Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 71403 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 286(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71403 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 286(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
“I’ll be fine,” I say.
I will be.
I’ve done this before.
And this time I have nothing to hide.
I haven’t hurt anyone.
I grab my purse, stand, and give Aus a kiss on the cheek. “I promise, I’ll be fine.” I turn toward the cops. “Where are we going?”
“Just a private room in the back,” Officer King says. “It shouldn’t take long.”
“Okay,” I say. “Because I don’t want to leave my date waiting.”
Officer King and the other two lead me into a separate room. It’s small with a musty smell hanging in the air. An ancient mahogany desk sits at the room’s center, with a cushy leather office chair in front of it and three bookshelves behind it. The desk is littered with old paperwork and sticky notes, and two more chairs sit across from it.
“You can sit in the leather chair,” Officer King says. “I’ll sit across from you.”
“Okay.” I slowly sink into the soft leather chair. It would be quite comfortable if things weren’t so tense.
“All right.” Officer King takes out a small notebook and flips a few pages. “Are you acquainted with a man named Kinsey Blackwood?”
“Kinsey Blackwood?”
“He also goes by Kin.”
I blink a few times. Kin? The bartender of the East section at Jade Sanctum? Why the hell is this cop asking about him?
“I’ve met him once. He’s a bartender at a club I went to last night.” I slap my hand against my mouth. “Wait a minute. You said this was a possible homicide. Is he—?”
Officer King nods gravely. “Yes, ma’am. He was found deceased this morning.”
Holy shit. One of Aus’s employees is dead?
“I’m…very sorry to hear that,” I say. “But why are asking me about this? It’s unfortunate that he died, but I barely knew the man.”
“We were questioning his brother, Wickliffe Blackwood, an hour ago. He told us he was with you, and we need you to corroborate that story.”
My heart eases. That’s all they want from me.
Of course, this means my not-affair with Wick will now be documented in a police report, but at least they don’t think I had anything to do with Kinsey’s death.
I let out a sigh. “Yes, I was with Wick last night.”
“The entire night?”
“We met at the Jade Sanctum that evening. My date didn’t show, and Wick talked me up. I had a few drinks, and I guess my judgment was impaired, because I went home with him.”
“With Wick Blackwood?”
“That’s correct.”
Officer King jots some notes down. “And you spent the entire night with him?”
“Well, not with him. We didn’t… We didn’t do anything except make out a little bit.”
“I mean, you spent the entire night in his home?”
“Yes.”
“You didn’t leave the house the entire night?”
“Correct.”
“Even though you didn’t pursue a sexual relationship with him?”
I rub at my forehead. “I hardly think that’s important.”
“Why did you stay the night?”
I sigh. “Honestly, I was drunk off my ass. I didn’t think I had that much to drink, but I clearly overdid it. I wasn’t thinking straight. My phone was dead, so I couldn’t order an Uber until I charged it. I passed out on the bed before I could wander off. I did eventually take an Uber, but it wasn’t until this morning. I had to get to work.”
She eyes me. “And you work as a meteorologist for the news.”
“Yes. You can check with them or watch the live broadcast. It’s pretty clear I was there.”
“Of course, ma’am. We’ve already cleared that. A lot of our station watches your channel.”
“Tell them thank you.”
She nods without smiling. “Mr. Blackwood says you slept in a different room than he did. Is that true?”
“Yes. I slept in his bedroom, and he crashed on his couch. He didn’t want me to feel uncomfortable, so he offered me a room with a lock.”
“And you locked the door?”
“Correct.”
“Did you wake up during the night at all? Go into the living room? Leave the house, even for just a minute?”
“Why does that matter?”
Officer King flips her notebook back a few pages. “Our coroner estimates the murder took place around three in the morning last night. But the thing is, if you slept in a separate room from Mr. Blackwood and were asleep before two or so, you can’t really corroborate that he was with you at the time of the death.”
I blink. “I mean, I honestly don’t know the guy. He seems decent. Like, when I told him I was no longer interested in sleeping with him, he backed down. He’s kind of a creep, but I didn’t get killer vibes from him.”
Officer King and the two other cops look at me with stony faces. They don’t seem to be buying my story.
I shouldn’t keep talking. Aus was right, I shouldn’t speak without a lawyer present.
But I can’t help myself. The words just come out.
“Maybe you could see if he had a doorbell camera or something?” I ask. “He had one of those smart locks on his door, the kind that uses a code instead of key. Maybe there’s a camera or something? You certainly won’t see me coming and going, and that might clear Wick’s name as well.”