – it was just after midnight. It took me a moment to remember that we’d crossed three time zones over the past couple of weeks. I’d barely noticed.

Being back in Seattle didn’t change how I felt. I was still completely numb, not able to really process anything. What Detective Beaufort had told me was such a contradiction to everything I thought I knew that my brain didn’t know how to handle it. No one had been chasing us. Except Chris, who the police didn’t know anything about. No one thought I’d killed the Creep. I was free to leave. They had sent me home.

My liaison took me to a hotel and told me to get some sleep, that she would be in the next room if I needed anything, and I nodded and wondered where my bags had gone. I had nothing – no toothbrush, no pajamas, no Brooke, and I wanted to cry. But it was like my body no longer knew how to produce tears.

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