Page 112 of Whiskey Chase
I sighed. There was no turning back now. “Come on in then.”
Cassidy followed me inside. She’d been in my home hundreds of times. We’d giggled drunkenly over men and eaten way too many pizzas and dozens of wings under this roof. We’d guzzled beers and sunned ourselves on the dock. And now I was about to confess to withholding evidence. A crime. I’d looked it up online.
“Are you mad?” I asked.
“Hell yes, I’m mad! I’m mad that you didn’t tell me, Scar. What the hell were you thinking?”
I scrubbed my hands over my face. “Are you asking as a cop or my best friend?”
In answer, she smacked me on the back of the head. “What do you think, jackass?”
I gave a weak laugh. “I found it, and it took me a few minutes to put it together. I knew it was hers, but I didn’t realize she’d gone missing in it, and when I did...” I took a breath and shook my head. “I just wanted to get Dev as far away from that sweater as I could.”
“He wouldn’t have turned you in, idiot.”
“I know that. But he’d want to get involved, and he’s running for re-election next year. That wouldn’t be an option if he were tangled up with the daughter of a potential... whatever you’re going to say Daddy is. It’s one thing to date me. I think we could have made it work. But there’s no way Dev’s career would survive a murder investigation.”
“Even if your daddy had something to do with it—which I’m not saying he did—you had nothing to do with it. None of you did.”
“Yeah, but we’re the ones left. We’re the ones who’d be gossiped about half to death. We’re the ones who’d have the media on our front steps. I can’t ask Devlin to stand by me through all that.”
“He would,” Cassidy pointed out bluntly.
“Iknowhe would. And I’m not asking him to do that.”
“Because you love him.”
I didn’t want to talk about me loving or not loving Devlin when what we really needed to talk about was in a freezer bag in the cabinet.
“Let’s get this part over with,” I said. I opened the cabinet door and pulled out the bag.
Cassidy handled it with care. “Jesus. I didn’t quite believe it until right this second,” she confessed.
“It’s not that we didn’t trust you, Cass. I just didn’t want to drag you into this mess... yet. If it makes you feel better, Bowie wanted to drag you in right away.” And apparently he’d gone scampering next door with a guilty conscience and hearts in his eyes.
Cassidy grunted, not appeased, and I didn’t blame her. If she would have kept something like this from me, I’d be good and pissed. But now wasn’t the time for apologies. It was the time for truth.
“There’s stains splattered on it,” I said, jerking my chin toward the sweater. “I didn’t notice them, but Jameson did.”
“Hmm,” Cassidy said.
I could see her cop wheels turning.
“Who all’s handled this?” she asked.
I winced. “Just me without the bag. Bowie and Jameson with the bag.”
“Why not invite the Bootleg High School football team to play keep away with it?” Cassidy was snarky when she was pissed. “I’m gonna need you to take me to where you found it,” she said.
I nodded. “FYI, we didn’t touch anything else in the house after I found this.”
“At least you did one thing sorta right,” Cassidy sighed. “That’s why we bring these things to law enforcement immediately. We find things the average person doesn’t. Forensics and all that.” She flopped down in a chair. “Jesus, I remember the night she disappeared. I remember my daddy getting the call the next morning that she never came home. I remember watching her walk away from the lake wearing this exact sweater.”
“Brings it all back,” I agreed.
“Did you know this is why I went into law enforcement?” Cassidy asked.
“I had no idea. I thought you wanted to be like your daddy,” I told her.
