Vindicate (Recovered Innocence #1)(12)

She searches through her stack of folders until she finds the one she wants. “According to the police report, the first detective to respond was Paul Winfro. He assessed the scene and called it in. A supervisor arrived, then crime-scene techs, the coroner, and so on.”

“What time was that?”

“I told you, about six, just after Cassandra would’ve gotten off work. The neighbor and the yoga class?” Her impatience with me kicks up a dozen levels.

“Right.”

“If you’ve got somewhere else you’d rather be, don’t let me stop you from taking off. Your dad gave me the password to the Wi-Fi here and the login and passwords for the websites the agency uses for searches. There’s lots I can do without you if you’re bored.”

“I’m not bored.”

She makes a sound like she doesn’t believe me.

“I’m not,” I insist. “Tell me about what happened next.”

I listen and take notes like I’m in class and there’s going to be a test. I ask good questions. By the time she’s done walking me through it I almost feel as though I know Cassandra. My dad said to start with the victim, but there was no one and nothing in Cassandra’s life that should’ve led to her murder. She was an ordinary eighteen-year-old. Who would want to kill her in the horrible way she died and why? I have to talk to Beau. I feel like I can get something from him that Cora couldn’t.

It’s nearly dark out by the time we’re finished. Dad’s talking to Savannah about tomorrow’s appointments and Cora and I have a solid plan to start working on in the morning. I help her pack her folders and binders into her box. When we’re all done, she puts the lid on and I carry it to the storage cabinet and lock it up. By the time I get back, she’s got her bag on her shoulder.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” she says, and starts to leave, then turns back.

It’s the first time I’ve seen her nervous. My curiosity kicks into high gear.

“I don’t have a boyfriend,” she blurts out, then bolts for the door. She’s gone before my brain can restart to stop her.

I lean against the door frame, a dumb-ass smile on my face, and that’s how Dad finds me.

He glances from me to the door, then back again. “No. Absolutely not. She’s a client.”

“Isn’t she more of an employee?”

“In my office.”

I follow him down the hall, feeling like that time I was sixteen and I accidentally backed his truck into a pole.

He closes the door after me. “Sit down. You and I need to get something straight.” He waits for me to take a seat. “I thought it was fairly obvious, but after what happened last summer between you and Savannah, I feel like I need to set some boundaries here.”

Shit. He knows about Savannah and me.

“I remember what it’s like to be your age.” This is going to be one of his long talks, when I’m expected to sit here and listen without comment, then totally change my behavior forever. “Pretty girls turned my head too, but you have to have some common sense. This is a place of business, not a pickup joint. I didn’t say anything about you and Savannah, figuring it would work itself out one way or the other. But it hasn’t. I regret not putting a stop to that. And now you’re looking at Cora that same way and I won’t have it. That girl’s been through enough.”

“I—”

“I’m not finished. I’m serious here, Leo. Leave her be. You have no idea what she’s been through. Her family—”

“You investigated her?”

“We investigate all of our clients. You should know that. We have to be sure they are who they say they are and that they’re hiring us for the reasons they give us. We don’t want to inadvertently help an abuser find their victim or help them break the law.”

I should know that, but I didn’t. “What did you find out about her?”

“All you need to know is that we’re working on a very real case. Cora is who she says she is and the circumstances are exactly as she described them.”

I expected that. “Yeah, but what did you mean that she’s been through enough? Don’t you think I should know what you know if I’m going to work with her?”

He considers this, staring at me for a beat, then two, before he speaks. “During the trial her parents separated, then divorced shortly after that. At sixteen, Cora fought to become an emancipated minor and won. She got a job, moved out on her own, and has been living as an adult ever since. She tested out of high school two years before graduation. She’s been completely on her own for more than five years. She’s not…How can I put this? She’s not the kind of person who screws around. She’s serious. Her brother’s case has been her life. Every job, every community college course she’s taken, has been in relation to what she can do to help her brother.

“I’m telling you this so that you can understand where she’s coming from and take it into consideration. I need you one hundred percent on the job and not trying to get into her pants. She needs you one hundred percent. This isn’t a hobby to her, a way to kill a summer. This is her life. Do you understand what I’m trying to tell you?”

“Yeah, that you think all I want to do is sleep with her. Thanks, Dad.”