STAY WITH ME (WATTYS 2023)

CHAPTER 5. REDLINE

*Author's note: Strong trigger warning! This book contains graphic depictions of violence with some disturbing scenes involving m*rder and the use of weapons, torture, domestic violence, including mental and physical abuse, sexual situations and mature language. It may trigger certain individuals who are sensitive to this subject matter. It is marked mature. You must be 17 or older to read this book.

I decide to take a long hot shower so I can relax and process everything that just happened. But just as I am about to step into the nice warm water, I have another unexpected visitor.

"Holy shit! I wonder who the hell that is!"

I quickly grab a bath towel and wrap it tightly around my body. I run to the door with my heart pounding out of my chest, eager to peek out and see who it is.

And there he is, the same detective from the hospital that had already grilled me. He's just standing there with a serious look on his face, holding a thick folder in his arms and surveying the property. I'm not gonna lie. Seeing him here on my doorstep makes me nervous as hell.

I run back across the room as fast as I can, drop the towel, and snatch my robe from the bed. I start hyperventilating as I try to come up with a plan to make a quick escape instead of answering the door. I contort my arms behind my back, trying to shove them into the armholes as I'm running around like a mad woman. In the process, the belt to my robe becomes untied at some point and I step on it and about fall on my face.

I wonder what he wants? The big notebook is a good sign, I guess. Maybe he's just here to ask me a few more questions.

After thinking it through, I realize trying to crawl through a window is a dumb idea and even though I've lost a bunch of weight, there's no way I'd make it. No, it was time to grow up and face the music and open the damn door. I decide to play dumb, though, and call out to him.

"Who's there?"

"Ms. Wallace, it's detective Mitchell. Do you mind if come in and ask you a few more questions?"

I almost choke on my spit as I swallow hard after I hear the rough sounding authority in his voice. It's too late to run now. I have no choice but to unlock the door. He knows I'm in here.

"Detective Mitchell, come on in."

"So, Ms. Wallace..."

"Please...call me Harper."

"Ok, so...Harper, the reason for my visit today is...we need your help."

"Ok, sure. I'll try to help out in any way I can."

He shuffles through a stack of papers he pulls from the folder and sets a few aside and then hands me the rest.

"Can you just take a look at some of these documents we found in a lockbox at the bank?"

I thumb through them as he watches and I actually act as if I'm really studying them hard. When really I'm blankly zoning in and out and still in panic mode, wondering what he's doing here.

"Umm, I've never seen any of these before and I didn't even know he had a lock box."

"Did you know he had business dealings with Lewis Romero and owed a large sum of money to him?"

"No. Who's Lewis Romero?"

"Well, let's just say he's not someone you want to owe money to. He's one of the biggest arms dealers and has ties to the Mexican drug cartel. We think he may have had something to do with your fiancée's death."