“Unless we find something to tie the sheriff to all this,” Wendy said, “the DA is going to love you for Harris’s and Pete’s deaths.”
“I know. If it comes to that, I’ll deal with it.” Todd raised his chin and looked her in the eye. “As long as they pin it all on me. Lindsey is one hundred percent innocent.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
LINDSEY WAITED FOR over an hour in the small room with only a table, two chairs, and what she assumed was a two-way mirror. Oh, and a ticking clock, high on the wall, like the one she’d watched anxiously in Physics class in high school, waiting for the torture to end.
Feeling self-conscious, certain someone watched her every move, she tried to blank her mind and her expression.
Her thoughts wandered back to the drive over here. It had been her first sight of Helena in the daylight, and she’d been so focused on Todd that she’d missed everything outside the window. They’d held hands in the backseat, fear and tension in the air thick as the winter fog on Interstate 5.
Once the car had gone through the gates, Todd had unbuckled his seatbelt and slid close, cradling the back of her head to look her in the eyes. Without a word, he kissed her over and over, so gently, so sweetly…
A goodbye kiss.
Lindsey’s throat tightened.
After that, they didn’t speak—what else was there to say?—before being swept up by FBI agents, taken through a security screening, and ushered into separate rooms.
She blinked and stared at her hands. Were they questioning him now? Did they believe him? Would they believe her?
God, the wait was excruciating. She kept noticing tense muscles and forcing them to relax, like when she was at the dentist, anticipating pain before it ever happened. Easier said than done. She and Todd had managed to stay alive but their futures still hung in the balance.
A week ago she was looking forward to a fun vacation with her best friend. She was getting over Cruz’s two-timing, and in general life was good. She’d been happy.
And then everything went wrong.
And then she met Todd.
And now she wasn’t sure how to go back to her life without him in it.
Unfortunate, since he didn’t feel the same way.
She resisted the urge to lay her head on the desk and cry. Instead, she looked into the mirror and said, “If anyone’s watching, I could use some water.”
Another five minutes passed before the door opened and a white woman with long blond hair tied back in a ponytail, her trim form wrapped in a dark pantsuit, strode into the room and introduced herself as Special Agent Wendy Parker.
So this was the woman Todd had dated once, broken up with, and still thought highly enough of to request her help. She was pretty in the tough way probably required for her job, and her blue eyes sparkled with intelligence and energy.
A dark-haired man in a suit that had to have been tailored to fit his massive shoulders came to stand just inside the door, ushering in Marti before closing the door.
“This is Special Agent Daniel Ahmad,” Wendy said as she sat across from Lindsey and set out a recorder, a notepad.
Marti bustled in behind him with her large tote bag and placed a bottled water on the table in front of Lindsey. Her expression was on the grim side of neutral, and Lindsey’s pulse sped up. She wanted to ask a million questions.
Instead, over the next hour, she gave her version of events, emphasizing that Harris had been alive when they’d left him, and how Todd had had no choice but to shoot Pete.
Throughout, Special Agent Parker peppered her with questions. “Why were you helping Megan with her taxes?”
“Because I’m a CPA, and her sudden business growth took her by surprise. She didn’t have anyone else lined up ahead of time, and tax season is not the time to try to find an accountant.”
Wendy’s poker face stayed firmly affixed. “At that time, it didn’t occur to you that her sudden success might be due to illegal activity?”
Lindsey shook her head. “No.” Why would it? “At least, not until I noticed the odd concentration of her customers. But even then, I assumed someone was using her site as a pass-through without her knowledge. I’d heard about a similar case at a conference last year.”
Wendy took a few notes and urged her to continue.
By the time Lindsey finished, she was emotionally exhausted, the depth of Megan’s betrayal hitting her afresh. “I can’t believe my own friend tried to kill me.” Her voice broke. “To have somebody you trust, somebody you thought cared about you, only to find out it was all a lie…”
