Shortcake*

Chapter 44: Interrogation Room

*Copyright: Stephanie Myrick, 2023. Posted to Wattpad ONLY*

Link looked around the interrogation room. On the car ride to the station, he called his lawyer in LA and explained the situation. He was not licensed to work in Georgia but had made some calls, and he was waiting for a lawyer from a firm in Augusta to arrive. When everything happened with Kimber, he made the mistake of talking to the police without a lawyer present because he "had nothing to hide," His lawyer rebuked him and told him never to talk to the cops without a lawyer present. They were trying to solve a crime and weren't looking out for you, advice he had taken to heart.

When the lawyer arrived, they were given thirty minutes to discuss everything. She introduced herself as Lisa Stringer, and he quickly explained everything as thoroughly as he could.

"So you had an appointment to see them this morning at ten?" She was typing up notes on her tablet, explaining this was a lot and she needed them to keep everything straight.

"My dad texted them at some point yesterday and made sure it was okay to stop in. I don't have the exact time he sent the text. They said to swing by around ten."

"And you were with people all day yesterday?"

"Yes, Cleo and I were together all day; we had breakfast with an old friend of mine and his daughter, then went to my parent's house for lunch, and then we went back to Augusta so Cleo could meet her friend Nico, who flew in yesterday evening. She went down to his hotel room to discuss a couple of things, and then they both came back to our hotel room, where we had a video call with my management team. Nico went back to his hotel room, and Cleo and I went to bed because we had to meet my parents at eight this morning." Link stated everything as factually as he could. He knew the police were doing their jobs and that he did nothing wrong, but this was getting to be too much.

"Okay." She nodded. "And the security videos from the hotel will show you never left the premises at any point last night?"

"That's correct. But also, I had no reason to kill Cathy and Steve. Despite everything that happened, they've always been great to me." He paused. "And security footage will show me at the restaurants when I said I was; our rental car's GPS history will show where I've been and how long I stayed there."

"Good, then this is just a formality." She smiled at him. "Ready?"

"Yeah, let's get this over with." He nodded, and she stood up and knocked on the door. After a minute, a detective came in and introduced himself as Detective Watson.

"I've heard all the jokes." He said dryly when Link started to smile. "And no, Sherlock isn't available." He opened his tablet. "Want to go over why you were at the Bennett's house this morning?"

"My dad and I went to have a discussion about my ex-wife."

"Jerrica Clark nee Bennett, correct?" He checked his notes as Link nodded. "Why did you want to discuss her?"

Link glanced at Lisa, then back to the detective. "That's a long story. Do you want it all or the crib notes?"

"Tell me everything." He leaned forward, and Link had to wonder if he was a fan of him or Cleo.

"My relationship with Cleo has brought to light that we have a stalker. They sent information to Cleo's manager, who told her to look into her parents and ex-husband's deaths and made it very clear they had been stalking Cleo for some time while Cleo and I were vacationing in Ontario in an undisclosed, very remote location. My publicist decided I needed to know someone was following her so we would be on our guard."

"While we were there, which once again, only our teams knew where we were, a package arrived for Cleo through registered mail that had all information about my past relationships and what happened to my daughter at the hands of my wife. Cleo already knew it all, so it didn't phase her too much, but we decided to leave without telling anyone, and we started looking into things."