“Yes, ma’am,” he returned. “So what can you tell us about him?”
I lifted my heavy hair off the back of my neck before letting it drop again while silently cursing my asshole brother to Hell and back for pulling me into whatever bullshit he’d gotten into this time.
“Not much, really,” I replied, unable to hide the bitterness in my voice. “I mean, other than he’s a son of a bitch, I don’t have much else to offer. We haven’t talked in years.”
Detective Walker’s face went funny, and not in a good way. He watched me like a person would a specimen under a microscope as his partner pushed off the wall and moved to the table.
“You sure about that?” Wanderly asked. “’Cause we got a surveillance photo of him not too far from here.”
Taking the folder, he pulled a photograph from inside and slid it across the table. I had to slap my hand onto the picture to stop it from falling to the floor. Sure enough, it was a grainy image of my older brother filling up a car that most likely wasn’t his.
“That right there’s proof your brother was at least around Hope Valley at the time the break-ins started.”
“Wait.” I leaned forward. “You think Shep has something to do with the robberies that have been happening around town?”
“That’s what we’re tryin’ to find out, ma’am,” Detective Walker stated.
His partner jumped in then, his tone and expression both having grown harder. “And that’s why you’re in here. So you sure you wanna stick with your original answer that you haven’t talked to him in years?”
My whole body jerked back at the aggitation radiating off him, and my voice went weak as I asked, “Do you… think I had something to do with those break-ins?”
“Again, that’s what we’re tryin’ to find out.”
Lifting my hands, I gave my head a hard shake, hoping the craziness of everything happening right now might piece itself together because nothing was making a bit of sense. “I’m sorry, but are you kidding me?”
“Ma’am,” Detective Walker started, “if you’d just—”
“Please, for the love of god, stop calling me ma’am. My name’s Eden. And I’m not a part of anything that has to do with my brother.” I pressed my fingertips into my forehead to try and stave off my growing headache. “My brother came by last week looking for a handout, but I sent him packing within five minutes. I didn’t even know he was in town. I got home and he was just there, sitting in my living room.”
Wanderly’s brows dipped into a V. “He broke in?”
I gave him a look and snorted and pointed to the thick folder on the table. “You’ve seen his sheet. Not exactly a surprise. Anyway, he told me he’d gotten himself in trouble and needed my help, but I kicked him out before he could say any more. I have no idea about any crimes he has or could have committed, I swear.”
“You have any idea where he might be?”
“None. Honestly, until you started asking me these questions, I thought he’d bailed again.” I looked between the two men. “Has something happened? Was there another break-in?”
Detective Walker hesitated for several seconds. “There was, earlier tonight. And the owner was murdered.”
If I hadn’t been sitting I would have collapsed to the ground. As it was, I was pretty sure I was going to throw up. “That… that can’t be right.”
“What can’t be right?” Walker asked.
“Look, my brother’s a jackass, I’ll be the first to admit that, but he isn’t a killer.”
Detective Wanderly stood from his hunched position and crossed his arms over his chest, and I had to admit, if I hadn’t been so damn scared out of my mind, I would have taken the time to appreciate just how handsome both men were. But as that hardness in his expression came back, any natural womanly desire I might have felt shrank back as my chest tightened. “You know, for someone who keeps sayin’ you two aren’t close, you’re sure quick to jump to his defense.”
My eyes narrowed and I cocked my head as that fear I’d been feeling started to give way to anger. “Excuse me?”
“I’m just sayin’, usually if a guy’s as big an asshole as you’re claiming your brother is, a woman wouldn’t defend him.”
“If a woman’s any woman at all, she would if the asshole in question was being wrongly accused of murder. If a woman’s any woman at all, she does what’s right whether she likes the person or not. I don’t like my brother, at all. To tell you the truth, he’s a terrible person and, in my opinion, a drain on humanity, but you asked me if I could tell you anything about him, so I am, and he’s not a killer, Detective. He’s a criminal, no doubt about that, but not a killer.”
Wanderly slid the folder closer to him and started flipping pages. “Shepley Brenner’s currently on the run from some real nasty guys from Philadelphia who want nothing more than to see his head on a spit. These are the kind of men who wouldn’t hesitate to pull a trigger to take out their target, even if it meant women and children got caught in the crosshairs. Your brother stole a hundred and fifty grand from these men, and now they’re out for blood. So you’re tellin’ me that, in an act of desperation, a man who’d work with and then steal from assholes like this wouldn’t hesitate to save his own life by taking someone else’s?”
“That’s exactly what I’m telling you,” I answered in a raised voice.
“Where’s your brother, Miss Brenner? You cooperate now and tell us, maybe we can work out some kind of deal for you.”
Panic was squeezing at my lungs, making it harder and harder to breathe. “I don’t know.”
“Look, I get that you want to be loyal to your family,” Wanderly continued, “but you need to help yourself right now. Where’s your brother?”
“I said I don’t know!”
“Where is he!” he barked, and I lost it.
Shooting up from my feet so fast my chair went scraping along the floor and into the wall behind me, I slammed my hands on the metal table and shouted, “I don’t know! I haven’t got a clue where the hell he is! I’m not defending him, Detective, and I’m not helping him! I’d never do something like that. I have absolutely no loyalty to my family, and if I truly believed he was capable of taking a person’s life, I’d be the first to tell you everything I could.”
“Blood’s thicker than water,” he continued prodding.
“Not with my family,” I hissed, bracing my palms on the table and leaning in. “My family’s blood is so goddamn diluted with booze it’s thinner than water. You wanna know who my brother is? I’ll tell you. My brother’s the kind of guy who’d take pictures of his teenage sister in the shower and sell them to the players on the high school football team for a quick fifty bucks so he could get high, not giving a single damn that those same pictures were spread around the entire school by the very boys he sold them to. He’s the kind of guy who’d steal every single penny I’d worked my ass off to save in the hopes of paying for college and maybe, just maybe giving myself a better life than the one my family led all because he was out of beer. He’s the kind of guy who’d tell me stories of the Boogeyman who ate little children, then lock me out of the house late at night because he and his asshole buddies got a huge laugh out of listening to me screaming and crying and begging them to let me in before the monster got me.
“That’s the kind of guy my brother is, Detective Wanderly, so if you think for a single second that I’d ever lift a finger to help him in any way, you’d be very wrong. I owe him nothing. I’d risk absolutely nothing to protect him if he’s done something wrong, but I’m telling you, he’s not a murderer. He’s cruel, and vicious, and narcissistic, but he’s not a murderer. I’m not harboring him, and I never would. And for the last time, I do not know. Where. He. Is!”
I was panting and completely out of breath once I finished my rant. I hadn’t even realized I’d started crying until Wanderly tucked his hand into the pocket of his jeans and passed me the handkerchief he’d just pulled out.
Several se
conds ticked by in agonizing silence as I fought to breathe and control my tears, and the whole time, the two men looked on with sympathy furrowing their brows.
“You okay?” Detective Walker finally asked a couple minutes later.
“I’m fine,” I muttered, staring down at the monogram on the handkerchief in my hands. “But I’ve told you everything I know.”
“We believe you,” Wanderly declared, shocking me so much that my head jerked up and my wide, scratchy eyes landed on him. “We just need a few minutes, and then we’ll get you on your way, okay?”
I cast my gaze back down, unable to look at either of them any longer. I just wanted to get the hell out of there. “Yeah.”
They left me alone in that room again, and all I could do was hope it didn’t take another twenty minutes.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Lincoln
It had taken a lot of string pulling, but Hayes finally talked their captain into letting me watch from the other room as they questioned Eden. I might not have been a cop, but no way in hell was I letting them interrogate her with me in a totally different part of the station. I needed to be close. Unfortunately, the closest I was allowed during their line of questioning was behind a goddamn mirror.
Leo Drake and Micah Langford, two more detectives on the force, came into the room behind me a couple minutes after the questions started.
“Sheppard,” Micah greeted. Leo lifted his chin, and I did the same in return to both of them.
“Heard about the murder,” Leo said. “Also heard you were connected to the person of interest.”
“Goddamn Duncan,” I muttered. “Needs to learn to keep his mouth shut.”
He nodded his agreement while Micah tilted his chin up to the two-way mirror. “She yours?”
I nodded. “She is.”
“She’s pretty,” he replied, looking through to the other room. “How’s she involved?”
The muscles in my jaw ached from how hard I was clenching my teeth together. “She’s not. Suspect’s her brother, but she doesn’t have shit to do with him.”
We stood in silence, and the longer Hayes and Trick went at Eden, the tenser I became. I could see the frustration and anxiety on Eden’s face, and all I wanted to do was bust into that room and pull her out so she didn’t have to deal with this.
“Look, my brother’s a jackass, I’ll be the first to admit that, but he isn’t a killer,” Edie insisted.
Trick stood tall and hovered over her in a menacing way that made my hair stand on end. “You know, for someone who keeps saying you two aren’t close, you’re sure quick to jump to his defense.”
“Shit,” Micah hissed.
“Excuse me?”
“I’m just sayin’, usually if a guy’s as big an asshole as you’re claiming your brother is, a woman wouldn’t defend him.”
“The fuck’s he doing?” I grunted, my blood beginning to heat as Trick pressed and pressed, coming down harder on Eden than necessary.
“Keep calm, Linc,” Leo coaxed. “You know he’s a good guy, but we were at that scene tonight. It was bad, man. Walker and Wanderly are both wired.”
The more he pushed, the tighter Eden’s body locked up until I worried that she’d shatter into a million pieces.
“Where’s your brother, Miss Brenner? You cooperate now and tell us, maybe we can work out some kind of deal for you.”
Her eyes were wild with panic as she insisted, “I don’t know.”
“Look, I get that you want to be loyal to your family, but you need to help yourself right now. Where’s your brother?”
“I said I don’t know!”
“Where is he!”
Eden shot out of the chair and slammed her hands on the table. Agony laced through her words as she screamed, “I don’t know! I haven’t got a clue where the hell he is! I’m not defending him, Detective, and I’m not helping him! I’d never do something like that. I have absolutely no loyalty to my family, and if I truly believed he was capable of taking a person’s life, I’d be the first to tell you everything I could.”
“This is fuckin’ bullshit,” I seethed, turning on my boots for the door.
“Stand down, man.” Micah got between me and the door, blocking my path. “You busting in there and tearing him a new one isn’t gonna do shit to help your girl.”
Trick’s voice came at us again as he dug the knife in deeper. “Blood’s thicker than water.”
“Not with my family,” she said, tears streaming down her beautiful face. “My family’s blood is so goddamn diluted with booze that it’s thinner than water. You wanna know who my brother is? I’ll tell you. My brother’s the kind of guy who’d take picture of his teenage sister in the shower and sell them to the players on the high school football team for a quick fifty bucks so he could get high, not giving a single damn that those same pictures were spread around the entire school by the very boys he sold them to.”
“Fuck me,” Leo grunted in disgust.
“Get the fuck outta my way,” I growled at Micah. I was done watching them rip Eden apart. This shit was over right the fuck now.
“Can’t let you do that. You know I got nothin’ but respect for you, but you can’t go in there.”
Eden’s words kept coming at us through the glass, and each one of them was a stab to the gut.
“He’s the kind of guy who’d steal every single penny I’d worked my ass off to save in the hopes of paying for college and maybe, just maybe giving myself a better life than the one my family led all because he was out of beer. He’s the kind of guy who’d tell me stories of the Boogeyman who ate little children, then lock me out of the house late at night because he and his asshole buddies got a huge laugh out of listening to me screaming and crying and begging them to let me in before the monster got me.”
That was it.
Turning back to Micah, I fumed, “You either get the hell outta my way, or I’ll go right fucking through you. Either way, I’m getting to my girl.”
“Lincoln,” Leo said in warning from behind me. “Stand the hell down.”
Micah and I entered a standoff that lasted until Hayes and Trick started out of the interrogation room. The moment they cleared the door, I shoved past him and yanked the door open.
Pointing at Trick, I charged while barking, “I’m gonna rip your goddamn head off!”
All three men worked to keep Patrick and me separated.
“Brother, you need to calm down,” Hayes ordered, shoving at my chest.
“Fuck calm,” I snarled. “I fuckin’ told you to go soft!”
“Not here,” he said in a low voice. “She’s been shaken enough, and you two go at it in the hallway, she’ll hear it.”
He shoved me down the hall toward the bullpen with the rest of the men on our heels.
The moment we cleared the mouth of the hallway, I spun back around.
“Man, I didn’t know,” Trick defended, looking as contrite as he sounded, but it was too late. All I saw was red.
“That’s bullshit!” I snapped. “I told you her family were pieces of shit. I told you to go gentle with her, and you just fuckin’ tore into her in there!”
“I let my emotions get the best of me.”
“You made her cry, motherfucker.”
I knew what Leo said was right. I knew Trick was a good guy, and he felt like shit for what had just gone down, but the sight of her tears and pain had wiped away any rationality I may have had.
“I’ll make it right, Linc. You have my word.”
Pulling in a deep inhale, I worked to calm my rage, and had almost succeeded when Fred Duncan came up and clapped me on the back. Unfortunately, he’d been one of the uniforms to show earlier at Eden’s house, so he was front and center when the shit first went down.
“Man, I gotta tell you, that woman of yours is a serious looker.”
“Duncan,” Hayes clipped. “Now’s not the time.”
“Yeah, but I just had to come over and tell him I get
it.”
“The hell are you talking about?” I snapped.
“You goin’ undercover to keep tabs on her. Word around the station was you got close as a favor to Walker since it’s her brother they’re lookin’ into. I’ll admit, at first, I didn’t understand. I mean, you were pullin’ all that fine tail, and she was all frumpy and shit. But then she started dressin’ nice and doin’ herself up. Now I kinda wish Walker’d tapped me for that detail.”
“Man,” Leo grunted. “Learn to read a goddamn room and when to keep your fuckin’ mouth shut, would you?”
My fingers clenched with the desire to shove my fist through the son of a bitch’s face when Eden’s voice ripped through the air and froze me in place.
“What is he talking about?”
* * *
Eden
I felt like the ground had just fallen out from under me.
I’d been waiting in the room, going stir-crazy when I heard raised voices, so I’d gotten antsy and gone to investigate. And what I’d stumbled on crushed me more than the grueling interrogation I’d just gone through.
“Edie.” Lincoln came at me but stopped when I took a step back. “Listen, it’s not what you think,” he insisted.
For the second time tonight, I felt every cop in the room staring with avid interest. Only I didn’t have it in me to care this time. No, this time I was too busy concentrating on my heart, which was shriveling to the size of a raisin in my chest.
“Really? Because what I’m thinking is that the only reason you ever started paying attention to me was because I was a job. Am I wrong?”
He didn’t say a word for several seconds, and that was answer enough.
“Edie, baby, please just listen. It might have started that way, but it’s not like that anymore.”
A caustic laugh bubbled from my throat, leaving a searing burn in its wake. “Save it,” I clipped.
I looked to the detectives who’d been grilling me, mainly because, besides Lincoln, they were the only ones in the room I recognized. “Are we done here? ’Cause I’d really like to go home.” I’d taken all the humiliation I could for one night, and if I didn’t get out of there, I was at serious risk of shattering in front of everyone.
Out of My League: a Hope Valley novel Page 17
