Page 45 of Noel Secrets

The exterior doors hissed open for her walk of shame. Denver greeted her with the bite of icy mountain air and the flashing red-and-blue lights of waiting police cruisers. Officers in dark jackets lined the platform, their breath fogging in the night air.

“Miss Simone?”

Jayda looked up, blinking, as an officer with tired eyes and a notepad stopped in front of her. His tone was polite, but there was no mistaking the edge of suspicion beneath it.

“Yes,” she said, voice steady despite the gallop of her heart.

“Please come with us for questioning.”

Suddenly Michael stood behind her, and Jayda nearly leaned into him. He must have been watching for her out of his cabin window.

“I’m going with her,” he said.

“No,” Jayda replied, looking at the officer. “It’s fine. I can handle this. I don’t need…him.”

She didn’t mean to make her words sound cruel, but she didn’t look back either as she continued her walk to the interrogation.

The small room inside the station that became the questioning room was small but functional, painted a weary gray that looked like it hadn’t been refreshed in twenty years. A metal table separated her from two detectives—Detective Hollins, who did most of the talking, and Detective Fields, who scribbled notes in quick, impatient bursts.

Hollins leaned forward, folding his hands. “Miss Simone, you took a phone from the murder scene of Simon Blair. Can you walk us through why that happened?”

Jayda drew a slow breath. She’d practiced this in her head, wishing she’d majored in criminal law, but knew enough from her one semester to keep it simple and true.

Or ask for counsel.

“Simon was a friend,” she said. “Or so I thought. He was trying to help me, but I wouldn’t let him. Now, I know it’s good that I hadn’t trusted him.”

“Help you with what?”

Jayda bit her lip, knowing how this would sound. “The mob’s been trying to kill me. I’m on a hit-list of some kind.”

Hollins’ eyebrows arched. “Is that so? And how did you manage that?”

Jayda had no choice but to tell the truth. “I tasered one of them. He was stealing a file from the library. He had a gun. I only protected myself.”

“There was a man from the mob at the library?” Hollins’ eyes squinted.

Jayda winced. “I know that sounds absurd, but it’s true. He was looking for the whereabouts of a woman who turned state’s evidence on someone. She’s also on the hit list. The file had information about where she went.”

“And where’s that?”

Jayda shook her head. “I don’t feel comfortable sharing that information. And it has nothing to do with why Simon is dead.”

Hollins smirked. “Fine. Where’s the file now?”

“Gone.”

“Gone? How?”

“It blew off the train when a man was trying to kill me.”

Hollins chuckled. “Convenient. But I guess that’s a better excuse than your dog ate it.”

Jayda pursed her lips in annoyance. “Make fun of me all you want. But it’s all true. And the longer you talk to me, the fasterSimon’s killer gets away. If he survived the fall from the train, that is.”

Fields’ pen scratched against the paper. Hollins tilted his head. “Okay, we’ll circle back to that one. First, let’s back up to the question of why Simon is dead. You say he was working in organized crime.”

“With. He was paid to deliver me to the mob.”