“Why do you say that?”
“You want to help Maurelle and now you’re telling me he deserved it,” she replied. She was right, I was breaking all sorts of laws and rules here. I was a big believer in the justice system because it was there for a reason. If I lost faith in it, I didn’t know who I was, but there had to be exceptions to the rule, right?
“I should go,” I told her, getting up. “Don’t worry, those fingerprints will somehow disappear in the lab.”
“It doesn’t matter, Detective,” she said. “I’ve never been fingerprinted before. They won’t find me, but I appreciate it.”
“Keep your mouth shut about it,” I told her. “That way it’ll go cold or we’ll add it to Maurelle’s tally.”
She smirked at me. “She won’t mind. She knew what he did to my sister.”
“But not to you?”
Shaking her head, I saw the fear in her eyes. “Please don’t tell her I did it. She’ll worry.”
“I don’t even know where she is, Camille,” I replied.
“She won’t be in town long,” she told me, confirming my fear that she was here. “I think she has something big planned, but not here, so it won’t be in your jurisdiction.”
I nodded. “I’ll keep an ear out for anything that sounds like her.”
My hand was on the handle of the door when I heard her call out my name. I turned back to her.
“She was mad when I told her that you came to speak to me,” she relayed. “She doesn’t like me to be pulled down into her world.”
“I’ll be okay,” I told her.
“No, Detective, you don’t understand. Maurelle is super protective of me. When she is mad at someone, she hurts them. There’s something about you that confuses her, because I can see she likes you. She’s not killed you on purpose, and that confuses her too. That means she feels like she can’t hurt you, so if she wanted to, she wouldn’t go after you, she’d go after someone you love.”
“I don’t have anyone she can go after,” I told her. “It’ll be all good. I’m prepared for her to come after me.”
“Oh, Detective, we all have someone in our lives,” she said. “And she’ll find out who it is, whether they live with you, have lived with you or visit you randomly. She’ll find who the person is and she’ll use them to hurt you. She’s vindictive like that.”
My mind immediately went to Mimi. She was the only one who still spoke to me even though I didn’t want her to.
God.
“Thank you,” I said, leaving the office and heading to the precinct. I had evidence to lose and a woman to track before she got hold of Mimi.
Once I got in my car, I sat back and wondered how the hell I could get Mimi to stop visiting me. She didn’t want to give up on me, and she knew the only reason I divorced her was so she could have the life she deserved.
She was persistent too, but there was one way I could get her to stop. The one thing I’d been holding back because I didn’t want her to be upset. She had hurt me in a way she could never understand when she married Kemp. It was time I used my pain to my advantage so I could save their lives.
I pulled my phone out and pulled up Kemp’s number.
Look, I appreciate that you and Mimi want to check on me. But did it ever occur to you that it's painful to see my ex-wife married to my best friend? I don't want you to just drop around and check on me. I’m done with that part of my life. Just stop it.
I hit send, hoping like hell that it would piss him off enough that he would tell Mimi not to bother with me anymore. If this didn’t work, then I’d start ignoring them.
I had to.
It was the only way to protect them.
Chapter Nine
Kane
The precinct was busywhen I got back, and Tommy was talking with Sal about what I could only assume was some evidence he found. I slunk down the hall that led to the evidence room and closed the door behind me.
