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The Sharpest Edge

Page 19

by Stephanie Rowe


  Sean nodded. “I swear I know him, but I can’t place it….”

  At that moment, Kim recognized the picture, and her world shattered. “Oh, my God.” No, no, no. It couldn’t be him. She had to be wrong.

  “Who is it?”

  She grabbed the picture out of Sean’s hand and stumbled across the room, staring at it. “Magnifying glass.” She had to be wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

  “Kim? Who is it?” Sean’s voice sounded so far away, tinny and distant, and she ignored it.

  Someone set a magnifying glass into her hand and she almost dropped it, her hand was shaking so badly. She sank into Sean’s chair, turned the lamp on, set the picture on the desk, pulled out the magnifying glass and then closed her eyes.

  She felt Sean’s presence before he spoke, his breath hot on her neck. “Who is it?”

  Right. She could do this. Totally. “Give me a sec.” She positioned the magnifying glass over the boy’s face and she knew instantly. There was no doubt. She felt sick. She set it down, spun around in the chair and faced Sean. “It’s Alan,” she whispered.

  He grunted in surprise and touched her shoulder. Then he took the magnifying glass and examined the photo.

  She leaned back and waited for confirmation, which was coming. There was simply no other conclusion.

  Sean set down the magnifying glass and looked at Kim.

  She managed a tight smile. No time to fall apart. But her mind was reeling, spinning, spiraling downward in a mass of heartbreak and confusion. How could Alan be John Ramsey? How could he have betrayed her like that?

  No wonder Jimmy had been on his way out here. Alan had told him exactly where to find her.

  Sean set his hands on her upper arms. “You can deal with this.”

  She nodded. Not a good time to try to speak.

  He studied her for a minute, then squeezed her arms. “I’m here.”

  Earlier in the day, she might have been tempted to kick him in the shin for assuming that she cared whether he was there for her, but at the moment, it sounded pretty good to her. Sean might be a lot of things, like more in love with her dad than with her, but he was who he was and he’d never lied about it.

  Honesty was something that seemed kind of important at the moment.

  He didn’t remove his hands, but he turned his head to address Chief Vega, who by some magic of transportation was now standing by their side. How did he get there?

  “It’s Alan Haywood, Kim’s friend who is visiting from California.”

  Triumph lit up Chief Vega’s face. “Are you positive?”

  “Yes.” She’d managed to speak. Good for her! Almost made it seem as though she hadn’t been ripped to shreds by the man who she thought was her best friend. “He’s on his way to the police station.” Double bonus. An entire sentence. She felt kind of wobbly though, as if she might topple off the chair at any moment.

  Chief Vega addressed his question to Sean. “Is she right? He’s coming here?”

  “Yeah. I told him to come here with Didi so we could arrange to protect them from Will’s murderer.” Sean grimaced. “I told them I thought it was Carl.”

  “Good. Then they won’t think it’s a trap, and they’ll show up.” Chief Vega turned away, barking orders to get prepared for the arrival of John Ramsey.

  AN HOUR AND A HALF later, Kim dialed Alan’s cell phone, with Sean and the rest of the Ridgeport Police Department positioned strategically around the station, ready for him to appear. Sean was the one with his head next to hers so he could listen in on the conversation.

  Could she do this? She felt as though she was betraying her best friend, but hadn’t he deceived her already?

  Alan answered on the first ring. “Hey there.”

  She had to take a moment to regroup at the warmth in his voice. “Just checking in on your status. Sean and I are at the station now and if you’re not going to be here for a while, we were going to grab something to eat.” Liar, liar, liar!

  “We’re pulling up outside the station, alive and well. We haven’t seen or heard from Carl, so that’s good.”

  “Yeah.”

  “You okay? You sound down.”

  Sean set his hand on the back of her neck and rubbed gently. “I’m a little stressed,” she admitted.

  “I can’t believe you saw Will’s body. What was Sean thinking, letting you in there?”

  Okay, that was it. She could take being manipulated only so long. “I’m sick of you putting down Sean, so cut it out. I walked in, so it’s my fault, not his. Quit trying to make me doubt him. It’s not going to work and you’re ticking me off.” Then she hung up on him.

  “That was subtle,” Chief Vega said.

  She glared at him. “Don’t even get me started.”

  “Not even a fraction of what he deserves,” Sean said.

  “They’re here.” A rookie ran in the front door and everyone took their places. So many cops being industrious at their desks. Yeah, right. Every other time she’d been in here, there’d been one cop in the office at most.

  Would Alan bolt?

  A part of her wanted him to realize it was a trap and run. The smarter part of her kicked herself in the head and reminded herself that he had just murdered Will and probably Pete Gibbs and maybe even set up her dad’s accident.

  She felt sick again.

  No time to run to the bathroom, as Will and Didi walked in. Poor Didi. Her previous boyfriend dead, her current one a murderer. Talk about bad luck in love.

  Alan waved at her and Sean. She managed a smile. “Hi, guys. Good to see you.”

  “You look like hell,” Alan said, reaching out to give Kim a hug.

  She ducked out of his grasp and moved to the other side of the desk, prompting a frown to mar Alan’s face. “What’s wrong?” He narrowed his eyes at Sean. “I get it. You’re responsible for her outburst on the phone, right? Somehow you’ve managed to convince Kim I’m the bad guy.” He flashed anger at Kim. “How can you listen to him?”

  “Shut up, Alan!” She threw the photo at him. “Just shut up.”

  He caught the picture and looked at it. Expression left his face until it was carefully blank.

  Yeah, nice try.

  “What is this?” he asked.

  “A picture of Jimmy Ramsey and his brother, John, when they were teenagers,” Sean said.

  “No, let me.” Kim set her hand on Sean’s arm. She wanted to do this. She had to do it. “Recognize the boy on the left?”

  Alan looked at her. “Should I?”

  “I do.”

  She saw the instant when he realized she knew who he was. The pain shackled his face and panic flew into his eyes. “You told them?” He nodded at the roomful of police officers who were pretending not to listen.

  “Yes.”

  Betrayal flickered in his eyes. “How could you? You know what they think.”

  “That you murdered Will and Pete Gibbs and tried to kill my dad? Yeah, I know what they think.”

  “You think that, too?”

  “What else am I supposed to believe?” She clenched her hands around the back of Sean’s chair. “Did you destroy my house? Write that horrible message?”

  “No!” He slammed his fist on the table and Sean moved closer to him, his body tense and ready. “Don’t you remember how angry I was that the vandal blamed John Ramsey? Because I knew I didn’t do it!”

  “Oh, come on, Ramsey. You expect us to believe that? You lied to Kim for a year and a half. Why would you start telling the truth now?”

  Alan spun around to face Sean. “I hate Jimmy. I know what he’s capable of, and I’ve been trying to expose him for years. He killed our mother. Did your records search show that? They said it was an accident, but I know the truth. When I saw the engagement announcement in the paper for him, I knew what would happen to Cheryl, so I decided to get in there and do what I could.” He turned to Kim. “I swear I was trying to protect you and Cheryl. I haven’t seen Jimmy in fifteen years, so I made s
ure I wasn’t around when he was, but I did it to keep you safe!”

  “And you did a damned fine job of it, too, didn’t you?” Sean said. “You’ve seen the hospital photos of Kim and Cheryl?”

  “I was there! I saw it! And I saw him get off in that courtroom.” Alan’s voice was enraged now and shrill, spiraling wildly. “How can he go free when he’s done all that?”

  “But why did you go visit him in prison?” Kim asked. She wanted to believe him. More than anything, she did. But how could she?

  “To try to convince him to leave you and Cheryl alone. I visited when he first went to jail and he blew me off, but I tried again right before he got out.” He wiped the sweat off his brow. “He laughed at me. Told me to help you so he’d have a reason to kill me, too.”

  “Nice try, Ramsey, but we’re not buying the vulnerable little brother thing.” Sean nodded at one of the other cops. “Take him into the interrogation room for a chat. I’ll be in later.”

  Alan didn’t move as one of the young cops took his arm. “Kim, if you don’t believe me, your life is in danger. I’m not the one doing this, I swear. You have to trust me.”

  No way could she stand there and accept his story. And no way could she refute it. “Prove it to me,” she said. “Please, please, please, prove it to me.”

  His face fell. “I can’t. But you can. If you keep digging, you’ll find out who it is.”

  That wasn’t the answer she wanted. “How come you lied to me about who you were?”

  “Would you have ever trusted John Ramsey?”

  “Of course I would have. But I can’t trust you anymore.” She turned away then, unable to stand the look of despair on his face. Despair at being exposed before he could avenge his brother’s death? Or despair at not being believed when he was telling the truth?

  “Where were you between the hours of ten last night and nine this morning?” Sean asked. The window between when they’d spoken to Will and then found him dead.

  She closed her eyes and waited for an answer that would exonerate him.

  “I was with Didi for part of it.”

  “What about the rest of it?”

  “I was alone.”

  Kim picked up her purse and walked out of the station, not even stopping to console Didi, who was standing by the door, a look of utter shock on her face. Yeah, poor Didi. At least she’d been victimized by his lies for only a few days, not a year and a half.

  “HANG ON A SEC,” Sean said to his team. It would be good for Alan to sit in the interrogation room anyway. Kim was more important.

  He jogged out of the station to find Kim in his car starting the engine. “Hey!”

  She glanced at him, then rolled down the window. “What do you want?”

  “Just checking in. You okay?”

  “No, of course I’m not okay. The man who slept on my couch during the trial is actually a liar and potentially a multiple murderer. How do you think that makes me feel, huh?”

  He squatted next to the car, his arms resting on the door frame. “It sucks.”

  She looked surprised. “Well, yeah. It does.”

  “He deserved more grief than what you gave him.”

  She managed a half smile. “You think?”

  “Definitely. You took it easy on him. You should have kicked him in the nuts and then shot him.”

  “Shut up.” But she was smiling. “How can you joke about this?”

  “Because it’s the only way to survive.” He grinned. “I cracked a lot of jokes after you left.”

  Her smile faded. “Are you going to make a lot of jokes when I leave this time?”

  “Why leave? Why don’t you stay here and run the camp? You have all of us here.”

  She touched his cheek, let her finger trail over his jaw. “Sean, you just don’t get it, do you?”

  He felt as though she was slipping out of his grasp and he couldn’t stop it. But he didn’t know why he was losing her. “Get what?” Frustration made his tone harsher than he intended. “Tell me.”

  “Never mind.” She reached for the gearshift, but he caught her hand.

  “Don’t drive away without telling me the truth.” He tightened his grip on her wrist. “Not again.” He couldn’t handle not knowing again.

  She looked at him. “I can’t be with a man who loves me for my family.”

  “So you want me to reject your family?” He frowned. What did she want from him? “Hurt them to make you happy?”

  “No.” She sighed. “Forget it. I guess I’m not making sense.”

  He sighed and rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb. “Are you going back to L.A. now? Since we’ve caught John Ramsey? The threat’s over.”

  She lifted an eyebrow. “What if Alan’s telling the truth? What if he didn’t do it?”

  “Do you really believe that’s possible?”

  “Yes.”

  He didn’t understand her. “How can you have such loyalty and confidence in a man that you’ve known for a year and a half, yet refuse to forgive your own father? Reject your own family?”

  She frowned. “It’s not like that—”

  “Yes, it is.” Sean pressed harder. “Alan’s guilt is practically a given. He’s John Ramsey. He visited Jimmy in prison. Yet your only evidence on your dad is what your mom wrote in that note and what she told you.”

  “Leave me alone.” She yanked her hand off his, jammed the gearshift into Reverse and began backing up.

  Sean stepped back, even though a part of him wanted to reach through the window, yank out the keys and force her to stay. Make her face him and what was going on between them. But he didn’t. He wouldn’t know what to say to reach her. To bridge the chasm between them. “Where are you going?”

  “Somewhere. If you’re right and Alan’s the bad guy, then I’m not in danger anymore, am I?”

  She had him there. But if he was wrong…

  “See ya.” She pulled away and left him standing in the parking lot. He had a feeling he’d just screwed up again and he wasn’t sure what he’d done or failed to do. All he knew was that the clock was ticking on Kim staying in town and he was getting less and less happy about the notion of her leaving. His chest felt heavy and tight, and a heaviness weighed on his shoulders.

  Like he needed to be thinking that way. He wasn’t going to let her break his heart twice. She was the one who hadn’t loved him enough to try. Not before, and not this time. She was running, and he couldn’t stop her. He stalked back into the station to talk to Ramsey, passing Didi on the way out. Her cheeks were flushed and she looked agitated. “Didi.” He caught her arm as she brushed by.

  She jumped at his touch, then looked at him. “Sean.”

  “I’m sorry about this. We had no idea that Alan was John Ramsey.”

  Didi nodded. “Me, neither. Guess Carl’s no longer a suspect, huh?”

  “No, he’s not. I’m really sorry,” he said again. Guess he’d been right to worry about Didi’s safety, even though he’d thought the danger would be coming from Carl instead of Alan.

  She lifted her chin then. “I’m not sorry.”

  Okay, so he was confused now. “What do you mean?”

  “Alan’s a good man, and I believe him. Just because he was born related to some psycho doesn’t automatically mean he’s bad, too.”

  “Kim said the same thing.”

  “I like Kim.” She met his gaze. “You don’t believe him, though.”

  “No, I don’t.” He’d been getting a vibe from Alan all along and now he knew what it had been. “Alan’s a smart man. He’s manipulated Kim and he’s using you. Don’t get sucked in, Didi.”

  “I’m going to go post bail for him.”

  He grimaced. “Don’t let him fool you. He’ll burn you in the end.”

  “No, he won’t. He loves me.”

  “He doesn’t love you! He’s known you for two days and you’re his key to getting out of here.”

  “He loves me, and I love him,” she insisted
.

  What did they know about love? “You don’t love him. You just met him.”

  “And I was with him all night last night.”

  A ping of warning sounded in Sean’s head. “But he said you weren’t together the whole evening.”

  “He was trying to keep me out of it, but I won’t let him protect me. I was with him, so you’ve got nothing to hold him on. He’ll be out by the end of the day, and if he’s not, I’ll bail him out.”

  He cursed under his breath. So much for matchmaking. It was seriously backfiring. “Didi, lying to provide an alibi can get you thrown in jail.”

  “I’m not lying.” She met his gaze and didn’t flinch.

  Damn. Was she fibbing or not? His instincts seemed to be shot to hell in this case.

  She was covering for Will’s death. She had to be. Alan was not the good guy in this mess. He’d been manipulating for too long to be considered an innocent.

  “Don’t jeopardize your future for the wrong man.”

  “I’m not. Good day, officer.” She flounced down the steps toward the parking lot and Sean had to let her go.

  It was time to talk to Alan and get some answers. He thought of Kim out there by herself and a trickle of fear gripped him. If he was wrong and Kim got hurt, he’d never forgive himself. If he was right and Didi got injured… He shook his head. Now was no time for ambiguity. He had to find out the truth before anything else could happen.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Kim walked into her dad’s hospital room. The curtains were open, letting in the afternoon sunlight. Despite the flowers and the cards, there was no cheer here. Just stupid machines beeping and her dad looking pathetic and weak.

  She practically threw a chair down next to the bed and sat down, glaring at him. “What happened with Mom? I need to know.”

  Silence.

  “Did you know Sean loves you more than he loves me?”

  Silence.

  “I don’t think he even loves me. It’s the same thing as before. Sean loves you, not me. I want Sean to love me and you wanted Mom to love you.” She frowned. “Or did you even care if she loved you? I don’t know.” Kim realized what she’d said. Did she really want Sean to love her? Like really love her?

 

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