Reed and I both shook our heads. “No, they seemed fine,” he said.
“Nothing tonight.”
“No, but we weren’t here,” I answered.
The detective gave a head jerk. “Because you were at the ghost thing.”
Ugh. I wanted to scream. My eyelids closed, and I silently counted to three before answering. “Yes, the ghost thing.”
He closed his small notebook and shoved the pen through the coils. “And you don’t know what Casey wanted to talk to you about?”
Another head shake from both of us. “No.”
Once we realized the seriousness of Casey’s condition—death—Reed showed the detective Casey’s note we’d found earlier in the evening asking to meet him.
“Detective, we’ve answered these questions already,” Reed said, sounding as tired as I felt.
The detective stood up in one solid swoosh of a movement. I had to blink rapidly to get my head to adjust to his new position. “I understand that, but you must see how all this seems suspicious. We have two people here investigating a previous death, and now my prime suspect ends up dead.”
Oh yeah, we’d also had to come clean about our motives for being in Savannah. Once a dead body came into play, I really didn’t want to hide anything from the police and end up in that federal prison.
“You know what I think?” the detective continued, even though I was still processing his comments from three sentences ago. “I think Casey found out why you two are here. He argued with Selene about what to do with you, and that’s why she spent the night with her sister. Maybe you two didn’t want your cover blown, or he tried to kick you out. Threaten you with a lawsuit, possibly? The family liked to get lawyers involved.”
My stomach twirled with his accusations. I tried to stand, but my legs were too wobbly from being up for a day straight. “We were locked in the theater all night.”
“It’s convenient.” He shoved his notebook in the pocket of his suit coat.
Reed stood up from the couch, standing a good six inches taller than him. “It’s rock solid is what it is.”
“I’ll be back. Don’t leave town without my say-so,” he said as he walked toward the front door.
Reed leaned forward like he was about to follow him, but we didn’t need to add assault to any of our issues, so I grabbed on to his arm to keep him there.
Casey had no obvious cause of death. No gunshots or any other wound. That didn’t give us a lot to go on.
“Thanks for having my back,” I said, letting go of his arm when his muscles relaxed.
Reed turned back to face me as the detective closed the door behind him. “Any time. Let’s get some rest. We’re both dea—tired.”
I appreciated that he caught himself, but not in enough time to stop the image of Casey’s dead body from flooding my head. “Delaney will call for updates once the news breaks.”
The thought of how early she’d call made me flinch in response. Michigan was in the same time zone as Savannah, but she’d have a full night’s rest.
My SEAL in shining armor helped me off the couch. “Shut off your phone. She’ll never know.”
Oh, she’d know. Her best friend senses would be on high alert. It was weird she hadn’t already called just from sensing I’d somehow gotten myself into trouble.
I groaned and rolled over, trying to put the pillow over my head, but it did not block out the constant bird chatter outside my window. My phone was off, just like Reed had suggested, but nothing shut off the damn birds. Did they have a nest right outside the window?
With my eyes half closed, I ran through my morning routine and shuffled out to the living room. Reed had claimed his spot on the couch. He had a laptop open on his lap and the local news running on the television. I smiled, thinking of him in his spot, like we were an old married couple who had our preferred seats. Except we didn’t live here, and it wasn’t our couch. Also, we weren’t dating.
“Afternoon,” he said as he watched me walk out of my room.
“Hey.” I sat on the couch in my designated spot. “I need to call Delaney and see what she thinks of all this.”
I only had fifteen missed calls from her with four voicemails. She hadn’t called in over an hour. Honestly, I was a little offended. What if we were the ones lying dead on the street in some dark back alley? Didn’t she care about me at all?
Reed lowered the volume on the television, even though I could barely hear it anyway. “No worries. She called me at nine.”
