“How do you know this?”Reese probed.
Another lengthy pause filled the room with the loudest silence Reese had heard in a long damn time.
“Because Eddie was with me the night she supposedly saw it.”
Son of a bitch.
Reese recognized the name.He looked over at Brantley and saw the same recognition in his husband’s eyes.Eddie was the name of the person Decker had been talking to when they found him in New York outside of the brownstone.
“Eddie?I thought we were talking about Meredith.Who the—”
Charlie cut Atticus off.“Eddie’s a nickname for Meredith.”
“Oh.”Atticus’s eyes widened.“Wait.You werewithher?”
Decker glared at Atticus, not confirming or denying.
Slade sat up, his bored expression sliding away.“Like y’all were hangin’ out?Or y’all were…?”
“We’re talkin’ about the same person, right?”Reese asked.“Meredith Prescott.Kylie’s mother.”
“Yes,” Decker said through clenched teeth.
“For fuck’s sake.Tell them the fuckin’ story,” Z bellowed, elbowing Decker.
“Kylie and I went to school together from the third grade until graduation,” Decker explained.“Her mom was a teacher.Ninth grade English.That’s when I met her.”
“Met who?Kylie?Or her mom?”JJ asked.
“Eddie,” Decker clarified.
“Were you and Kylie friends?”Reese asked.
“Not so much friends.Acquaintances, I guess you could say.”
“You hooked up with the teacher,” Darius stated.Not a question.
“Yeah.I started …seeingher when I was in ninth grade.We continued to see each other even after I graduated.”
“I assumeseeingis a euphemism forfucking,” Luca noted, looking downright disgusted by the idea.
“You were dating your teacher?”Evan asked, his tone lacking any judgment.That was the detective in him, seeking answers without formulating an opinion.
“I was in love with her,” Decker countered.“And she was in love with me.”
Reese was grateful the peanut gallery kept their opinions to themselves that time.
“Were you and Kylie the same age?”Baz asked.
“Yes.”
It was obvious everyone was doing the math, but Reese had already figured it out for himself.Decker would’ve been roughly fourteen when he started having a sexual relationship with his thirty-six-year-old teacher.
Brantley spoke up.“What did Kylie think about you fucking her thirty-six-year-old married mother?”
“She didn’t know.We kept it on the DL.”
“How’s that even possible?”Atticus asked.“You’re tellin’ us no one ever saw the two of you together?”
