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He strode to the entry and she heard the sound of mumbled male voices before Dex finally returned with Remy and the NYC detective who’d interviewed her.
“Are you up to talking?” Dex asked.
She nodded and carefully shifted to a more upright position, working with the discomfort. “Yes. What can I do for you, Detective?”
“I’m glad to see you’ve been released from the hospital. May I sit?”
She nodded, noting that Dex had settled in by her stretched-out feet, and Remy stood by his side.
The detective cleared his throat and leaned forward. “We started by checking the CCTV cameras outside your building during the shooting. Jeremy ducked into the nearest subway station, which necessitated watching footage of each stop to see if he exited somewhere with a working camera.”
He said the last word with disgust, indicating his frustration with technology. She knew from watching the news about the lack of funding to pay for repairs and updated videos cams, and didn’t blame him for his reaction.
“Any luck?” she asked, though she already sensed the answer.
He shook his head. “No. We’d also been working the family angle, interviewing those close to Jeremy Rollins. Mother, father, sister, friends, and his ex-girlfriend.”
“Marley?” Samantha had no idea whether or not those two were still together. She hadn’t given it any thought.
“Yes. Marley Simmons.”
She made a face of distaste the detective ignored.
“His family closed ranks,” he went on.
No surprise there, Samantha thought.
“But Marley was happy to cooperate—after being reminded she was Mr. Rollins’s personal assistant since the business opened… and until recently, there was every likelihood we could make a case against her as an accessory.”
Shocked, Samantha sat forward and immediately regretted the motion, moaning. “Ouch. Dammit.”
Dex squeezed her foot. “Careful,” he said in a concerned voice.
Marley being involved was something she’d never considered, but she hadn’t had much time to think between discovering her ex had been embezzling and the shooting.
“Can you make a case against Marley?” Samantha asked.
“We are investigating every angle,” the detective said, sidestepping the question and being cagey with his answer. “But she did mention a cabin Rollins purchased that never came up during our questioning of the family or records search. Apparently, the two of them spent time together there,” he said, shooting Samantha an apologetic glance.
She shook her head, well past caring about what Jeremy had done to her. If she was going to be all in with Dex, her romantic past no longer mattered.
“Go on,” she said, wanting the story not the sordid details.
The men glanced at each other, the detective nodding at Dex. Obviously this was what they’d talked about before joining her in the living room. Nerves fluttered in her stomach as she wondered what had them so on edge.
“Samantha, when they approached the cabin…” Dex cleared his throat, stalling, clearly reluctant to finish.
She sent him an imploring look, her eyes on his. “Tell me.”
“Jeremy killed himself,” he said, his voice soft.
She gasped. “He what?”
Dex gently lifted her feet and maneuvered her so he was closer, offering comfort. “Apparently, the prospect of prison for embezzlement and attempted murder was too much for him. That, or he was filled with regret and remorse.”
“But we’ll never know,” the detective said.
“No note?” she asked, wondering how Jeremy had reached this awful point and aware it would always be a big question. She rubbed the pain in her chest that wouldn’t be leaving her for a long while.
