The Darkest Hour

by Anina Collins

  I knew he was feeling defensive answering Derek’s questions, and I understood that. I also knew it wasn’t exactly Alex’s nature to be loose with details about much of anything, but this was a murder investigation and his chief was the one asking him the questions. I couldn’t believe he wouldn’t answer him.

  Frustrated, Derek asked his question once more. “Did you and Bethany argue when you visited her last night? It might help you to know that there was a witness to your argument.”

  Wincing like answering caused him pain, Alex nodded. “Fine. We had an argument, but when I left her apartment before ten last night, she was alive.”

  “And what was the argument about?”

  I’d waited for nearly five minutes for this answer, but all Alex did was shake his head as he refused to even give the tiniest detail about what Mallory Michaels had seen them fight about on the sidewalk in front of her apartment.

  “That’s none of your business.”

  “You know full well it’s my business, Alex. I’m trying to solve a vicious murder, and right now, you’re the last person to see our victim and that’s when you and Bethany were fighting loud enough for her neighbor to witness the two of you. Now what did the two of you fight about?”

  “I won’t tell you, so don’t bother asking again, Derek.”

  I didn’t know why Alex was being so difficult about what he and Bethany had fought about. How bad could it have been? Was he refusing to answer because I was there and he didn’t want me to know how close they still were? It was a little late for that.

  Even though I wanted to speak up and plead with him to just answer Derek’s question, I didn’t. Not because Derek had told me to keep quiet but because I honestly wasn’t sure I wanted to hear the answer anymore.

  Derek took a pen and a piece of paper out of his coat pocket and asked, “What’s the make, model, and color of the car you drive?”

  As Alex freely answered this question by telling him he drove a black 1969 Ford Mustang, I looked around for any evidence that could point to him having been the one who slit poor Bethany’s throat and left her to bleed to death. Alex had taught me well in the months I’d been his partner, so I scanned the rooms around me for signs of blood or a knife and had to admit to myself I didn’t know if I was doing it to prove he hadn’t done it or to help Derek prove he had.

  I saw nothing, though.

  I wanted to believe he couldn’t be our killer, but after watching him refuse to answer Derek’s questions, I wondered if my faith in him had been misplaced. Maybe he’d been seeing Bethany the whole time he and I were together and taking things slow. The thought occurred to me that I was the woman he spent time with laughing and talking and she was the woman he slept with.

  Turning away so he couldn’t see my face, I wiped away a tear that escaped as that truth settled into my brain. Maybe everything I thought we were wasn’t the truth at all.

  Derek’s phone rang, breaking the tension and the silence that had settled in among us, and he excused himself to take the call as I wished for the first time to be anywhere but near Alex at that moment. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him get up from his seat and was surprised when I felt the couch dip next to me as he sat down close enough that his leg touched mine.

  “Poppy, I need you to believe me. I would never hurt anyone like this. Please, you know me. You know me better than anyone else in the world. You can’t think I did this.”

  His words sounded like they were being pulled from the depths of his soul, and I turned to see him looking at me with desperation in his eyes. I’d never seen him look like that. It stirred something in me that made me want to burst into tears at how betrayed hearing he had gone to see Bethany made me feel.

  “You never told me you and she were still talking. What was she in your life, Alex? You told me you wanted to take things slowly with me, but were you sleeping with her on the side all along?”

  He took my hands in his and did exactly what any accused man would. “No! It wasn’t like that. I hadn’t seen Bethany in months, at least not alone. She and I were finished. I love you, Poppy. I wouldn’t do that to you.”

  In all the months we’d been together more than mere partners solving crimes, he’d never told me he loved me. I’d wanted to believe he did and was just afraid to take that next step, and now as he begged me to believe he wasn’t a killer, he finally said those words that should have made me happier than any woman in the world.

  But they didn’t. Defensive and hurt, I couldn’t help but wonder if he said those three precious words to convince me he wasn’t guilty.

  “You love me? You’ve never told me that before right now. So why did you go to Bethany’s last night after you left my house early because you said you were sick?”

  He got an uneasy look on his face. “Don’t do this, Poppy. Whatever she and I talked about doesn’t have anything to do with us.”

  I ripped my hands from his hold and shook my head in disbelief. “Doesn’t have anything to do with us? You’re the prime suspect in her murder, Alex. Right now Derek is probably on the phone with Donny or Craig and hearing that they found some evidence that he’s going to want answers about, so if you want me to believe anything coming out of your mouth, you need to answer my question right now.”

  Alex let out a heavy sigh and nodded. “Okay. She called me a little after nine last night as I was driving home and she was all depressed about something she wouldn’t talk about over the phone. She didn’t even sound like herself. When I got there at around nine-thirty, she acted like I was just playing games with her feelings by saying I didn’t want to see her anymore but then coming by for what looked like sex. She was crying and a mess. I tried to calm her down, but she ended up screaming for me to just go and never come back. That was the last I saw of her.”

  “Why would she call you and then act like that?” I asked as his explanation filtered through my skepticism.

  He took my hands in his again and looked into my eyes with a look of pure sadness. “I don’t know, Poppy, but I swear to you there was nothing going on with her.”

  “Her neighbor said she’s seen you at Bethany’s a few times since Christmas, Alex.”

  “Well, she’s wrong. I’m with you every night, Poppy, and even when I have to work an overnight shift, you and I still see each other. I wouldn’t do that to you. You have to believe me.”

  Derek returned from his phone call before I could tell Alex I believed him. It hurt like hell to know he’d seen her the night before and I had to find out about it in the course of her murder investigation, but I believed he was telling me the truth.

  “Alex, do you own a hunting knife?”

  I felt Alex’s hands squeeze mine for a second and then release their hold on me. “Why would you ask me that?”

  Frowning, Derek said, “Because the coroner has determined that Bethany’s throat was slit with a hunting knife. So I’ll ask again. Do you own a hunting knife?”

  I waited for Alex to answer his question so we could get back to our conversation, but he stood up from the couch and walked toward the door. Holding it open, he said flatly, “I want you to leave now. I have nothing else to say.”

  Derek simply nodded his head and did as his officer asked, obviously resigned to the fact that he wasn’t going to get anything else from Alex, but I wasn’t ready to let it go so easily. When Derek had walked out, I ran to Alex still holding the door open for me to leave and pleaded for him to tell me what was going on.

  “Alex, why won’t you answer his question? Just tell him the truth so he can eliminate you as a suspect and we can go back to our lives again. What harm can come from just admitting you have a hunting knife if you’re innocent?”

  He grimaced and shook his head over and over. “Something’s very wrong, Poppy. I would never hurt anyone like this, but I can’t say anything more. Just don’t forget what you know about me. Don’t forget.”

  Tears rolled down over my cheeks at his answer to me. I didn’t
know what he was talking about, but I knew this man. He didn’t want to believe he could kill Bethany for any reason.

  “Please tell the truth, Alex. I care about you. That won’t change no matter what evidence Derek thinks he has, but I don’t understand why you won’t just tell the truth.”

  He pressed his lips to mine in a desperate kiss, and when he pulled away, I looked up into his eyes and saw real terror in them. His voice shaky, he pleaded, “Please prove that I didn’t do this. I’m innocent. If anyone can prove it, it’s you, Poppy.”

  I stumbled out into the cold winter night unsure of practically everything in my world except one. Alex wasn’t a killer. Now I just had to prove it.

  Chapter Three

  Derek drove back to town saying nothing, his deep frown telling me everything I needed to know. Not that I didn’t understand his unhappiness. Alex had been less than helpful and didn’t exactly do a lot to make his chief think he was innocent.

  I sat in the passenger seat listening to the sound of the rubber tires rolling over the hard ground as the events of the night replayed over and over in my mind. Bethany dead. Alex the prime suspect, at least according to Derek. And me caught in the middle. I wanted to catch the killer and see him pay as much as anyone else, but I couldn’t deny my allegiance to Alex. He was my partner in crime at work and the man I loved.

  The car turned onto Barn Street and my house came into view. Just a few hours before, I’d been happily tucked into bed having that strange recurring dream and now everything in my life felt like it had been turned upside down.

  Derek parked the car in my driveway and sighed as he stared out the front window. “I just remembered you drove to the crime scene. Do you want me to take you to get your car?”

  Surprised at his comment after expecting him to say something about what had happened out at Alex’s, I patted Derek’s arm through his coat. He turned to look at me, and I saw the sadness that had been in his eyes since telling me about Bethany was gone now, replaced by something else.

  Concern? Anger? I wasn’t sure.

  “I can get it later. Thanks, though.”

  “It doesn’t look good, Poppy,” he said in a somber voice I rarely heard from him.

  “You’re always a glass half-empty kind of guy, aren’t you, Derek? It’s going to be okay.”

  I didn’t know if that was the truth or just my hopeful optimism taking over because I’d experienced an overload of bad already that day. What I did know was I trusted Alex Montero with my life every time I left my house to work on a case with him. I couldn’t change that because things looked bad, even if I wanted to.

  Derek looked away from me and said, “With his past history, I have to wonder if things are like people whispered when his wife died.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked, stunned he would mention Alex’s wife at all.

  “I don’t know. It just seems odd that this guy has had two women he’s associated with die violent deaths. Most guys can’t say that.”

  Barely able to get my thoughts together, I finally found the words and said, “That makes him a killer? Two people die around a cop and that makes him a killer?”

  Whipping his head around to face me, Derek grimaced. “You’re blinded by how you feel about him, Poppy. I don’t know if it’s that you idolize him or love him, but ever since you two began working together, you’ve had that puppy dog look in your eyes when it comes to Alex. How much do you really know about him?”

  “I guess not as much as you think I should,” I snapped, hurt that someone who’d known me nearly all my life would think of me like some schoolgirl with a crush. “If you suspected he had a part in his wife’s death, which I think is ridiculous, by the way, why did you have him work as a cop in our town if you thought he was a killer?”

  “Nothing was ever proven to show he was his wife’s killer. She was murdered while he was on duty, and there was no real evidence to show he did it. But rumors flew all over the place saying he was the killer.”

  My voice trembling, I asked, “And yet you not only hired him to work in Sunset Ridge but partnered him with someone you’ve known since she was knee-high to a grasshopper? If you truly thought there was a chance he killed his wife, you wouldn’t have let me work with him for nearly a year.”

  I felt the tears well in my eyes, but I willed them away. I didn’t want Derek to see how upset his words made me. Whatever he thought, I knew Alex. He couldn’t have hurt his wife any more than he could have hurt Bethany.

  “Poppy, I would never put you in harm’s way. I didn’t have any proof Alex had done anything, but now another woman in his life has been murdered. I don’t want to see you get hurt next.”

  “So with no proof and just rumors, you’re willing to convict him, Derek?”

  He wore that look on his face he always got when we knocked heads about something, like I only knew part of the story and he didn’t want to be the one who had to tell me the missing piece of it. “Alex’s wife was killed the same way, Poppy. Her throat was slit. They found out it was cut with a hunting knife. I don’t know if it’s all a coincidence, but I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

  I felt like someone had just slapped me across the face. The same way? No, this wasn’t happening.

  “Are you sure, Derek? They were both killed like that?” I asked, all at once understanding why Alex had been so unwilling to cooperate.

  Nodding, he blew the air out of his lungs until there was none left inside him. “Yep. Two women murdered in one person’s life is one thing, but two women murdered the same way? That sounds like a pattern. He always seems so calm and rational, but maybe when it comes to his personal life, he’s the exact opposite.”

  Although I didn’t want to discuss my personal life with Derek, I knew I had to so he would forget this craziness he had in his mind about Alex. “You know he and I have been seeing each other, don’t you? Do you think I wouldn’t have seen some hint of him being completely different in his personal life?”

  Shrugging, he sighed again. “You haven’t been together all that long, Poppy. Maybe there was something different about those women from you.”

  I shook my head in disbelief. “No, I would have seen something that told me at some point he’d turn into a murderous monster. For God’s sake, I’m not a fool! I can be infuriating on my best days, Derek. You can attest to that. Why would I still be alive and Bethany, who was more than accommodating to anyone she dated in many ways, lies dead? It doesn’t make any sense.”

  “You can be maddening. That’s true,” he said with a tiny smile.

  “So I think I would have gotten some indication from him by now that he’s not the calm man he appears to be. Derek, I know him. He’s not a murderer. If you want to convince me he is, you’re going to need a whole lot more than some rumors from the past.”

  Derek’s smile faded away, and he said in a low voice, “It’s not you anyone has to convince, Poppy. It’s twelve people.”

  I couldn’t believe my ears. He already had this case in front of a jury! “So you’ve tried and convicted him not even four hours into the case? What happened to innocent before being proven guilty?”

  He held his hands up in surrender. “I’m not doing anything here, Poppy. I’m just worried this isn’t going to turn out the way you hope it will.”

  “Well, I intend on finding out the truth, no matter what it is, so don’t try to stop me from working on this case.”

  I knew Derek could stop me with just a word, but I hoped he wouldn’t. No one knew Alex like I did. I needed to be on this case.

  “I should tell you that if I catch you doing anything involving this case that I’m going to handcuff you to my desk so you won’t get hurt, but I know how much you care for him. The truth is you’re too close to this, Poppy. Can you honestly say you’ll be able to accept it if Alex is guilty? I can’t have someone impeding a case because they don’t want the truth to come out.”

  “I wouldn’t do that, Derek. I won’
t hide anything I find out. It will be just like the Geneva Woodward case. Whatever I find out, I’ll bring to you. I need you to promise me you won’t disregard it just because it doesn’t fit into your preconceived beliefs about him, though.”

  Derek’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Preconceived beliefs? You sound like his defense lawyer.”

  I smiled and tried to soften my attack, knowing that being too strident wasn’t going to get me far. “Please just keep an open mind. Even with what happened in Alex’s past, give him the benefit of the doubt until you can’t anymore. He’s been a good cop for you and this town, so don’t give up on him just yet.”

  Nodding, Derek seemed to see I was right. “Okay, but I want you to be careful. We have no idea what’s going on in this case yet, and if it’s not Alex, then we have a murderer on the loose who killed your friend. I don’t want to see you as his or her next victim.”

  For the first time since I woke up that morning, I smiled. “See, that’s the spirit. At least I got you to admit it might not be him. We’re making progress. I’m going to go inside and start to figure out who did this to Bethany. I’ll let you know what I find out, and I hope you’ll do the same for me.”

  Derek didn’t have to do anything to help me prove Alex wasn’t Bethany’s killer. I knew that, and still I asked all the same because while he was chief of police, he was also my friend for as long as I could remember. That counted for something.

  He smiled and I knew it meant something to him too. Gently touching my forearm in a gesture he rarely gave me unless he was protecting me from some bully on the school playground, he quietly said, “Be careful. I don’t want to see you hurt in this.”

  “I will. I promise.”

  For all his faults, Derek Hampton was a good man, even if he was completely wrong about Alex. As I watched him pull away from the curb and saw the first hint of the sun rising on the horizon, I hoped I could do as Alex had asked. I didn’t know how I’d do it without him, but I had to, and from the looks of it, I’d be doing it basically alone.