His eyes narrow at me. Finally, he spins and continues down the hall. He points to the door of the room Lily was in earlier. “Wait in there. I’ll go get Mrs. Bennett.”
I step inside, hating the way he called hermissus.I set my bag on the floor next to the chair, opting to stand while I wait to officially meet my newest client.
5
Lily
I’m shivering where I’m curled up at the end of the bench, leaning against the wall. Which is probably not helping my body temperature since the brick is freezing, but it’s the most comfortable position I could find.
I’m not even sure how long it’s been since they put me in here. It could be an hour, or it could be multiple hours. I really have no idea. But the longer I’m in here, the more my mind spins. There are so many unknowns pressing into my chest like an anvil that taking deep breaths feels like I’m competing in an Olympic event. The biggest unknown is whether I’ll walk out of here or if I’ll be transported to a cell that I can only imagine is much worse than this one.
Footsteps draw my attention as Detective Barrington stops at the door. “Your attorney has arrived, Mrs. Bennett.”
There’s an angry edge to his words that makes me nervous. I stand and shake my legs, trying to restore someblood flow that had been restricted from the way I was sitting. Once I feel like I can walk without falling, I join him at the door of the cell. He opens it, and I step outside. I don’t want to get my hopes up that I’ll be leaving here today, but at least my attorney finally showed up.
My heart races as we walk to the same room I was in earlier. Barrington opens the door and tips his head, indicating I should enter. When I do, my breath catches in my throat. The man standing on the other side of the room, his hand shoved into the pockets of his expensive dress slacks, is the sexiest man I’ve ever seen. Not only is he handsome in a way that edges on a little too rough to be model handsome, but he clearly has money, and he wears it well. Not like other men with money, including my late husband, who wear their wealth as a badge of honor, ensuring everyone they meet knows exactly how important they are.
But not this man. No, he wears it effortlessly. Like he couldn’t care less if people know he’s successful.
I take in his sandy light brown hair, which is shorter on the sides and longer on top, laying perfectly styled above his dark, assessing eyes as he studies me. He’s tall, maybe a few inches over six feet, with a build that’s muscular but not in an overly bulky way. It fits into his suit perfectly.
I swallow down my nervousness, which has nothing to do with the current predicament that’s prompted our meeting, before I blurt, “You’re a public defender?”
When his eyebrows jump in surprise, and his lips pull up in a little smirk, embarrassment heats my cheeks. And what comes out next doesn’t help my current state as I ramble on, “Sorry, I just meant…your suit. It looks expensive. I didn’t think public defenders made very much money.”
He frowns, and I fear I’ve deeply offended the man who’snow in charge of defending me for my life. I close my eyes and shake my head. When I open them again, I find him still watching me, his frown lessening.
I step toward him and hold out my hand. “Let’s try again. I’m Lily Bennett. Thank you so much for coming to help me, even though I know it’s your job.”
He takes my hand, and my stomach flips at the contact. His grip is firm, yet warm and comforting. “Chris Rivers. It’s nice to meet you, Lily.”
My heart returns to its accelerated pace when he uses my first name. All day, people have called me by Blake’s last name, and hearing him not use it does something to me. I take a moment to stare at the man in front of me. I briefly wonder if the Chris Rivers I came across early in my search is the same one. Assuming that there’s a possibility that there’s more than one attorney in town with the same name, as odd as that might be. Or maybe it is the same one, and he changed focus to public defending.
When he releases my hand, I wave toward the table. “Should we have a seat?”
One side of his lips rises. “I think that’s my line.”
A nervous laugh bubbles out of me. “Sorry, I’m a little out of sorts, as I’m sure you can imagine.”
He nods as we take our seats. “I know this must be tough. I’m sure you’ve done this multiple times today, but I want to make sure I have all the information the cops do. And I want to hear it from you.” He pulls a notebook and a pen out of his bag. “Can you walk me through what happened?” His brow furrows slightly as he points to my face. “If you can start with when that happened, I think that will be good. As I’m sure that is what the cops are hoping to use as a motive.”
I nod. “From the comments they’ve made, I’d agree.” I blow out a quick breath. “This happened two nights ago, but I’ll be honest, I don’t even know what Blake was mad about. When he got home, I could tell he was agitated, but he never really opened up to me about what happened during his days. And quite frankly, I never told him about mine.”
Chris gives me an encouraging smile, and I continue.
“Anyway, we started arguing about something stupid, and it just escalated from there. I felt we needed some space after what happened, so I slept in the guest room the last couple of nights.” I swallow down the bile that rises in my throat, thinking about the last couple of days. “Last night, we had dinner, and I went to bed last night around ten. Then I woke up and found Blake dead in the kitchen.”
Chris taps the pen on his notepad. “I’m sure the detectives asked you about the security system?”
“They did. Honestly, I was really bad about setting it. And since Blake usually stayed up later than I did, I generally didn’t bother even looking at it. So I have no idea if he armed it or not.”
“Were there cameras around the house?”
“Yeah, there are, but I wasn’t involved in the installation. I think I have an email with the password to access the app on my phone, but I’m not even sure I’ve ever logged in. Or if I did, it was a long time ago. I also think they were only on the outside. I’m not aware of any inside the house.” I feel stupid admitting this now. Why did I never ask about the security system of my own home?
“Did he ever have any late-night meetings?”
I shrug. “Yeah, sometimes, but I couldn’t tell you how often. As I said, I went to bed earlier than him, and he also didn’t keep me up to date on his schedule.”
