“He said it wasn’t his problem. That he wasn’t going to raise some bastard child when he could have a real family with Janelle.”
Janelle gasped and covered her face.
Obviously, murder wasn’t okay with me. But it also wasn’t hard to see how saying something that harsh to a woman who was barely hanging on to her sanity might have pushed her over the edge. “Then what happened?”
Polly mumbled, “Before I even knew what was happening, I stabbed him, and he… he just kind of fell into the trunk.” She swallowed hard.
I frowned. “Your prints weren’t on the knife, and there was no blood spatter on your dress.”
She sniffed. “I used his jacket to wipe my prints off the handle of the knife. Then… I got my sweater out of the back of the limousine. It… it wasn’t locked, thank goodness.”
“But my deputies checked everyone for blood spatter. They’d have seen blood on your dress.”
Polly grimaced. “The blood was so high up on my dress, when I lifted the sweater a little, that seemed to satisfy the deputy. He had so many people to check, I got lucky. I was sure I’d get caught, but I… I got lucky.”
I frowned, not happy to hear one of my guys had missed something so important. Granted, it had been a huge group of people to corral, but still, that was a major mistake.
“How could you, Polly?” Janelle said through her tears. “I’ve always looked out for you. You were my best friend.”
Scowling, Polly said, “I wasn’t your friend. You pitied me. You always thought you were better than me. You’d rub all the men who wanted you in my face. You flaunted your money, knowing I had nothing.”
“That’s not true,” whimpered Janelle. “I thought of you like my sister.”
Polly wouldn’t meet her friend’s gaze. “I don’t believe you.”
I’d heard all I needed to hear, so I pulled my cuffs off my belt. “Polly, you have the right to remain silent…” I read Polly her rights and then called Deputy Juan inside to take her to the car.
Janelle was clearly devastated, not only by finding out her best friend was a murderer but that she’d been betrayed by Archie and Polly on multiple levels. I was relieved she had Kobe with her because she was an emotional wreck. That wasn’t going to change anytime soon either. She’d been betrayed by the two people she trusted most in the world, and healing from that would take time.
It was a relief to finally have Archie’s murder solved, although the situation left me feeling a little sick to my stomach. After seeing all the greed, bitterness, and envy of this case play out, humanity seemed sorely lacking. I knew I had a long day ahead of me, but it comforted me to know that I’d have Max to go home to.
Epilogue
Maxwell
I got up before Royce, determined to make him a big breakfast. I wasn’t a good cook by any means, but I figured I could probably manage to scramble some eggs, fry some bacon, and make some toast.
I had just finished cooking the eggs and bacon when Royce wandered into the kitchen, looking groggy. “What’s all this?” he asked, coming to give me a good-morning kiss.
“This is me attempting to be domestic.”
He moved to the coffeepot. “You didn’t have to do this.”
“I know, but you’ve been working such long hours, I wanted to.” I scooped the eggs and bacon onto a plate and grabbed the toast from the toaster. As I buttered the crusty bread, I asked, “How’s the case going?”
Cradling his coffee cup with both hands, he leaned against the counter. “Where do I begin?”
I smiled, not sure what he meant. “Is it not going well?”
He grimaced. “The case is solved, but it’s an awful mess.”
“Oh.” I raised my brows. “But at least the case is solved.” I carried his plate to the table, and he followed. I set it down and went to grab some coffee for myself.
“Yeah.” He sat and picked up his fork.
“What makes the case so messy?”
“Nobody was who they seemed.” He sighed. “Geraldine was Kimora, and Archie was Kevin. People were cheating on each other and trying to take what the other people had. It’s just a shitshow of epic proportions.”
