Page 84 of Dead Man's Alibi

She shook her head, trying to focus.She fished her phone out of her purse and typed out a text to Cal.

“I’m about to get the report.I’ll be over soon if you’re at your apartment.”

It was almost five minutes before Gina returned rather than two, but she held out a piece of paper.“Here you go.You already paid the fee, right?”

Jill nodded dumbly, her eyes already scanning the report.Some things had been blacked out with marker, but not everything.Not the important thing.

Namely, that the officer who’d written the report was Jake Hayes.Which meant he’d met Jules Hyatt.Talked to her.And, according to the report, sent her on her way because the threats against her weren’t credible.

“Thank you,” Jill managed to intone.

“Of course.Do you need help finding your way out?”

Jill shook her head.“No, I’ve got it.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

The apartment above Honor’s Edge Investigations Office

When Cal’s phonechimed, he practically leaped for it.Sam hadn’t checked in yet this morning, and he was starting to get worried.

“I swear to God, if you got arrested, you’re just going to have to deal with it,” he muttered.

But the text wasn’t from Sam.It was from Jill.

She was getting the report.Cal reread the text, afraid he was hallucinating.She was actually getting it.

Cal had a bad feeling it wouldn’t lead him anywhere concrete, but every little bit had to help.He had to believe it would help.

He responded to Jill, then opened up a text to Sam.

“If you don’t text back in fifteen minutes, I’m tracking you down.”

Maybe Sam wasn’t the best person to threaten, but he wasn’t in the mood to fool around trying toget through to her with a lawyer angleas Nate had suggested.He just needed to know she was okay, so he didn’t have to deliver any more bad news to Nate.

Damn it, if she’d gotten herself arrested, he was going to be so pissed.He muttered that to himself as he put on shoes and headed downstairs so he could let Jill in when she got here.

Jill.Who he’d barely had a chance to see or talk to since that kiss.

Which had been a mistake.He kept having to remind himself of that.A mistake best left in the past.If he ignored it, she would too.

Right?

He hadn’t had a chance to talk to Dr.Michaels.He’d had to reschedule his normal appointment with his therapist.He was too busy and was doing well for the most part.

Except maybe the part where you’re afraid of anything good in your life.

Well, that was neither here nor there until hisbrotherwas out ofjail.Or so he told himself.

When the knock sounded on the back door, he immediately opened it.

Jill all but fell through, stumbling into the room.“It was Jake,” she said breathlessly, shoving a piece of paper at him.

He took it.“What was Jake?”But it all connected.“He took the report?”Cal demanded, already reading through the paper.

A few things were blacked out, but it was clear who’d taken the report.Detective Jake Hayes.Cal read through the whole report once, then twice.

“He… he took thisnothingreport and lied about it.”Lied about nothing.