Page 17 of Summer Shivers
“I went to find my brother’s killer!” My voice rises, emotions already too tense for this. Never should’ve fucking come here. “Look, no one knows better than me how quickly your feelings can change.”
“My feelings didn’t change.” She sighs. “You know what, it doesn’t matter. I called you because I thought you might be an ally. My only ally really. But I see now I was wrong.”
“Why the fuck would I be your ally? Of all the people you know? After what you did?”
“What did I do except live my life after you chose work over me. Again.”
“My brother had just died. I was devastated.” I’m admitting too much. I need to cut this short now before I say something I’ll regret. “Clearly we aren’t getting anywhere with this.” I take a deep breath and soften my voice. “What makes you think I can help you? Or be an ally?”
The coffee maker beeps it’s finished; she rises to get mugs and fill them before returning to the island. “Well, first I guess I thought you’d believe I was innocent.” She takes a sip. Her pink tongue peeking out to taste the edge of the mug before closing her lips around it. A habit I’d forgotten about until just now. A move that goes right to my dick. He jumps in response, remembering her tongue well.
I shift in my seat. “I don’t even know what happened.”
She laughs, sardonically. “Yeah, me neither.”
“Start from the beginning. The day before.” I tell myself I want to know it all for the purpose of helping her. But part of me hopes she’ll admit their marriage was shit. And if she did kill him, there was a good reason for it.
“We had a nice evening together, then we . . . um, let’s just say we started discussing where to go for vacation.” She stops and wipes the tears away from her cheek. “A trip for the two of us. He wanted to go trekking through some jungle in Costa Rica. I wanted to go to a resort by the water in Maldives. It wasn't a fight, it was just a little argument. A disagreement.” She shakes her head a little. “It went back and forth for a while, he had his reasons, I had mine. It was normal couple stuff.” She sighs and shakes her head.
I can’t believe what I’m hearing. “You fought over where to vacation?” I scoff.
“I know it seems trivial. But we got along so well, there were hardly ever things to disagree about.”
I roll my eyes. “What happened after that?” Because so far this sounds like a load of shit if she’s being real with me.
“Nothing. He didn’t want to go to sleep yet, so he went for a swim. I took a sleeping pill and went to bed. When I woke the next morning I found him floating in the pool, and he was already dead.”
“If I get a copy of the police report, is it going to say the same thing?”
“Of course it is. I didn’t kill Harrison though; you have to believe me.”
Everything she’s just said bounces around in my brain. Something doesn’t add up. The fight doesn’t sound serious. They were planning a vacation. Whole thing wrapped up in a bow.
“What is your attorney saying?” I ask.
She lets out a hollow laugh. “Nothing. I had Grant come to the station. He’s the attorney for the business and works for Harrison.” Genevieve groans. “Worked for Harrison. He…he’s the only attorney I know.” She pushes her empty coffee mug away. “He said I need to get a criminal defense attorney.” She looks down at her hands wringing them together. I’m not surprised he said that to her, by all appearances everything is pointing to her.
“Why would someone think you’re guilty?” I ask.
“I don’t know.”
“Really?”
She shrugs.
“No crazy fights in public? No marriage counseling? Fucking on a regular basis?”
She looks down at her coffee, blushing.
“We went to counseling. Who doesn’t?”
I don’t answer that. Plenty of couples don’t.
“We were trying for a baby,” she says softly.
My gut tightens, a wave of nausea washes over me. I asked the question, but I’m not ready for the answer.
She was supposed to have my babies. Not his.
