“Where did you go?”
I paused for a second, hoping that I didn’t dig myself into a hole I couldn’t get out of.
“I just took off, walking until I reached the highway.I saw a truck headed west, so I flagged it down and asked for a ride,” I lied, but it was the easiest way to get around the fact that I took Dale’s car and drove with him in the trunk to Silver Falls.There wouldn’t be any way for them to verify my story if I didn’t get any contact information for the trucker I supposedly got a ride from, and thanks to the snowstorm that had blown in, the traffic cameras wouldn’t have caught anything either.
“Where are you now?”
“I’m sorry?”I felt my skin prickle as I considered whether to share this information with him.I didn’t know if I was required to by law or if they could throw me in jail for failure to cooperate.
“Where are you now, Mrs.Grant?”he repeated sternly.
“I’m staying with a friend in Silver Falls,” I answered, feeling the blood drain from my face.
“How long have you been there?”
“Since Sunday morning.”
“What is the name of the friend you’re staying with?”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t understand how this information is related to discovering my husband’s whereabouts,” I replied, struggling to hold onto the ounce of courage I felt.
The detective on the other end of the line sighed heavily before he answered.
“The FBI is investigating your husband.They’ve discovered a large offshore bank account with you listed as the sole beneficiary.So, I’m going to ask you one more time, what is the name of the friend you are staying with?”
I swallowed hard, everything inside of me screaming danger as I processed the information.
“Patrick Kennedy,” I answered.“I’m staying with my ex-boyfriend, Patrick Kennedy.”
“Thank you.Please note that while we cannot require you to return to Coyote Creek, we have obtained a search warrant that will be executed.This gives us permission to enter your home and search it without you being present,” he warned before hanging up.
I let the phone fall to my lap as my lip trembled.Patrick rushed over and stood beside me, rubbing his hand soothingly up and down my back.
“What was that all about?”he asked.
I blinked a few times to get myself to focus as I looked up at him.
“The FBI is investigating Dale, and apparently, there’s an offshore account with a large sum of money.They said that I’m the sole beneficiary.”
“Did you know about that account?”
“No,” I whispered, bringing my hands up to my face.“But this is bad, Pat.Like, really, really bad.”
“They can’t prove you had anything to do with it if you didn’t even know it existed until now,” he assured me.“It’ll be fine.I promise.”
“No!You don’t get it,” I said, getting off the bed and standing in front of him.“I got fired from my last job for embezzlement.I have a record and served a few months in jail.There’s no way they’re going to overlook that, especially when I’ve only been married to Dale forsix months.Don’t you see how this is going to look?”
He worked his jaw back and forth as he studied me.
“I warned you,” I said with a sob.“I’m not the person you think I am.I’ve done terrible things and have gotten involved with the wrong people.All I’m going to do is bring trouble to your life, and you don’t need that.”
“Stop it,” he demanded as he wrapped his arms around me and held me against his chest.“We’ll figure this out.”
