You Really Got Me (33 page)

Well, why would he? He was twenty-four years old. Not a mature twenty-four, but then, that was probably her fault too. She bent her head and listened.

“I was pissed off that she wouldn’t agree to the prenup. Another thing you were right about.” He rolled his eyes. “I got scared. I thought she was marrying me for our money, for who we are—for the winery. We had a huge fight.”

“At the lab?”

“No! Not at the lab. We argued at her apartment. But I swear to you, Kendall, I have never laid a hand on her.” His eyes met hers steadily. “Even when I’ve been drinking. Whatever Laurel said about that was a lie.”

She nodded. She believed him.

“It was just a verbal argument. Finally, we were barely speaking to each other and she wanted to go in to work for the afternoon. So I drove her to the lab. I went in with her, stayed a few minutes and then I left. I didn’t even say—” He choked on his words, and paused. “I didn’t even say goodbye to her.”

“Oh, Kevin.” She pressed her lips together, her heart aching for him.

“I left the lab, pissed off, figuring I was being used, mad at the world, and I drove to Santa Barbara. I spent the afternoon at the beach. Had a few drinks. Had more drinks. Met this girl.”

Well, she’d known that was coming.

“Who was she?”

He lifted one shoulder. “Nobody. Didn’t know her, never saw her again. I don’t even remember her name.” His voice took on a bitter edge. “And yeah, if you want the details, I slept with her.”

She said nothing, knowing he was beating himself up about this more than she ever could. No wonder he’d felt so guilty.

“I slept in my car at the beach,” he said. “I was so hung-over the next day, I didn’t come home right away. Just drove around, walked on the beach. I expected Natalia to be calling me, but she didn’t. And I wasn’t going to call her. I thought maybe…maybe we were breaking up. And I realized I didn’t want to. I loved her.” His anguished eyes pleaded with her for understanding. “I really did, Kendall.”

“No wonder you felt so guilty.”

“First, I was terrified she was going to find out what I’d done. I didn’t want anyone to know where I was or what I’d done, because when Natalia eventually showed up, I didn’t want her to know.”

“But she didn’t show up.” Kendall’s voice came out thick. She didn’t know what to say to him.

“I thought she would. I thought she’d gone somewhere because she was pissed off too. Getting back at me for disappearing that day. I was supposed to pick her up at five. I never showed. Shit.
She was already dead
.” The ragged words tore from his throat. He took a few moments then continued. “If I’d gone there that day to get her, we would have known she was missing so much sooner. Maybe even…”

“We don’t know that,” she said gently. “There are always what-ifs.”

“I’ll be living with those what-ifs for the rest of my life,” he muttered. “I wasn’t hiding anything about her. I never touched her. I never would have. When someone said…shit.”

“What?”

“It was Wade. He’s the one who told the cops he’d heard us fighting in the lab. Because he’s the one who did it. Fuck.” He scrubbed his hands over his face. “There was no fight. He totally made that up.”

“They found broken glass.”

“That probably happened when he attacked her. Oh Jesus.” He bent forward, hands on the back of his head. “Oh Christ, so many times I’ve imagined how she died, what she went through. I can’t fucking stand it.”

“I know. I know.” She shifted down the couch to sit closer to him, and laid her hand on his back. “I’m so sorry, Kev.”

“I’m sorry too. I’m sorry I put you through that. I swear I kept hoping, up until the day they found her body, she was going to come back. And then, I kind of…lost it. When it finally sunk in…she wasn’t ever coming back…I knew I had to tell the truth about what I’d done.”

“I know I’ve made some mistakes,” she whispered, throat clogged with tears and emotion. “I think I’ve made things too easy for you sometimes. I wanted to protect you.”

“Did you think I’d done it?” His red-rimmed eyes met hers. “Did you? Is that what you were protecting me from?”

“No.” She held his gaze. “No, I didn’t. I knew you didn’t do it, but you were making yourself look awfully guilty.”

“I failed the polygraph test,” he muttered. “That didn’t help either.”

She let out a long, slow breath. “I’m going to be butting out of your life from now on,” she said. “You’re an adult. I mean, except for…I know…oh crap. Your fiancée was just murdered. Whatever you need from me, I’m here for you.”

He gave a strangled laugh and pulled her in for a quick hug. “It’s not all your fault. I let you make things easy for me, get me off the hook when I was in trouble. And I kept getting in trouble.” He shook his head. “I’ve been such an ass. The more you interfered, the more you tried to be the bossy big sister, the more trouble I got in just to piss you off. And then I got mad at you for trying to run my life. I didn’t want you to plan that whole goddamn wedding.”

“You didn’t?”

“Hell no! I didn’t even want the big wedding.”

“Oh.” She bent her head. “I was just trying to help.”

“I know. But I felt like you were taking over…again.”

Shame burned inside her. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. Natalia wanted all that stuff.” He sighed. “Natalia and I should have talked about the prenup sooner, like adults. Instead of fighting about it like little kids. Just one more thing you were right about.”

She lifted a brow.

“Maybe we were too young to get married. I loved her, I did, but we should have waited. Only now…” His chest lifted and fell with his huge breath.

“Kevin?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you resent me?”

He gave her a cautious look. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, do you resent me for trying to be a parent to you?”

“For bossing me around? Telling me what to do? What not to do? Bailing me out every time I do something stupid? For being so perfect yourself that I could never live up to you?” He paused. “Yeah. Hell yeah.”

Her heart clutched, and she swallowed through a constricted throat. “I’m sorry. I only wanted to do the right thing. To look after you when Mom and Dad were gone. I had to. Because there was nobody else.”

“I know.” He sighed. “I know. I just…I’m an adult.”

“You weren’t acting like one.” He closed his eyes and her heart tightened. “I’m sorry too,” she whispered. “And I’m
not
perfect.” She gave a choked laugh. “So far from perfect. I guess we both have some changes to make. And I’m so, so sorry about Natalia.”

“Hell, Kendall. This is fucking awful.”

“I know. I know. But we’re gonna be okay. We are.”

She leaned her head on his upper arm, and they sat there in silence, looking at the fire for a long time.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Mother Nature didn’t wait for anyone or anything, and the harvest continued. Although she felt as if she’d been beaten up, Kendall rose before sun-up the next morning and headed out into the vineyard to meet with Michael and Garcia, to check the grapes and decide which sections would be picked next.

“It’s going to be a good harvest,” Garcia noted, holding a bunch of fat ripe grapes, bursting with the sweet juice that would become wine.

They tasted and took samples for testing back to the cellar, and discussed and decided.

“You don’t need to be out there helping,” Michael told her. “You look like shit, for chrissake.”

“Thank you very much.” She shot him a wry look.

“Seriously, Kendall. Go get some rest.”

“I’m fine. I’m going to go help with the crush.”

“I’ll help.” They both turned at Kevin’s voice to see him walking into the cellar. “Kendall, you’re exhausted. Go home.”

She stared at her brother. He still looked wan and thin, with lines around his mouth and shadows in his eyes that hadn’t been there a few weeks ago. She closed her eyes briefly, that familiar urge to protect coming over her, wanting to tell him to go home, after what he’d been through. But instead she nodded. “Okay.” She lifted her chin. “I want to watch the news. Jason…er…Chief Holloway is giving a press conference.”

“I want to see it too,” Kevin said. “It’s on at one o’clock. I’ll come back for some lunch then and we can watch it together.”

She couldn’t sleep, but she wrapped herself up in the fluffy blanket again and lay down on the couch. Weariness sapped her physical energy, but her mind raced and hummed with a million thoughts, reliving the terror of the experience yesterday, questions about the murder and the investigation ricocheting in her tired brain. Maybe Jason would answer some of them in the press conference.

Would she ever see him again?

Silly question; of course she would. Las Colinas wasn’t that big, they’d run into each other for sure. But she knew for herself there would be no closure on all of this until she had. Until she knew he was okay, that he’d gotten through the hostage taking without breaking down, until she knew if his relief when it was over was just because of what had happened with his sister, because he’d successfully talked Wade out of holding them hostage—or if it might possibly be because it was…her. He’d told her he cared about her. She was sure she’d pushed him away, this time so far away he’d never come back, but the way he’d held her when they’d stormed into that apartment gave her a faint feeling of hope. Could he forgive her?

Kevin came home later and to her surprise made sandwiches for both of them, though she wasn’t really hungry. They sat and watched the news.

There was Jason, looking so big and handsome and dependable. Someone you could count on. Someone who did his job. Emotion welled up in her again as she watched.

“We’ve arrested Wade William Krayton, age twenty-five, and charged him for the murder of Natalia Debarros. Mr. Krayton has been a person of interest in this case for some time, especially since we analyzed the records of the security system in place at the lab and narrowed down who was there and who had accessed the lab. Mr. Krayton’s activities in the lab that day were somewhat unusual. We then placed Mr. Krayton under surveillance. Two days ago we executed search warrants on two persons of interest, one of them Mr. Krayton, and obtained evidence from his body and his person for DNA testing.” He paused and looked at the crowd of media. “The coroner released the autopsy results to us yesterday. There was also DNA evidence from Ms. Debarros body.”

“What was Krayton’s motive for killing her?” one of the reporters called out.

“Mr. Krayton isn’t answering our questions, so I can’t answer that,” Jason replied. “However, we don’t need to prove a motive, especially with the amount of strong forensic evidence we have in this case.”

“Why did you put him under surveillance?” another reporter asked. “Why didn’t you just arrest him?”

“We needed enough evidence to be able to get a warrant for his arrest,” Jason said. “We had to be patient while evidence was analyzed and the autopsy was done. But in the meantime, we didn’t want Mr. Krayton to run, so we had agents from our narcotics squad put him under surveillance.”

“Rumor has it you also had Kevin Vioget under surveillance. Was he a suspect as well?”

“Kevin Vioget was ruled out as a suspect early in the case.”

Kendall met Kevin’s eyes. That hadn’t been the impression she’d gotten from Jason, but of course he couldn’t tell her that. All those times he’d told her to trust him…oh God. Then she remembered the car sitting out on the highway.

“They did follow you,” she breathed.

They both turned back to the television. Jason looked right at the camera, and she felt as if he was speaking directly to her.

Then a reporter asked, “Was Ms. Debarros sexually assaulted?”

Kevin winced visibly and covered his eyes.

“I can’t comment on that.”

Kendall set down her half eaten sandwich and rubbed her mouth, her meager appetite now gone entirely.

“We found no evidence that there was any kind of relationship between Ms. Debarros and Mr. Krayton other than they shared the same faculty advisor and happened to be working on the same type of research.”

“That means no.” She whipped around to face Kevin. Once again, she knew Jason was talking directly to her. “He doesn’t want to comment, but she wasn’t sexually assaulted, I know it.”

Kevin shook his head, eyes closed. “They were working on the same research,” he said slowly. “I remember, she told me once that Wade had gone to Dr. Durban and flipped out because he was sure Dr. Durban had given Natalia some of his research.”

“Dedra told me that too,” Kendall whispered. “I can’t believe that’s what this is all about. Research? About
wine
? That’s insane.”

“Apparently
he
was insane.”

“Mr. Krayton will appear in court tomorrow.”

“Is there a second arrest, Chief Holloway?”

“We are questioning a possible accessory to the crime. I can give you more information about that at a later time.”

Kendall’s heart ached for Dedra, though she wasn’t sure if she should feel sorry for her or…hell. Dedra hadn’t committed murder.