AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Veronica looked embarrassed. “I was worried that they’d think I did something wrong. The lady detective asked me about Colton’s friends, and I told her the same thing I told you—he didn’t have any. I should have told her the rest, but I was exhausted. I’d just worked a double shift and had been up all night finishing a term paper. I was afraid I’d say something wrong and get myself into trouble, especially since I didn’t report his abuse.”
“You weren’t obligated to report anything,” Laura said firmly.
Veronica looked only partially relieved. “I still should have. I was just scared of him. Men like him who get arrested for beating their wives are often back home a few hours later. I can talk to her now.”
“I’ll let her know,” Sam promised. He held out his hand and she shook it. “Thank you. You might have saved some lives.”
Her smile was brilliant. “Then it was worth reliving it all. I hope you get this settled, Dr.Reeves, so that you can go back to helping homeless kids. I volunteer at New Horizons and it’s a good place. I don’t think I would have been as comfortable talking to you if I hadn’t known you volunteered there, too.”
Sam gave Laura a grateful look before returning his gaze to Veronica. “Maybe I’ll see you there. Good luck with your studies.”
“Thank you. You guys have a good night. I think I’m going to take the long way back to my place. It’s a pretty night for a walk.”
Sam looked over his shoulder as he and Laura walked back to her car. Veronica was walking slowly, her face lifted to the twilight sky, her expression peaceful. Serene, as if the weight of her secrecy had been lifted from her shoulders.
“I need to call Kit,” Sam said quietly. Veronica’s recollections could be even more important than Maureen’s video.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Hillcrest, California
Tuesday, April 19, 8:00 p.m.
Joel stared up at Sam from the weight bench in his home gym, hands gripping the barbell still in its rack. “You think Driscoll buried shit in his backyard? What did McKittrick say?”
Sam frowned at his phone. “I’ve been calling her ever since we left Veronica Gadd’s apartment. She’s not picking up.”
Laura had dropped Sam off a few minutes before, waiting until he was in Joel’s house before heading back to the Epsteins’ house to take them to their rental car.
“That’s not like Kit,” Joel said. “Did you text her, too?”
“Several times.” His frown deepened. “Do you think she’s okay?”
Joel snorted. “McKittrick can take care of herself. Trust me.”
Sam remembered how easily she’d swept him off his feet—literally. It was embarrassing. “Oh, I know.”
Joel grinned. “I guess you do.” Then he slid out from under the barbell and grabbed his phone. “She might have gone to visit Baz in the hospital. Don’t they make you turn your phone off in the hospital?”
“Only in the ICU, but I didn’t think Constantine’s heart attack was that bad.”
“I didn’t think so, either.” Joel dialed a number and listened before hanging up. “Voice mail. I’ll call the hospital and ask for his room. Did you try calling Navarro?”
“I left a message on his office voice mail. I didn’t have his cell phone number.”
Within another minute, Joel was asking for Baz Constantine’s room, and then he put it on speaker. “Hey, Baz,” he said when the detective answered. “It’s Joel Haley. I’m trying to reach Kit. Is she there?”
“She was, but she left about twenty minutes ago. Said she was going home.”
“To her boat?”
She lives on a boat? Sam fought a shudder. Boats were not his favorite. All that water. One wrong step off a boat and a person could drown. Give him a desert any day of the week.
“No,” Baz was saying. “She said she was going to see her folks. Is everything okay?”
“It is,” Joel assured him. “I have some info for her on one of her cases.”
“She said you caught the Mendoza murder case.”
