Page 109 of Sunburned
She copied my posture. “Samira and I are returning to the boat,” she said. “Allison’s going to the hotel where the rest of the staff is staying.”
“Cody and Jennifer?” I asked. My two remaining suspects, one of whom had killed Tyson—if it hadn’t been the two of them together.
“They’ll be at the house, I think.”
A police officer appeared in the door to the hallway. “Gisèle Breydel and Laurent Auguste?”
Rémy sighed. “We’ll be here.”
Laurent squeezed my hand. “Text me when you’re finished and I’ll come get you.”
Another thirty minutes went by before the handsome Officer Gauthier appeared once more in the doorway. “Mr. Durand, you are with me,” he said to Rémy as we followed him through the door into a short hallway off which were two doors. “Ms. Collet, you are in there”—he indicated the room across the hall, where Officer Lambert waited with a female officer.
As I entered, the female officer rose, closing the door behind me. Even with her face bare of makeup and her dark hair pulled back in a ponytail, she looked like an actress playing a cop on television. But her attitude was all business.
“Legs wide,” she said gruffly.
I complied as she patted me down, then took a seat in the chair across from her and Officer Lambert. “This is Officer Trudeau, and I am Officer Lambert,” he said.
“I remember.” I smiled, forcing friendliness though I was sweating with apprehension. “We met yesterday.”
He nodded, evaluating me with sharp eyes. “Your children are Benjamin and Alexander Collet, yes?”
I nodded, shivering. Why did they have to keep it so cold in here?
“Please, say it aloud for the tape,” he instructed.
I cleared my throat. “Yes.”
“And the father of Benjamin and Alexander Collet is Tyson Dale?” Lambert asked.
“Yes,” I said. Adding quickly, “But he was never involved with the children.”
While Lambert asked the questions, Trudeau jotted things down in her notebook, observing me as if she knew something I didn’t. It was unnerving.
“Did you ask him for money?” Lambert pressed.
“No.”
He evaluated me with hawklike eyes. “He owns a billion-dollar company, and you reported an income of ninety-two thousand dollars last year.” So they’d done their research, and fast. “Why did you not ask him for money?”
“Because the choice to have the boys was mine alone,” I said, turning my palms up to show I had nothing to hide. “I don’t want his money. I never did. But someone else here does. Someone was blackmailing him.”
The two officers exchanged a glance as I took the blackmail note from my pocket and slid it across the table. Lambert picked it up and studied it, his brow furrowing.
“You found the money he intended to pay them off with in Gisèle’s room. But it wasn’t her.” I waited until they returned their focus to me to go on. “I have reason to believe it was Jennifer.”
Lambert swished his mustache. “Explain, please.”
I took a breath, wiping my palms on my jeans. “I’m nearly certain she was the girlfriend of a guy named Ian Kelley, who lived in a trailer on Tyson’s parents’ property the summer we…conceived my children. She looked different then, and went by a different name, spoke with a different accent even, but she believed Tyson was responsible for Ian’s death.”
Both officers kept their composure, but I could tell this was news to them. “His death?” Lambert asked.
“He disappeared. He was a drug addict and dealer, so it wasn’tterribly surprising, unfortunately. His remains were recently recovered in the Everglades.”
Lambert frowned. “And you believe Jennifer was his girlfriend?”
I nodded. “I didn’t see it at first, because her appearance is so altered. Not to mention that we weren’t close, and it’s been over ten years since I last saw her. But she has a scar on her stomach. I was there with her when it happened. And once you see the resemblance, you can’t unsee it.”
