Page 174 of Only Be Mine

I answered.

“Cate,” Detective Marshal said. “Are you somewhere public?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Are you alone?”

“Yes.”

“Okay,” he said. “I’m going to say this carefully. I need you to listen, not react.”

I wrapped my hands around the paper cup in front of me, the heat grounding me, “I’m listening.”

“When I asked if you were safe,” he continued, “I wasn’t asking if anyone was going to hurt you physically. Not yet.”

My chest tightened.

“I was asking whether you were free to answer questions without interference.”

I swallowed. “I wasn’t.”

“I know,” he said quietly.

I closed my eyes briefly, remembering what Seth had told me. “Why is this happening? Why now?”

“Because something someone wanted to remain buried surfaced,” Marshal said. “And when it did, it pointed backward - not forward.”

I leaned in slightly. “Backward to when?”

“To the week John disappeared.”

My grip tightened on the cup.

“We reopened a file that should never have been closed the way it was,” he said. “It was rushed. Incomplete. Signed off without proper verification.”

“And now?” I asked.

“And now,” he said, “it looks like someone made sure it stayed that way.”

I didn’t ask who, and he didn’t say.

“Cate,” Marshal continued, “I need to be very clear with you. You are not a suspect. You never have been.”

Relief flickered briefly followed by a flash of guilt.

“But you are connected to this case in ways that make people nervous,” he added. “Not because of what you’ve done. Because of what you might ask once you start.”

I thought of Seth’s words. They’re afraid of what you’ll ask.

“What happens next?”

“That depends on you,” Marshal replied. “I can’t protect you from information you don’t want. And I can’t move forward if you’re being filtered.”

“I need time,” I said. “But I don’t want to be handled.”

“I wouldn’t have called you if I thought you did,” he said. “When you’re ready, I want to speak to you again. Alone. In person.”

I hesitated. “About… how he died.”