Page 19 of Tormented Diamonds
“I find that hard to believe.”
I give him a tight smile. “I don’t give a fuck what you believe. The burden of proof is on you, not me.”
The lines around his eyes deepen. “And what about Henry Saddler?”
“What about him?”
“He’s missing.”
“Then maybe you should stop following me around and look for him.”
“This isn’t a joke, Marchesi,” he snaps, his good-cop routine faltering. “Security cameras caught him leaving your new wife’s hospital room half an hour before you were arrested. Yet, here you are, and no one has seen him since. You think that’s a coincidence?”
The card stills between my index and middle fingers. “If you’re asking if I’ve kept tabs on the two U.S. Marshals who shadowed my every move for months, the answer is no. Sadly, the bromance is over.”
Technically, that’s not a lie.
A lot of things are over for Henry…
Like breathing.
I can tell Lattimore’s patience is thinning. The sagging corners of his eyes suggest his waning energy is now scraping the bottom of the well. “Christ, what the hell is wrong with you, Marchesi? All you had to do was lie low for a few months and keep your mouth shut. Now, our whole case is fucked.”
“That sounds like a ‘you’ problem.”
His laugh is far from amused. “Oh, no, it’s very much yours. There are a lot of things that don’t paint you in a good light. Take Chief Reese’s daughter for instance. We both know she’s the only reason you’re here. Someone leaked that your shotgun wedding was about to make headlines, so you ran interference.I can’t be mad at it. That’s what a man does for the woman he loves. The question is, would she do the same for you?”
He’s digging deep in his bag of tricks. Everyone knows sowing seeds of doubt is the fastest way to divide and conquer, and these assholes are banking on the bond between Becca and me having more holes than a Swiss cheese wheel.
Nice try.
“My wife is none of your concern.”
“I disagree,” Gibbs pipes up like an out-of-tune accordion. “The new Mrs. Marchesi is very much our concern, considering you were arrested for attempting to murder her.”
“Those charges were dropped.”Unless Reese fed me a line of bullshit, which opens up a whole new can of fuckery.“Or did you block out the part where all my alibis checked out?”
Lattimore returns his bony fingers to the folder. “Yes, Dr. Brennan was quite persistent in defending you. However, I’m more interested in the fact she was reported missing…” He pretends to riffle through the paperwork for a beat or two, then glances up with a smirk. “How interesting. The same day you left Providence.”
It’s all I can do to not crush the card in my fist. “Stay away from Becca.”
“Careful, Marchesi. That almost sounded like a threat.”
“No, a threat implies there’s a warning. That’s a promise, which implies nothing but a guaranteed follow-through.”
As they both stare slack-jawed, I glance up at the clock on the wall.
7:40 p.m.
Enough time for Anton to have returned Becca back home and away from prying eyes.
Tucking the ace of spades back in my pocket, I clasp my hands on the table. “Now, I’m getting bored, so I’m going to expedite this for you… You two are going to back off and leave my wife and me alone.” I cut them off just as both of their mouths open. “Because here’s the thing,Agents… You have nothing on me, but I have something on you. So, I highly suggest you turn off that camera right now.” My eyes track upward where a red light blinks in the far-right corner.
Gibbs lets out a nervous huff. “No.”
“Suit yourself.” I lean forward and soak up the tense silence just to give the knife a good twist. “You want to know why things went to hell when ‘all I had to do was lie low for a few months and keep my mouth shut?’ It’s because your friend, Saddler, was playing everyone.”
Lattimore’s eyebrows shoot toward his hairline. “Turn it off,” he shouts, swinging a flailing arm across his partner’s chest. “Turn that damn thing offnow!”
