Falling For The Forbidden

by Hawkins, Jessica

  “Right.” I stirred my coffee with a spoon, even though it didn’t need it. “I’m sure you’ve heard the news.”

  “A detective notified me yesterday morning. Awful.”

  My mind flashed to finding Erin dead on her floor. I paused, swallowed, pulled myself together.

  “Obviously, we missed our meeting with you,” I plowed on. “I know your movie will go on even with what happened to Erin.”

  “Yes, we have a deadline to wrap up shooting here in Cutthroat in three weeks.”

  “Right, that’s why I was calling. Did you want to meet later today to talk end-of-shoot party?”

  “Kit, Kit, Kit.” His voice sounded as if he were scolding. “We can’t work with you now. I mean, there’d be bad press. The movie’s event planner was murdered. That’s what the tabloids would latch on to, not the movie itself.”

  I set my elbow on the table, rested my forehead in my hand. “But—”

  “You’ve done great work, but my assistant has found someone else.”

  He had no clue what kind of work we’d done. It had been all behind the scenes tasks, planning a venue, caterers, band, for the party. He was full of shit. And he wasn’t going to change his mind. I knew his kind. Rich, self-centered, thoughtless. I felt sorry for Poppy.

  “I hope they find out what happened to Erin. Good kid.”

  He hung up. Good kid?

  I groaned. Loud. Stood. Paced. Tried to rip my hair out.

  Eddie Nickel’s production company had been Mills Moments’ biggest client. Our biggest money-maker that would have lasted almost a year in events and projects for the movie they were shooting now. We’d hoped they’d use us for future work as well. This work was why I’d returned to Cutthroat.

  Now? Only one other client remained, a baby shower scheduled for next month. I looked up the hostess’s number, introduced myself when she answered. “I’ve got the invitations ready to go to the post office.”

  “You can just drop them off, Kit, and I can take over.”

  My stomach dropped and tears clogged my throat. I took a second, tried to keep my voice even. “Are you sure? That’s our job.”

  “Our?” she replied. “Your partner’s dead… murdered and you’re carrying on as if it never happened.”

  I shook my head but she couldn’t see it. “No, no, it’s not like that. Erin would want to ensure her clients’ needs are being met, that their events go smoothly.”

  “They are,” she snapped. “Leave the box of invitations on my front porch. You’ve been paid for work to date.”

  She, too, hung up without saying goodbye.

  Mills Moments was officially out of clients. Out of business.

  I had no trust fund. No rich parents. I needed to make money. So much for my dream job. My mind turned to the diner, where I’d worked all through high school and college. I’d made decent tips. Would they take me back?

  I glanced at the clock on the stove, stood. I had to get to the police station for my statement. The only positive was that I’d see Nix.

  7

  KIT

  “You said on the 9-1-1 call that Erin was dead.”

  Detective Miranski sat at the table across from me. She was in her early thirties, dark hair pulled back in a ponytail. White dress shirt with a simple turquoise necklace. While I couldn’t see beneath the table, she was wearing jeans and sturdy leather boots. She was pretty, but understated. Kind, since she’d introduced herself with a smile when I’d first arrived, but very thorough.

  I had to guess Nix had asked her to do the interview, perhaps for impartiality, I wasn’t sure.

  She wasn’t Nix’s partner, but they were the two police detectives in Cutthroat County, assigned to different cases. Erin’s murder was a big deal, and probably Mr. and Mrs. Mills had put the pressure on the department to find the killer. Detective Miranski seemed competent and put together, making me second guess what Nix saw in me. Why wasn’t Nix into her? Smart, pretty. Employed. Probably had an alibi for Saturday night. I, on the other hand, was out of a job, currently homeless, living out of a travel bag and a murder suspect.

  The interview room was just like on TV. White walls, industrial carpet on the floor. A metal table with four chairs. A one-way mirror.

  I glanced up at Nix, who stood in the corner, leaning casually against the wall. He looked incredible in jeans and a dark blue golf shirt with the police department logo embroidered on the chest. I wanted to run my hands all over him, but folded them in my lap. Besides stating his name and job title for the video recording an hour ago, he hadn’t said anything else. Barely moved.

  I tried to block him out, for if I didn’t, I’d think about how I knew exactly what he looked like beneath his shirt, that I’d pawed and licked every inch of those rock-hard abs. And other rock-hard places on his body.

  “I guess I did. I was a little freaked.”

  “But you touched her. If you knew she was dead, why did you touch her?”

  I frowned. “When I saw her lying there, my first instinct was to go to her and help. Wouldn’t you do that?”

  She didn’t say anything, just waited.

  “Her eyes were open,” I continued, blinking back tears. “Staring. Her color was awful. God, I had no idea people turned that pale. I didn’t want her to be dead.”

  I ran my hands up and down my arms. It wasn’t cold in the room, but there was a huge air vent in the ceiling and it had a ridiculously strong breeze for such a small space.

  “You didn’t hear anything.”

  I took a deep breath, let it out. Sniffed. “I told you this already. No. I didn’t hear anything.”

  “How is that possible?”

  Shrugging, I said, “I don’t know. Her house is big. My bedroom was on the first floor in the back. The kitchen, the laundry room and an exercise room are between my room and where she was found. I didn’t usually hear her come in at night, and if she had someone with her, I wouldn’t know. Unless they were shouting.”

  “Had that happened before? Erin shouting with someone?”

  I thought back. “Loud voices one night. She’d brought a guy home. After a minute or two, they went up to her bedroom and then it was quiet. I fell back asleep. I met him the next morning in the kitchen. She’d said they’d been drunk.”

  “What’s the man’s name?”

  “Mark something. He was in my Econ class at the community college, but that was a few years ago.”

  “You said you were working a wedding at the Red Barn.” The detective looked at her papers. “What time did you get home?”

  “Around eleven thirty. On the way home, I stopped at the gas station on South Fourth to get my mom her lottery ticket.”

  “Is this something you usually do?”

  Nodding, I said, “Yes. My mother is agoraphobic. She hasn’t left her house in years. She hopes to hit the mega millions, although because she doesn’t leave the house, it’s not like she’ll buy a boat or something.” I sighed. “Anyway, yes. I’ve been getting her a ticket every day, even when I lived in Billings.”

  She wrote something on her papers, then looked up at me. “How long have you been back in town?”

  “Five weeks.”

  “Anyone else in particular?”

  “She mentioned a few guys. Shane Nickel.”

  Her eyes widened. “Eddie Nickel’s son?”

  “Eddie grew up in Cutthroat,” Nix told the detective. “His kids grew up here. I went to school with Shane.”

  “Okay, so Shane Nickel,” Detective Miranski repeated.

  “I don’t know much about it because I think she kept me out of the loop.”

  I remembered her saying they’d been hanging out. I wasn’t sure if that meant they’d slept together or if they’d gone bowling. With Erin, I had no idea. I just knew it had been casual since he hadn’t been the only guy.

  She arched a dark brow. “Why’s that? You worked together, were even roommates.”

  I bit my lip. The list—and t
he short time frame—made Erin out to be kind of slutty. I didn’t care what Erin did with guys. I was a little envious of her boldness, of her ability to put herself out there, but I always wondered if she were lonely. In the time I’d been back in Cutthroat, Erin and I hadn’t been all that close. We’d worked together, but she went out every night. Partied. We hadn’t done our nails together while watching movies. Nothing girlfriends did. It was clear, even though I had been staying in her house, we’d drifted apart while I’d been gone.

  “Because I was gone for a year, maybe. She’s always been more extroverted than me. Loved to go out. Have fun. Before I left, I worked too hard to date much. She was, well, gorgeous and could have any guy she wanted. Definitely out of my league.”

  Nix moved then, crossed his arms.

  She offered a small smile, like girlfriend to girlfriend and pushed a notepad to me. “Here, you said she mentioned some guys. Write the names down.”

  I scribbled down the few names I knew. One or two I remembered from high school, but hadn’t seen much of them after graduation. And not since I’d been back.

  “Since you didn’t hear an argument, or anything else the other night, she must have known her assailant.”

  I stared at the detective, then at Nix for a moment. “I have no idea.”

  “You lived in Billings for the past year?”

  I nodded.

  “Why did you leave Cutthroat in the first place?”

  I didn’t dare look at Nix. “I took a job at a hotel there in their events department.” It wasn’t a lie, just not all of the truth.

  “Right, Erin’s company is Mills Moments,” she said, picking up her pen and making a notation on the pad in front of her. She glanced up at me with her piercing green eyes. “Did you and Erin always want to do event planning?”

  “I did. I like to be organized.” An understatement considering my mother. Nix knew about her. Most people I went to school with knew about her. It wasn’t a secret, but I wasn’t going to share my mother’s anxiety and hoarding to the detective. It had no impact on the case.

  “You came back because Erin offered you a job.”

  She didn’t state it as a question. “That’s right.”

  “Had she gone out with a specific guy Saturday night?”

  “Not that I know of. Like I said, she doesn’t do boyfriends. Never has.”

  “But based on the list you just gave”—she tapped her finger on the paper with the names—“what were they then? One-night stands?”

  “We didn’t talk about her sex life.”

  “What do you think?”

  I shrugged. “Back in high school, her parents would get on her for guys she dated. Doing high school stuff like a movie or a dance. They pretty much vetoed every guy as not good enough. As you can imagine, she didn’t like that. What teenager did? So she adapted to that, never got serious enough for her parents to get involved. Also steered clear of high school boys. Moved onto older ones.” I tucked my hair behind my ear. “These days, from what I can tell, she hung out. Fooled around. Did the casual thing. You could call them one-night stands, I guess.”

  “It’s been said that you and Erin had a fight.”

  I stared at her wide-eyed. Her topic switches were giving me whiplash.

  “The other night?”

  She opened a folder she’d set to the side, slid it in front of her and read something on the top page. “At The Gallows. Last week.”

  The Gallows was a bar downtown. It was popular with locals, had good food and a happening ladies’ night. I’d been once with Erin, but I had only been there as her wingman, but obviously we’d been noticed.

  “Yeah. We got into an argument about taking the Eddie Nickel account. Organizing events for the movie launch. It was a big deal. Big money. Erin wanted it because it would get the business name out there, to Hollywood.”

  “You didn’t want that contract?” she asked.

  “I did, but Erin and I, we have… had, different ways of thinking about some things.”

  “Like what?”

  I gave a little laugh. “Money. She had it. Lots of it. While she was trying to make the business a success, I think it was just a pastime for her. She didn’t have to work. I don’t have money. You know that, I’m sure from your investigating. I need to have a job, need a paycheck to pay the bills. To cover some of my mom’s expenses.”

  “I’d think the Nickel’s account would be great for you then,” she replied.

  “If it worked out, yes. The money would have been great and the connections would have really pushed the business. But if it failed, if the contract fell through, then we’d be out of clients. It was her plan to have that be our only client. She didn’t do anything small, including arguments.”

  “But Saturday night, before Erin was murdered, you were working a wedding the company planned. The last time you saw Erin?”

  “Yes, even though we were ramping up work for the Nickel’s movie, that event had been on the books for months, well before I returned. A baby shower, too, which fell through this morning.” I thought of the phone call, frowned. “Erin had a cushion of cash to take big risks. I didn’t. We fought about that because I moved back here to work with her, and if it fell through…”

  “Then you’d be out everything.”

  “Exactly. In all the time we’ve been friends, she never once made me feel bad for having less, but she also didn’t understand.”

  She looked at me pointedly. “Keith Mills said you were friends with Erin for her money.”

  Wow, that hurt. Even though I knew that’s what he thought to be true.

  “I’ve known that since the seventh grade when he told me that to my thirteen-year-old face.”

  “Oh?”

  I flushed hotly. “I’d been invited with a bunch of other girls to a sleepover at Erin’s. I got my period. First time.” I flicked my gaze to Nix. “Ruined my jeans.”

  Fortunately, being a woman, she understood. I wasn’t too thrilled to share the story with Nix listening in.

  “Erin had been cool, lending me a pair of her pants to wear. Mr. Mills noticed I was wearing her hundred-dollar bejeweled sweatpants and accused me of using her to get better clothes. I was crushed and left instead of spending the night. That was the first time he made his feelings known.”

  After all these years, knowing Mr. Mills still felt that way, that he’d told that to the police…

  “In college, I dated Lucas Mills for a few months. Erin’s brother,” I added, even though she probably already knew. Based on her questions—and the fact that she wasn’t familiar—I didn’t think the detective had grown up in Cutthroat. “We did dinner, movies, the usual stuff.”

  “And his parents didn’t like it?”

  I frowned, remembering. “He was twenty at the time and wasn’t living at home. His parents didn’t find out right away. We ran into them one night at a restaurant. Mrs. Mills pulled me aside, called me trash. Said it was fine for her son to sow his oats with someone like me.” I used the little air quotes. “But he’d settle down with someone better.” I huffed out a laugh. “He was young and I doubt he was looking to settle down with me or anyone else. He left for the military shortly after that. While we hadn’t really broken up, we just… stopped. He stayed away for a few years. Got deployed. He’s not like his parents at all.”

  “I see,” Miranski replied neutrally.

  “Do I need to tell you more stories?” I asked.

  She held up her hand. “Nope. Got the idea. Keith and Ellen Mills don’t like you.”

  I offered a fake smile. “Pretty much.”

  “Would Erin hire you just to make her parents mad?”

  I stiffened, because it was definitely something she’d do. “She is… was twenty-six. I have no doubt she did things to snub her parents, and maybe having me work with her to mess with them was a side benefit. But that’s going a little far, even for her.”

  I took a deep breath, set my hands on the table.
>
  “Erin was the face of the company. She could sell ice to an Eskimo. What she couldn’t do was organize. That was where I come in. I’d say I’m a little OCD, liking things in the right place, which is great for an event planning business.”

  The detective looked thoughtful for a moment. “If Mills Moments is shut down, what will you do now?”

  I shrugged again, glanced up at Nix. “I’m going to go see if I can get my waitressing job back. Am I all done here?”

  “For now,” she replied, standing.

  I stood as well, tucked my hair behind my ear.

  “You’d have arrested me if you thought I did it, right?”

  Nix pushed off the wall. “If we had evidence that proved you did it, we’d arrest you.”

  I frowned at his statement. “You think I did it but can’t prove it?”

  God, I’d slept with Nix and he’d thought I’d killed Erin?

  “Nix didn’t say that,” Detective Miranski replied. “We’re working all angles right now. So you’re aware, a judge has signed search warrants for your phone and bank records and the crime scene team went through your bedroom at Erin’s house yesterday.”

  I had nothing to hide. They’d find that out soon enough, but I had no doubt they would look. Hard. I barely had cash in my bank and my phone was a pay-as-you-go plan and I didn’t use it much. Intentionally. As for my bedroom. I’d felt funny knowing Nix grabbed underwear for me. But crime scene techs pawing through it, or… god, my bedside drawer with my vibrator—”

  I flushed just thinking about them finding it. I felt… violated. Judged. Like I was bad again. Trash. “I can’t be the only one you’re looking into.” I couldn’t be the only person whose panties were pawed over.

  “No. We’re working—”

  “All angles,” I finished for her, holding up my hand. “Got it.”

  “I’ll walk you out,” Nix said, going to the door and opening it.

  He followed behind me, through the station and with a hand on my elbow, stopped me in the hall front of the vending machines. Once I turned to look up at him, his hand fell away.