I blinked, shaking my head. “Ye-yeah. Um, upstairs.”
“Enoch,” Jae gritted out between clenched teeth as he held me back by my collar, preventing me from following the deputy upstairs. “What the actual fuck did you do today, huh?”
My pulse spiked as I began to sweat. “I don’t know.”
“Bullshit.Whois Emory Crawford?”
I shoved out of his hold and turned to face him. “I don’t fucking know, Jae. Let’s go find out!” I whisper-shouted.
I left him at the door seething as I bounded upstairs.
“Um, you can take a seat anywhere,” I mumbled awkwardly, studying the man. He seemed to be surveying the house, like some sort of threat would pop up at any moment. A look I recognized from when my father was younger and still in the military.
He nodded and pulled out a chair at the kitchen island, gesturing for me to take the seat. I swallowed, nerves fluttering in my stomach.
This man had answers. He had answers as to what the actual hell was going on, and I didn’t care if Jae hated me forever after this, but I needed to hear the man out. If not for my own sanity, for the sake of everyone around me.
I was serious when I said I needed psychiatric help.
Deputy Shaw cleared his throat and sniffed, scrubbing at his jaw.
“Tell me what happened today.”
I blinked, taken aback by the command. I thought he was going to give me answers, not the other way around. I eyed Jae who had climbed the stairs with his baseball bat, staring at the deputy with distrust.
Deputy Shaw flicked his gaze to Jae with a head nod of acknowledgement, smirking as he eyed the bat, before turning his attention back to me.
“Go on. Tell me what happened.”
My heart fluttered uncomfortably in my chest and my cheeks burned. Was I getting Punk’d or something? This…this was so ridiculously humiliating.
“Um, well, I, um…I had a work event at this climbing gym. Uh…there was a woman there. And she…” I trailed off, eyeingJae as he listened intently. “Well…I don’t really know how or why, but I, um, I’m sorry if I freaked her out, but I thought she was someone that I used to know. Am I…am I in trouble or something?”
“No,” Deputy Shaw shook his head. “You’re not in trouble.” My shoulders sagged with a little bit of relief. “Butyou could be if you told anyone else about what you saw today.”
“Is that a threat?” Jae asked, adjusting the bat in his hands.
“No,” the deputy said with an eye roll. “Can you tell me who exactly you thought you saw?”
“Um,” I wiped my hands on my gym shorts. “My, um…well her name was Shiloh. Shiloh Tellez.”
The deputy nodded and I waited with bated breath for him to say something.
“And did you tell anyone else that you thought you saw Shiloh Tellez this afternoon?”
My eyes narrowed and I shook my head. “No. No…just,” I nodding my head at Jae. “But…my whole office was at the gym when I…when called her Shiloh and…acted like I knew her.”
The deputy seemed to be weighing the truth of my words.
“And where did you go after you left the gym?”
“Well, my coworkers drove me home and I’ve been here ever since.”
“And did you discuss with your coworkers the fact that you thought you had run into someone who died five years ago?”
My eyes narrowed at his mention of that fact. So, he did know who Shiloh Tellez was. Why?
“No…I was…embarrassed. I asked if they had seen her. If I had like hallucinated the whole thing, and they confirmed that she was there, but…the woman, Emory, she denied knowing me and left. So, I dropped the topic after they confirmed she was at least not a ghost but a mistaken identity.”
