Page 129 of Secrets Beneath the Waves
“Why?”
She shoved her hair behind her ears with both hands. “Look, I admit you’ve been trained really well.”
He frowned. “Trained?”
“Yeah, this whole…” she waved a hand up and down in front of him, “…nice guy holding the witness’s hand until you can get what you want out of her thing. But you forget, I know the real you.”
His jaw tightened. “Is that so? And who is the real me?”
“That man-child in the pub last night. You being you, with nothing to gain or lose. And I wouldn’t trustFrat Boyalone in the house with me overnight, even with an escaped killer on the loose.”
For a moment he only stared at her, his jaw still clenched. Then hurt drifted into his dark eyes. “You wouldn’t trust me?” He drove his fingers through his hair, leaving it standing slightly on end. “Look, I admit I was a jerk last night. But, Jules, I’m a cop. What do you think I would do? Attack you in your sleep?”
A twinge of remorse pricked her chest. She hadn’t meant to hurt him. Still, she needed to stand her ground. “Probably not. Even so, I don’t want you hanging around. It’s way above and beyond your call of duty, which means it would be a personal thing, on your own time. Something a friend or a boyfriend would do. And you are definitely neither of those.”
Dante drew in a long, slow breath. “Got it.” The sound of cars pulling up to the front of the house and doors slamming cut off anything else he might have said. Instead, he spun around and stalked toward the corner. “I’m going to work. Take care of yourself, Jules.”
Well, she hadn’t intended to send him off like that. Jules pressed a palm to her churning stomach. “Dante.”
He lifted a hand in a gesture that might have been a wave or a dismissal, likely the latter, before disappearing around the side of the bungalow.
Jules pressed her eyes shut and huffed out a breath before following. She came around to the front of the house in time to see him talking to a female colleague in the driveway and gesturing in her direction before heading to a dark-gray sports car parked at the curb. Without a glance back at Jules, he slid behind the wheel and slammed the door. Hard.
Jules flinched. Before she could think what to do, the woman Dante had spoken to walked over to her. “Officer de Marco said you found footprints in the backyard that could be pertinent to our murder investigation?”
Jules repressed a sigh. “That’s right. I’ll show you.” She led the officer around to the back and showed her the prints beneath her bedroom window. “Do you want me to stay out here?”
“Will you be in the house if we need you?”
“Until about three-thirty this afternoon, when I need to go to work.”
“That’s fine, then.” The woman crouched to examine the prints more closely.
Jules started for the corner of the house.I should call Kelli and…Oh right. No phone. She couldn’t call anyone. She whirled around and returned to the investigator.
The woman, still in a crouch, looked up as Jules approached, shielding her eyes from the sun with one hand. “Can I help you with something?”
“I hope so. I was wondering if you happened to be one of the officers who investigated the crime scene last night.”
“I was, yes.”
“Did you or anyone on your team find my phone in the alley? I dropped it near the dumpster when I heard that woman scream.”
The officer straightened and brushed dirt off her knees. “I didn’t, no. I don’t remember anyone else finding a phone, either, but let me go check.”
“I’d appreciate it.”
Jules followed her to the front of the house, hanging back when the woman spoke to two male colleagues who had been lifting gear out of a van. Her heart sank when both men shook their heads.
The woman walked back to Jules. “Sorry. None of us found a phone. You’re sure you dropped it at the scene?”
“Yes. Positive.”
The officer grimaced. “It’s possible that the suspect grabbed it before he disappeared. If that’s the case, you might want to look into securing any online accounts you don’t want him getting into.”
Great. Jules hadn’t even thought of that. “I will, thanks.”
“All right then. I’ll let you know if we need you for anything else.”
