Unforgivable (15 page)

The prosecutor’s gaze narrowed sharply. “What happened?”

Mia’s pulse raced. She fought the urge to swallow. She forced herself to make eye contact with the district attorney as she said the words. “I seem to have lost it.”

“Lost it?” She leaned forward on her elbows.

“Misplaced it, actually.”

Rachel blinked at her, and Mia realized it was the first time she’d seen the prosecutor taken completely off guard. “Which evidence did you lose?”

“All of it.”

Rachel’s mouth dropped open. Silence hung in the air. The only sound was the faint trill of a phone from an office down the hall.

“We sent three separate bags.”

Mia’s gaze veered to Jonah, who was eyeing her hostilely with his arms folded over his enormous chest. If not for the business attire, he could have been a bouncer at a bar.

“That’s correct,” she said.

“How do you lose three separate bags?” he wanted to know.

“I’m not sure.” Mia glanced down at her hands, clasped in front of her. Her knuckles were white. She forced herself to loosen her grip. “But they went missing earlier this week, and I’ve looked everywhere.”

“When?” This from Ric, who was watching her steadily with those brown-black eyes.

Mia’s throat went dry. “Excuse me?”

“When did it go missing? You told me you went in Sunday to have a look.”

Mia nodded. She’d expected this to come up. “I did a preliminary examination of everything Sunday and jotted down some notes on which procedures I planned to use. That was in the afternoon. I thought I returned everything to the refrigerator afterward.” Mia’s shoulders tensed as she came to the next part. “But it could be I only
thought
I’d returned everything, and somehow I forgot. Maybe I left it out, and it got mixed in with the trash.”

“You mean it got
thrown away
?” Rachel looked appalled.

“I’m not sure. It’s possible. I was tied up in court most of the day Monday, and I don’t remember seeing it. Yesterday afternoon, I went in to start swabbing and testing, but I couldn’t find anything.” She forced herself to stop talking and allowed the silence to stretch out.
Don’t say more than you have to.
Nervous blather was the downfall of many an expert witness. Rachel had taught her that. Mia found it absurdly ironic that she was using the prosecutor’s own technique to deceive her.

If,
in fact, she
was
deceiving her. Rachel’s blue eyes were cool and calculating as she sat back in her chair.

“Any chance a coworker has it? Maybe some other scientist?” Jonah asked.

“No.”

“Don’t you people have controls for this sort of thing?” Rachel’s tone was clipped. “How do you
misplace
critical evidence in a murder investigation? You’re supposed to be a world-class forensic lab.”

“We are.”

“You’re not!” She slapped a hand on the table, and Mia jumped. “Do you realize what this does to our case? Even if you manage to find the evidence, there’s time unaccounted for. The chain of custody is ruined.”

“I realize that.”

“Do you realize Ashley Meyer was twenty-one?” Rachel demanded. “Do you realize she had her skull crushed by some sick pervert who also sliced her to ribbons? Do you realize the best chance we had of finding
out who did that to her and bringing that person to justice was contained in the
three
bags of evidence you carelessly misplaced?”

Mia’s stomach cramped. She felt her cheeks heating with every word. And when the words stopped, she felt an impossibly heavy weight settle on her shoulders.

“I realize that, yes. And I take full responsibility.” Her voice wasn’t steady now. Neither were her hands. She tucked them into her lap and wiped her damp palms on the tops of her thighs as she waited for more. “I also realize that time is of the essence in a case like this. I wanted to make you aware of this as soon as possible.”

Rachel snorted. “Very helpful of you, thanks.” Then she leaned forward and jabbed a finger at her. “This isn’t over. I’ll be calling your supervisor to discuss the ramifications of this.”

“I understand.”

Silence returned as the prosecutor shot daggers at her from across the table.

Mia made herself wait, although she wanted nothing more than to sprint from the room. She couldn’t look at Ric or even Jonah. She kept her gaze on Rachel in case there were any more arrows to absorb. But she seemed to be out, at least for now. Mia rose to her feet and, with an unsteady hand, collected her jacket and purse from the back of the chair.

“I hope you realize what this means.” Rachel shook her head. “I specifically requested you for this task because I knew we were dealing with a challenge here, and you have—or you
had
—an impeccable reputation. Not anymore. This incident is a disgrace to both you and your laboratory.”

Mia folded her jacket over her arm and waited for more. But Rachel just sat there, glaring at her.

Mia looked at Jonah, who seemed disgusted. And once more at the prosecutor, who seemed irate.

Finally, she looked at Ric. And it was his Arctic stare she felt burning into her as she quietly left the room.

CHAPTER 10

Mia stared dazedly at the screen above the bar, still not sure how she’d ended up there. She’d gone back to work. She’d continued the charade of a normal day, all the while waiting for the anvil to drop on her head. It hadn’t. Then she’d driven home and let herself into a cold, dark house.

She’d never minded living alone before, but lately, she’d been afraid of even her own shadow. Paranoia? No. Someone
had
been watching her. Someone
had
tried to hurt her. Someone
had
targeted her family. Any rational person would feel afraid.

Very few rational people would do what Mia had done about it: go out drinking with Sophie in the pathetic hopes that with the right amount of alcohol, the nightmare that had become her life would somehow go away. And
that
was how she’d gotten there, she realized. She’d ditched all rational thought and decided to numb her brain at a cheap sports bar. As ideas went, it wasn’t great. But she was going with it.

“You okay?”

She felt a hand on her arm. Sophie had taken a break
from her new friendship with Vince Moore to check on her status.

“Fine.”

“You seem blue tonight. And you look kind of pale.” Sophie tipped her head to the side. “You’re not getting that flu, are you? God, you’ll be out for days.”

“I’m fine. Really.” Mia looked over Sophie’s shoulder. The young detective was popping peanuts as he watched whatever game was on and pretended not to be listening to every word. “Do you guys want to leave?” Mia said it in a barely audible whisper. “I can get a ride home if—”

But Sophie cut her off with a slight shake of her head. She wasn’t leaving with this guy. And Mia wasn’t going to get stranded looking for a ride. It was the first good news of her entire day.

Sophie glanced over Mia’s shoulder. “Well, look what the cat dragged in.”

Mia turned around, and even that one drop of good news evaporated as Ric walked into the bar. Mia’s stomach fluttered while he scanned the crowd, then settled his attention on her. She felt the urge to run, but he pinned her to her stool with that black-eyed gaze as he homed in on her like a missile.

“Hi, Ric.”

He ignored Sophie’s cheerful greeting and focused solely on Mia. “We need to talk.”

His tone was dark, and she decided to match it with glib. “We do?”

“Not here.”

She looked him up and down. He wore jeans and his black leather jacket, which told her he was off for the night and this was personal, not business. Maybe.

Mia shrugged. “It’s going to have to be here. I’m in the middle of a drink.”

He picked up her Bud Light and downed the last sip. Then he pulled out his wallet and tossed a twenty onto the bar.

“You’re finished. Let’s go.”

Mia stared at him, and he clamped a hand on her arm.

“Now.”

The intensity in his eyes sent a hot current through her. He wasn’t going to back down. There was no escape this time. She’d known they’d have it out sooner or later, but she’d hoped to be better fortified. Emotionally drained and with several drinks in her, she was at a disadvantage—which was precisely why he’d hunted her down, she felt sure.

Mia slid off the stool.

“Uh,
hello
?” Sophie’s hand closed around Mia’s arm. “Going someplace?”

“I need to talk to Mia.” Ric spared Sophie a glance.

“I didn’t ask you.” Sophie turned to Mia, her eyes filled with concern. Mia could see why. Ric looked pretty ticked off right now. He looked dangerous, actually. But he wasn’t a danger to Mia, and she knew she had to talk to him.

“It’s okay,” she told Sophie. “I’ll catch a ride with Ric. See you tomorrow, all right?”

She wove her way through the crowd and out of the bar, acutely aware of Ric’s hand curled possessively over her shoulder. For Vince’s benefit? Mia wasn’t sure. The guy seemed to have hit it off with Sophie. Maybe the message was intended for Mia.

She shrugged him off the second she got outside and
pulled on her coat. It was the sleeveless ski jacket again, but she’d brought a scarf.

Ric walked in silence beside her, his hardened gaze trained on the front row of the parking lot where he’d managed to find a space for his oversize truck.

He jerked the passenger door open without fanfare. Mia climbed in. As he went around to the driver’s side, she leaned her head back against the seat and briefly closed her eyes. She could get through this. If she could handle a seasoned district attorney, she could handle a cop.

The leather seat creaked as he slid behind the wheel and started the truck. Without a word, he switched the heat to high and shifted the vent to face her.

“Where the hell’s your coat? It’s twenty-five degrees out.”

“This goes better with jeans.”

He shot her a disapproving look, then rocketed backward out of the parking space.

Mia scanned the interior of his truck. It had all the alpha-male accessories she would have expected—GPS attached to the dash, discarded baseball cap on the floor, mud-caked cowboy boots tossed in back behind the driver’s seat.

She spotted a plastic CD case peeking up from the door pocket and felt a twinge of discomfort. Taylor Swift. That would definitely be Ava’s.

Ric had a day’s worth of stubble on his jaw and a hard, world-weary look in his eyes. She wasn’t sure why the idea of him as a father should make her uneasy, but it did. She sensed that it was a part of his life he kept closed off, at least from her. And for some reason, that hurt her feelings.

Ric passed the turnoff to her street, and she glanced over warily. “Where are we going?”

“Klein’s.”

“I already ate.”

“I didn’t.”

Mia gritted her teeth and looked away. This was a bad idea. She wasn’t sure she could sit across a table and lie to him for an entire hour. She wasn’t sure she could do it for five minutes. But evidently, she wasn’t going to have a choice.

When they got there, he led her through the now-familiar foyer that smelled like hickory, but this time, she detected the scent of homemade bread, too.

And this time, he didn’t hold her hand.

He walked all the way to the back of the restaurant and claimed an enormous circular booth in the corner. It could have accommodated eight people, and Mia felt relieved until he slid around and ended up right beside her, even closer than they’d been the other night. She scooted away and gave herself some space.

The waitress appeared almost instantly. Ric got good service here. Mia glanced up at the woman’s flirty smile and realized he probably got good service everywhere.

Mia pulled a menu from the condiment holder in the center of the table and tried to tamp down this sudden flare of resentment toward some college girl barely out of braces.

“Get y’all started with some drinks?”

“I’ll have—”

“Two Bud Lights.” Ric took Mia’s menu and handed it to the server. “And two rib platters, extra sauce.”

Mia stared at him as the waitress dutifully wrote down the order and disappeared.

“I wanted chicken.”

“No one eats chicken at a rib joint.”

“I do. And I wanted a Diet Coke, too. Jeez.” Mia crossed her arms and turned away. He was trying to get a rise out of her. It was some underhanded strategy to draw her out, and she wasn’t going to fall for it. She’d eat a platter of freaking ribs if she had to.

Ric leaned back against the booth and rested his elbows on the back. She had a great view of his nice, firm pecs in that faded T-shirt. Oh, and the very mean-looking gun plastered to his hip. An accident? She didn’t think so. He was absolutely trying to intimidate her, and she absolutely wasn’t going to let him.

“Okay, Mia, let’s hear it.”

“Hear what?”

“What the hell’s going on?” He glanced around and then nodded at her. “No cops. No prosecutor. Just you and me.”

“Last time I checked,
you
were a cop.”

“Is that a problem for you?” A dark brow quirked up, and she realized where he was going with this.