Page 22 of Closer Than You Know (Vera Boyett #2)

Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department

Thornton Taylor Parkway, Fayetteville, 10:45 a.m.

Bent probably should have been recording this conversation. He also really should have had Myra in here as a witness.

But he’d done neither of those things, and now there was no going back.

“Suri.” He laid down the pen he’d been using to take notes and settled his gaze on the agitated woman seated in front of his desk. “Let’s take a minute, okay?”

She nodded. Her long red hair was tied back in a ponytail. Her face looked pale. Suri had always been a little thing. Petite. Bent had known her brother. He’d worked at the supermarket on the corner of Lincoln Avenue and College Street all through high school. Nice kid, never in trouble. He’d grown up and moved to Huntsville and started his own chain of convenience stores. Suri had stayed in the little house she’d inherited from their grandmother and gone to work at the funeral home.

He couldn’t see her doing what she’d just confessed to in damned vivid detail.

“Sheriff,” she said, her voice firm despite the way her lips trembled, “I’m telling the truth. I’m sorry it has taken me so long to come forward, and I’m even sorrier I didn’t tell you the truth when you found his remains.” She exhaled a big breath. “I was afraid I’d lose everything.” She shrugged. “I don’t want to go to jail. It isn’t fair. I was only protecting myself.”

This was one part of the job he didn’t care for. Suri Khatri was a victim, not a killer. To have her go through what this confession could very well entail twisted his gut. To make matters worse, she had ignored his every warning about her rights. She’d refused to call for an attorney. She’d just forged ahead with her story, whether he wanted to hear it or not. She was determined—he’d give her that.

“How about we take a break, and then we’ll go through your story once more, make sure we didn’t miss anything.” He needed to talk this over with the DA before he made any assurances.

Shouting outside his office door drew his attention. “Give me a minute.” He stood and walked to the door. As soon as he opened it, he saw the trouble. Myra was attempting to prevent Eve from coming into his office.

“Bent,” Eve shouted, “I have a right to be in there.”

“Sheriff,” Myra said, clearly flustered, “I tried to tell her she needed to wait.”

“It’s all right.” He gave Myra a nod. Keeping Eve out would be like trying to prevent a bull from charging once the matador waved his cape. He stepped to the side. “Come on in, Eve.”

Eve rushed to Suri, who was now standing. They hugged fiercely. Bent closed the door and rounded his desk. He said nothing, just sat down and waited for the two to decide what they wanted to do next. The tears had started, and that knot in his gut tightened a little more.

All he needed now was Vee, and the party could really get started.

What the hell were the Boyett sisters thinking? They had to have known about this. No matter that Suri had insisted she’d taken Gates to that cave and put him there all by herself—that was impossible. Gates had been a grown-ass man, and Suri likely didn’t weigh a hundred pounds soaking wet. It was possible, he supposed, that her brother had helped her, but Bent’s money was on Eve. Vee had been in Memphis, so she hadn’t likely been involved. But he knew as sure as he was sitting here that she had been brought up to speed about it once those remains were discovered.

“Don’t do this,” Suri warned.

Eve pulled away from her and looked to Bent. “Suri didn’t kill Gates. I did.”

Holy hell. “How about the two of you sit down, and you,” he said to Eve, “start from the beginning?” Might as well hear both sides of the story—not that he expected either one to be the whole truth.

The two sat, Suri sulking and Eve leaning forward, looking determined.

“You have the right ...,” Bent said.

Eve waved both hands in the air. “I know my rights, and I waive whatever I have to waive. I do not want an attorney.”

“Vee won’t like it,” he warned.

“Do you want my confession or not?” Eve snapped.

Bent held up his hands. “By all means, proceed.”

Suri dropped her face into her hands and started to sob in earnest.

Bent got up and went to the door. “Myra, can you take Ms. Khatri to the lounge for ... a few minutes?”

“Sure thing, Sheriff.”

Myra hustled into the room and ushered Suri up and out in no time flat. Myra knew how to deal with emotional visitors. Bent was immensely grateful she had stayed when the former sheriff retired.

He closed the door yet again. “All right then, where were we?”

“I don’t know all that Suri told you,” Eve began as Bent settled behind his desk once more, “but if she told the whole story, then you know I was there when Gates showed up and attacked her.”

“She told me about Gates and the things that happened when she was his student. She explained that she didn’t report it out of fear of being failed in his class—which was required for her certification.”

Eve nodded adamantly. “The man was a piece of shit.”

“Tell me about when he came back into her life.”

“We were out shopping one day and ran into him, and, I don’t know”—Eve shrugged—“it like tripped some forgotten obsession, so he started showing up around here. Watching her. It felt like he was following her. Then he came to her house and tried ...”

“I got that part,” Bent assured her, when she couldn’t seem to find the right words. “What did you do when this happened?”

“It was Saturday, and I’d spent the night. He didn’t know I was in the house, so when I heard what was going on, I ran in there. I grabbed the first thing I saw—a cast-iron skillet—and I hit him with it. Then I—”

“Let me stop you right there, Eve.” Bent held up both hands once more to shut her up. According to Suri, she had wrenched free of him and grabbed the cast-iron skillet and done the deed as he tried to grab her again. At least the two women agreed on the murder weapon.

Eve blinked twice. “But why? I’m trying to tell you the truth.”

“Because”—he lowered his hands and took a breath—“Suri is the victim. The DA will look at this from an entirely different perspective if Suri is the one who killed him. It won’t be quite the same for you.” At her look of frustration, he urged, “I’m not trying to tell you what to say or what to do about this. What I am suggesting is that the two of you find your story and stick with it. I appreciate that you want to protect each other, but be aware of the consequences either way you go. Because once the statements are official, it’s damned hard to go back.”

Just when he had thought his day couldn’t go any farther downhill, this situation walked into his office. He would be more than happy to get the Gates case off his plate, but this was not exactly how he’d expected it to play out. He’d learned not long after the remains were identified that Suri had been a student of Gates’s, and he’d suspected that one or both of the older Boyett sisters knew the whole story of how he’d ended up in that cave. But he’d figured, when he had no choice but to get around to it, he would have to dig that truth out bit by bit from one or the other. He sure as hell hadn’t expected a confession from not one but two sources.

One thing he could count on in this job: there was no end to the unexpected.

The door opened, and Suri was back. She’d pulled herself together—for the moment anyway. She sat down next to Eve.

“Why don’t I give the two of you a minute to figure out how we’re going to proceed?” He got up and walked out, closed the door.

Myra raised her eyebrows at him. “I know,” he said.

This was more than a little unorthodox.

Bent checked his cell. Reviewed the latest text messages he’d received. Nothing new. In just a few hours this Eric guy would arrive. He wondered again about the relationship between him and Vee. Jealousy spiked inside him, and he kicked it aside. He had no right to be jealous of her in any shape, form, or fashion.

“Sheriff?”

He turned to find Suri waiting in the door of his office. She looked like a little girl who’d been sent to the principal’s office.

“We’re ready to talk calmly now.”

“All right.” He sent another look at Myra.

“You’ve got this, Sheriff,” his assistant whispered.

He chuckled. “Maybe.” He went back into his office and closed the door. When he’d resumed his seat, he gestured for whichever one wanted to start to do so.

“It was me,” Suri said. “I couldn’t go through that again. He’d tormented me for too long already. I’m ready to make an official statement.”

“I want to give a witness statement,” Eve echoed.

“I’ll have Myra come in to assist with any questions you have. You’ll each handwrite your statements, and Myra will witness the documents, and I’ll enter them into the case file and contact the DA to see how we’re going to move forward.”

Both nodded their understanding. Bent exited the room once more and explained the situation to his assistant, though he figured she’d already heard most of the details. The conversations hadn’t exactly been quiet, and the walls in this place were thin.

“I’ll take care of it.” Myra gathered what she needed and disappeared into his office.

Bent collapsed into one of the chairs facing Myra’s desk. This had been one hell of a long day, and it wasn’t even half over yet.

The door from the corridor swung open, and Vee burst in.

He’d wondered when she would show up. “Hey, Vee.”

“Where are they?” she demanded, anger or fear—maybe a little of both—in her voice.

“They’re writing their statements.”

She dropped into the chair next to him. “Well damn.”

He turned to her. “I assume you knew about this?”

She blinked. “Knew about what?”

“Give it a rest, Vee.” He chuckled, rubbed at his eyes. “Both Eve and Suri have confessed to killing Gates.” The look of horror on her face had him wishing he’d couched the news a little better. “I’ve advised them on the consequences either way they go. With that in mind, they’ve decided Suri is the one who will confess, and Eve will back up her statement as a witness since she was there.”

Relief slumped Vee’s shoulders.

He almost hated to ask the question burning in his brain, but he’d never be able to survive the day without at least inquiring. “Seriously, did you know about this?”

She considered the question at length. Damn, how long did it take to say yes or no?

“I think I would be wise to take the Fifth on that one.”

He laughed, a dry sound. “I think I’d probably do the same.”

Vee sank deeper into the chair. “She’s a victim, Bent. She shouldn’t have to go through a trial.”

“I’m with you,” he confirmed. “I really don’t think that will happen. It’s a clear-cut case of self-defense. According to Suri, that PI—Teresa Russ—has a whole list of other women he abused. Going through all that would be a major waste of resources. It doesn’t hurt that our new DA is a woman. I think Suri and Eve will be okay.”

“Good.” Vee relaxed visibly. “This has been a hell of a day,” she said, echoing his earlier thought.

“And it’s far from over,” he noted. “Heard from your friend who’s headed this way?”

Vee didn’t look at him, just held up her phone to display a text message. “Eric says he’ll be here by four.”

Eric. Bent hated that the man’s name got under his skin, but he couldn’t restrain the reaction.

“Great.” If this Eric helped find and neutralize this new threat to Vee and the citizens of Lincoln County, Bent could overlook the idea that Vee had obviously been involved at some point with the guy. Sure. Yeah. He could do that.

“Anything new with Nolan?” she asked. “I’m assuming forensics has come up empty handed. The Messenger never left evidence—ever.”

“Conover checked in an hour ago. He got zilch. I visited Baker again, and he’s sticking with his story that he remembers nothing new. His mama was there. Maybe he didn’t want to talk in front of her.”

“Are you still having the guard stay close whenever his parents visit?”

“I think we’re past that now. We have his statement. Any change he tries to make would seem suspicious.” He turned his head to stare directly at her. “What about you? Anything new you need to share?”

“No.” She shook her head. “I’ve told you everything.”

“Good.” He let it go at that, no matter that he doubted she was being completely honest with him.

Not that he could blame her. He was just one of the many bad things that had happened to Vee before she left Fayetteville. He had made a mistake, but she had paid the bigger price.

When they were kids, he’d selfishly allowed her to fall for him. There were things she needed, like to go to college, and he certainly couldn’t help make that happen. Hell, he couldn’t have given her anything. He’d had nothing to offer except himself, and at the time, that wasn’t so much. But more recently, he had no excuse, and he’d still made a mistake. She had been back in Fayetteville for seven months, and he hadn’t made the first move. He wanted a relationship with her beyond work. Beyond just being friends. Because she wasn’t the only one who’d fallen all those years ago.

Obviously he was a coward. That was his only excuse. The grown-up Vee was way out of his league. But if he was going to try ...

She was about to turn forty, and he was forty-four. What the hell was he waiting for?

“If it’s okay,” she said, “I’ll hang around to talk to Eve and Suri. Then I’ll get out of your way.”

“You are never in my way, Vee.”

She smiled. “I’m sure that is not true.”

“After you’ve spoken to Eve and Suri, why don’t we go to lunch? We could both use the break, and I’d really like to keep you close until this business with the Messenger or his minion is behind us.”

She studied him for a moment. The request had sounded reasonable. The Messenger or whoever was behind these threats was targeting Vee. Made sense to keep a close eye on her. This was a viable threat directly against her.

“Sounds good.” She relaxed into her seat once more. “I’m sure I’ll be busy with Eric after he gets here.”

He’d walked right into that one.

As long as Vee stayed safe, he could deal with a few days of having her ex around.

Protecting her from the Messenger was all that mattered right now.