You Really Got Me (29 page)

“Stop.”

He held up a hand. She tipped her head to one side, her bottom lip quivering, eyes questioning.

He felt like he was going to puke up the coffee and donuts churning in his aching gut, but he kept his voice gentle as he said, “You need your lawyer here, Kendall.”

Arman came, of course. When Jason called in other officers to take the statement, she gave him a long look before he disappeared out of the room. She wanted him to hear this.

Damn.

But she focused on Arman and the others and she answered questions, held her shaky self together as best she could.

Fear gripped her tightly, suffocatingly. At the very least, she was causing problems for Kevin. He was going to be questioned again, she knew it, if not arrested. She told them about the prenuptial agreement and that she and Kevin had disagreed about it. That he and Natalia may indeed have argued over it too, before she died. She told them what she didn’t know—who Kevin had been with that night in Santa Barbara. Now they knew it wasn’t Natalia, it was horribly embarrassing that he’d apparently been with another woman when his fiancée had been dead and her body stuffed into a crawl space.

Her stomach heaved at one point, and she had to put her fingers to her mouth. This was going to hit the news. There was no way she could prevent it. There was going to be another Vioget scandal. The business would be impacted. All she could do was tell the truth though, and do her best. Eventually the whole story would be known—the police would find who killed Natalia and although Kevin might bear some scars from how he’d handled this, it would be okay. It had to be okay. It had to be.

She wished Jason would come back. She knew she’d hurt him with her lack of trust, but by coming there, hadn’t she now shown him that she
did
trust him? If she was willing to confess the truth to him, to make herself so vulnerable, he had to know that she did trust him. But it was too late. She’d lost him because she hadn’t been willing to do that sooner. It made her heart throb painfully in her chest.

When they were done, she looked at the two police officers.

“Are you going to arrest me?” she asked, lifting her chin.

“No,” Detective Janko replied. “Not at this time.”

Great. At least she wasn’t going to jail for obstruction of justice. Not today, anyway.

“There’s one thing that bugs me about this,” she said to them. “I heard that the security tapes showed Natalia leaving the lab. At like, five o’clock or something. But how could that be, when you found her body in the lab?”

They exchanged glances. “We’d all like the answer to that question,” Officer Hart replied. “They’re still working on the investigation.”

“I’m sure,” she murmured. She’d been told she could leave. Arman had gone. She picked up her purse. “Who’s looked at the video? Did you show it to Kevin?”

“Uh…”

“No,” Officer Hart said. “There wasn’t any question of her identity.”

“Don’t you think there is now?” Kendall said. She paused. “Could I look at the video? Since I’m here?”

The officers again looked at each other, and one shrugged. “I’ll go see if it’s okay. I know they’re reviewing them again right now, frame by frame. I think they’ve enhanced the video as well. Come with me.”

He led Kendall down a long hall, around a corner and into a room with rows of computers. He conferred with another officer. They both looked over at her, had a long conversation. Heat washed up from inside Kendall’s T-shirt, over her neck and face as she understood what the officer was telling the other one. She waited.

“We guess it won’t hurt anything at this point to have another set of eyes on this,” he said as he returned. “Have a seat here. We’ll queue it up for you to watch.”

Kendall took a seat in front of a large computer monitor as a technician clicked with a mouse. The grainy video then appeared on the screen. That would be the camera at the front entrance of the lab, the empty foyer. A figure appeared on the screen, walking down the hall, into the foyer and then disappearing from view. There was something creepy about watching this soundless, black and white, jumpy movie of someone who was now dead. It was sad and somehow disturbing.

Her fingers clutched the soft leather of her purse tightly as she stared at the screen. It looked like…Natalia.

Natalia had been slight, with short dark hair. Kendall recognized the jacket and newsboy cap, one of several Natalia often wore.

“There’s another view. There are two cameras in the entrance.”

She waited and watched the other view, this time Natalia passing quickly by the camera, head turned away. The back of her head and body appeared in the screen as the camera focused on her leaving, pushing out through the front door of the lab. Kendall watched, then leaned closer to the screen, frowning. “Wait.” What was that? “Did you say you can zoom in on the image? Make it bigger?”

“Um, yeah.”

The technician did some work with the mouse and the image of Natalia grew larger, then larger still, just her shoulders and head, that cap perched on her short hair. This time, clearly visible, although for only a brief second, were some pale marks on the back of her neck, below her left ear.

“Oh my God.” Kendall’s breath left her body. Her insides started shaking. “Can you pause it?”

They rewound and played it again. “Right…there.” The image froze, blurred but clear enough for Kendall to make out the marks on the woman’s neck—a trail of tiny stars.

“You were right.” Agent Nicki Barden gave Jason a small smile. His insides were jumping, his nerves on alert as he reviewed the results of the DNA test.

“Yeah.” He should be happy about that. “Yeah, I was. We gotta get the arrest warrant. Right fucking now.”

“On it.”

He sucked in a breath, not sure how he was supposed to feel about all this. Knowing this was nearly over, so close, so close.

“We have to do this right,” he said to her. “Everything has to be done right. We can’t screw this up.”

“Don’t worry, Chief. It’s all good.”

It wasn’t over yet, not till they had the sonofabitch behind bars and that couldn’t be fast enough for him.

He and Paul Janko left a few minutes later, stopping to pick up a submarine sandwich that Jason ate while Paul drove to the Vioget lab to meet with Dr. Edor Durban. When he’d finished the sandwich he pulled out his cell phone to call Cade Busher. “You guys still on him?” he asked.

“Fuck.”

Jason’s stomach bottomed out. “What?”

“We lost him. A little while ago. He went out and Christ, I don’t know how the hell he did it, but he got away from us.”

“Jesus Christ!”
Not now, for fuck’s sake!
“Fucking find him!”

“Yeah, we’re on it.”

Jason tapped his fingers against the door as they drove, his mind racing. They had to find him. They had to get the warrant and fucking
find
him.
Now.

Chapter Twenty-Three

“What do you mean that’s not Natalia?”

The police stared at her as if she’d walked in there naked and started dancing.

She babbled out some kind of explanation, but while they were sitting there stunned, she rushed out of the police station in a panic, worried about Dedra, her mind whirling with questions and confusion, ignoring their calls to her to stay put. But one thought made its way to the forefront, driving her, and that was that sweet little Dedra was in trouble. Maybe even in danger. She didn’t know Dedra’s address, but a phone call to the office at the winery got it pretty quickly from their payroll records. She drove with her heart thumping wildly in her chest, a sick feeling of dread tossing in her stomach. What did it mean? What did it mean? It was insane. How could that be Dedra? How could she be involved in this?

Now she stood in front of Dedra’s door, the ground floor apartment in the converted Victorian house, on legs that felt rubbery and wobbly. She had to get Dedra out of there and safe. She paused, swallowed again, pressed a hand to her stomach, and then the door opened.

Dedra stood here. They stared at each other.

Dedra’s face was shiny with tears, her eyes red and swollen, her nose pink. She’d been sick the last time Kendall had seen her. That had been Friday. Then Kendall had called her to tell her the tasting room was closed for a few days.

“Kendall.” Dedra blinked at her.

“Hi Dedra. How are you? Are you feeling any better?” She didn’t look any better. She looked awful, in fact, pale and haggard and strained.

“I don’t…no. Not really.” Dedra’s eyes flickered away from Kendall’s face.

“Can I come in?”

“I was just…ah…going out.”

“I need to talk to you.”

“I don’t think…”

But it was easy to push past her and walk in. Dedra had never been very assertive. Which was partly why Kendall had worried about her relationship with her controlling fiancé.

Kendall walked into the small apartment, painfully neat and tidy, a little shabby but clean. She glanced around, not really interested in where Dedra lived, rather bursting with curiosity and nerves about what she’d seen on the video tape.

She turned to face Dedra, who’d closed the door and walked a few steps into the small living room, her arms wrapped around her middle.

“I didn’t come to work because you said not to,” Dedra began. “Is the tasting room still closed?”

“Yes. That’s not the problem, Dedra. I have to ask you…” Kendall shook her head. For a moment, she wondered if she’d imagined what she’d seen. It was too preposterous, and she was going to make a complete fool of herself by bringing this up if it was all a mistake. But no. It couldn’t be. She’d seen what she’d seen.

“Dedra.”

“What?”

“I don’t know what’s going on but I have to ask you. I just came from the police station. I was watching the surveillance tape of Natalia leaving the lab. The day she was killed.”

Dedra nodded, her eyes huge in her small face, arms still tight around herself.

“You must have seen the news. They found her body in the lab.” She lifted an eyebrow and Dedra gave a jerky nod. “So nobody could figure out how she showed up on the tape, leaving. If she died in the lab.”

Still, Dedra said nothing. Her lips went pale.

Kendall took a step closer to the younger woman. She looked like she was about to pass out. “It was you.”

Dedra started shaking.

“It was you, wasn’t it?”

Dedra’s head moved back and forth in a twitchy denial. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she whispered.

“Yes, you do. I don’t understand, Dedra. What happened? Why were you in Natalia’s jacket and hat, pretending to be her?”

“That’s crazy,” Dedra protested in a breathy, shaky voice.

“No. I saw your tattoo. Behind your ear. Nobody else has one like that. It was you. Tell me, Dedra. What happened that day?”

Dedra’s eyes started rolling back and Kendall lunged for her, caught her and lowered her to the worn upholstery of their couch. A black and white cat leaped out of their way. “Put your head down,” she ordered softly, pushing Dedra’s head toward her knees. “Breathe.”

Dedra stayed like that for long moments. Kendall released her and sat down beside her, waiting. Finally Dedra lifted her head, so pale she had a green tinge to her skin.

“What happened?” Kendall asked again. “Please tell me. I know you didn’t kill Natalia…”

“God no!” The words burst out of Dedra’s colorless lips. Her eyes flew open wide and she covered her mouth with her hand. “Oh my God. Do the police think
I
killed her?”

“I have no idea,” Kendall murmured. No, she could have reassured her about that, because apparently Kevin was a suspect. She didn’t say that. “I don’t think so. Nobody else recognized that tattoo. When I saw it I came here. I had to find out what’s going on. And I was worried about you. Tell me, Dedra.”

“I can’t.”

Kendall stared at her. “Dedra, honey. Do you know what happened that day?”

Dedra averted her eyes and pressed her lips tightly closed.

“Tell me, honey. I’ll help you however I can. Why were you in the lab?”

“I wasn’t.”

Kendall blew out a frustrated breath. “I can’t help you unless you tell me. Dedra. I think they believe Kevin did it. You know Kevin. You like Kevin.” Dedra nodded. “Do you want him to go to jail for something he didn’t do?”

“No.” Her whispered word was barely audible, her head bent again.

“Tell me what happened.”

Kendall dug deep for patience even though her skin twitched and tingled, her insides jumpy and nervous. And she waited.

Dedra’s shoulders shook and she covered her face. “Oh God, Kendall, I’m so scared.”

“I’ll help you,” Kendall said again quickly. “What are you afraid of?”

Dedra sucked in a shaky breath. “I’m afraid of Wade.”

Kendall’s whole body went icy. “Did he…do it?”

Dedra didn’t answer. She sobbed quietly, then tried to speak. “He called me. Around four o’clock that afternoon. Remember? He asked me to come to the lab. He said he’d meet me out on the street. He took me to the back door. I didn’t know what was going on, but he was…scary. Intense. Kind of wild. He made me get down on my hands and knees and crawl through the door. I thought he was losing it.” She choked on another sob, swiped hands over wet cheeks.