Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 105868 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105868 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
“Judges do get nominated and approved at an impressive pace these days,” Stella said lightly. “Are you asking me to take him out?”
What in the world? “I’m not asking you to do anything like that, Stella. Is that something you do?”
Stella’s chuckle came through stronger this time. “No. I was joking.”
“Oh.” May exhaled. “Sorry. It’s three in the morning and I’m not as quick as usual.” But was Stella actually joking? She really didn’t know.
“Yeah. Speaking of which, why aren’t you in bed?”
“I’m worried about Ace.”
There was a small shift in Stella’s breathing. “How worried?”
May stared at the rain tracing down the windowpane. “I love him.” The words hung in the air. She should have said them to Ace first. Instead, here she was whispering them into a phone in the middle of the night. “I need to help him,” she continued. “He’s in this mess because of me, at least partly. I have to do something.”
“Okay,” Stella said calmly. “Calling me is always a good idea. Do you want me to dig up dirt on the senator? Because I could do that. I’m a little surprised the Osprey men haven’t already. Plus, those troopers are good at their job.” Steam hissed faintly on Stella’s end of the line. A low hum followed, maybe a machine frothing milk.
Goodness. Where in the world was Stella right now?
“So maybe you’re looking for advice?” Stella said.
May gulped. “Yes. You seem to have decent political instincts.”
“I have survival instincts,” Stella corrected her. “Go on.”
May took a breath. “You played that social influencer role this last spring and had millions of followers. What if I took this to social media? Told the whole story?”
“Do you have proof?”
“Proof of what?”
Something clanged softly, then the sound of liquid pouring came over the line. “Proof of anything you’d say about the senator,” Stella replied. “He presents well as being both charming and calm. Could you handle a slander case?”
“I don’t know.”
“It’s not slander if it’s true. But if he sued you, you’d have to prove it’s true.”
Rain intensified for a moment, drumming harder against the roof.
“Did he ever hit you?” Stella asked bluntly. “And is there proof?”
“He never hit me. There’s no proof he grabbed me or pushed me. But he did.” May thought she’d left that time behind her for good. “So you’re saying that if I went public with that, I could get sued for everything I have?”
Stella sipped on a drink. “Yes. Now, don’t get me wrong. Plenty of people would believe you no matter what you said. There’d be an uproar. It could go one of two ways. Either he wins or you win. And I can’t tell you which way that would fall.”
May couldn’t just sit here. “I know.”
“Public opinion can be powerful,” Stella continue calmly. “But you’d have people defending him too, especially since you don’t have concrete proof of anything. And there’s always the narrative that your current love interest has been arrested for murdering two women.”
“There is that,” May said dryly, her hand wrapped around her mug. The ceramic had cooled, but she held it anyway. “It all seems circumstantial.”
“Oh, it is,” Stella replied almost cheerfully.
May took another long drink of the huckleberry-ginger brew. The sweetness had dulled, leaving mostly spice. “You sound like you have important knowledge.”
“Of course I do. The minute I found out what was happening in town, I did some investigating. Have you seen the autopsy reports yet?”
May straightened in her chair. “No. Have you?”
“Of course I have.”
May stared at the rain again. “Just who are you, Stella?”
A soft breath came through the line, almost amused. “Does it matter?”
Not right now. “Was there anything interesting in the autopsy reports?” May tried to think clinically and not see Ivy or Laura’s faces.
“There was no obvious trace evidence at either scene,” Stella said. “No DNA left behind. Both women died by manual strangulation resulting in laryngeal fracture and airway collapse.”
The room felt colder despite the small heater humming in the corner. “So what’s your advice?” May asked.
A spoon clinked lightly against porcelain on Stella’s end. “My advice is to step back and let things unfold for the moment.”
Rain streaked down the window in uneven lines. May didn’t like waiting. Waiting seemed passive and made her feel helpless.
“I looked into the two troopers,” Stella continued. “They’re good. There’s also Dutch. He’s working things from afar, and never underestimate the Osprey brothers. The four of them can move mountains.”
May needed to believe that Ace would be okay. “But what if—”
“Nope,” Stella cut in gently. “I learned a long time ago you can’t operate on what-ifs. You know that. You’re a doctor.”
May lifted her shoulder to keep the phone against her ear. Normally she would’ve switched to speaker, but she didn’t want to risk waking Ace. Even across the house, he seemed to register everything. “All right. I appreciate your help.”