“Do they know about the evidence?” Vincent asked, tapping the folder with a finger.
“Tripp may suspect, but none of them knows for sure.”
Vincent stood up and walked to the stove behind me for more bacon. I turned to watch him, to try to read his body language, but he kept his back turned to me. “Why tell me?” he asked.
I bowed my head. I couldn’t even look at his back as I said, “I didn’t want you to get sucked in.”
“So you showed me the evidence in order to keep me out?”
I laughed nervously. “When you say it like that, it sounds stupid. But yes. That’s exactly it. Now you know everything and you can decide what you want to do. There’s no chance of you accidentally being implicated.”
His back was still to me, and that made me nervous. What was he thinking? I couldn’t tell.
“What if I just turn you in?” he asked.
“I thought of that,” I said. “And I don’t care. Either way, the secrets end now, and no one else will be wrapped up in this mess.”
He turned around then and looked me straight in the eye. “So you are completely willing to face the consequences?”
Was I?
Well, really, there was no question.
“I knew the chances I was taking when I stole the evidence three years ago, so I am definitely willing to accept the consequences now. I just don’t want anyone else to face them with me,” I said firmly.
Vincent’s blue eyes continued to focus on my face, but he said nothing, so I added, “Yes. I am completely willing. And I’m going to keep pursuing this through whatever means are available to me. If I’m charged with a felony and lose my job over this, I’ll still keep going. I will find Slidell and make sure he is tried for his crime. I will never stop.”
As I said those words aloud, I realized how true they were. I would never stop. If I never found Tricia’s rapist, I would be stuck in law enforcement forever. I’d be frozen exactly where I was now. I’d never grow up and figure out what I wanted to be.
I knew this was totally unhealthy and probably an obsession, but that man had ruined four lives. He needed to pay for what he had done.
Vincent was still quiet, watching me.
“Are you going to arrest me now?” I asked, holding out my hands toward him, ready to be cuffed.
He stepped forward and pushed my hands back toward me. “As if I’d make the mistake of cuffing you in the front,” he said, returning to his seat at the table and studying me. “You’d choke me first chance you got and escape.”
I laughed, but then the silence grew long. I became increasingly uncomfortable under his blatant scrutiny.
“Okay,” he said finally. “I’m in.”
I blinked. “In?”
“Yeah, I’ll help you find Slidell, and together we’ll make sure he’s arrested and tried for his crime.”
“No,” I said a bit too loudly. “That’s not why I came here at all. I was trying to give you an out.”
“Well.” He leaned back against the chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m not taking it. I’m in.”
I knew my mouth was hanging open, so I closed it, only to open it again and say, “But this could end your career. If they find out about my files and learn that you helped out after you knew about them, then you could lose everything you’ve earned in this field.”
“It could end your career too, and you’re not going to stop,” he said logically. “But yes, I could lose my job with the DOI. It’s a risk I’ll take.”
“But there’s no reasonable explanation for such a risk. Not for you. I have an emotional stake in this. You don’t.”
He tilted his head sideways and his expression softened. “Don’t I?” he whispered.
I looked down, feeling a blush creep into my cheeks. I so did not want to go there. Not right now. Not about this.
He spoke again, his voice firm to my ears, but still I did not look at him. “I understand the risks. You told me everything, right?”
“Yes,” I said, and that was the truth. I had revealed my entire self to him. Essentially, I was standing before him totally naked, vulnerable and exposed. “But that’s not why I told you. That’s not the result I was looking for.”
“That’s the result you got.”
“But I don’t want you doing this because you feel like you have to save me.” Tripp had been in the saving Julia business, and that hadn’t gone well. At all. I didn’t want to ruin whatever Vincent and I had—friendship or maybe one day something more—by letting him play the role of protector or benefactor. “I’m not a damsel in distress, and I don’t need a knight to come rescue me. I can do this on my own.”
“Hell,” he said, “this isn’t about saving you. You’re fighting, and that’s what I’m trained to do. I fight. And I’ll keep fighting as long as you do.”
I looked back up at Vincent. His face was hard now and his blue eyes serious. He was pretty scary looking.
“Are you all in?” Vincent asked.
“Yes,” I said with conviction and certainty.
“Then,” he said in his strong, solid voice, “So am I.”
Acknowledgements
My deepest appreciation goes to everyone involved in the creation of Death Benefits. Thanks to Michael Sheehan for providing information on military and police matters, Jennifer and Matt Mathis for arranging a tour of a working forensics lab, Bill Brewer for information on car fires, and Dr. Carey Bligard for sharing details on concussions and other medical minutiae. Also I am grateful to my editorial team—Beverle Graves Myers, Kelley Fuller Land, Octavia Becton, and Marilyn Whiteley—for helping to keep me from making grievous errors. Thanks are also due to Bert Becton, a quasi-member of the editorial team, who was forced to listen to me work on the plot of this book for months. Of course, all mistakes in this text belong to me, but as usual, I will try to foist them off on someone named above.
About the Author
J. W. Becton (a pseudo-pseudonym for historical fiction author Jennifer Becton) has worked for more than twelve years in the traditional publishing industry as a freelance writer, editor, and proofreader. Upon discovering the possibilities of the expanding ebook market, she created Whiteley Press, an independent publishing house that has sold more than 55,000 books since 2010. Absolute Liability, the first in the six-book Southern Fraud Thriller series, became an Amazon Kindle Best Seller and made the Indie Reader Best Seller list for three nonconsecutive weeks, and At Fault (Southern Fraud 3) will be out in 2012.
Connect with Jennifer Online
Blog: http://www.bectonliterary.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/JenniferBectonWriter
Twitter: http://twitter.com/JenniferBecton
Southern Fraud Thriller Series: http://www.jwbecton.com
Table of Contents
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-one
Twenty-two
Twenty-three
Twenty-four
Twenty-five
Twenty-six
Twenty-seven
Twenty-eight
Twenty-nine
Thirty
Thirty-one
Thirty-two
Thirty-three
Acknowledgements
About the Author
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