Vindicate (Recovered Innocence #1)(21)

“What’s the point?”

“Have you seen her files on your case?” I forge on, despite his stony silence. “I have. She has a whole damn box full of them. For the past five and a half years she’s done nothing with her life except fight for you. What have you done for her?”

“What am I supposed to do from here?” He sweeps his arms out wide. If I thought Cora carried around too much anger, it’s nothing compared to the rage that pumps off Beau. I can taste it at the back of my throat and feel it pushing at my skin.

“You’re a coward.”

Cold blue eyes that are nothing like Cora’s stare back at me. And yet the resemblance is there. Like a faded photo over a faded photo, there’s a washed-out sameness that bends my sympathy toward him. But I can’t show him that. I have to match his attitude, blank stare for blank stare.

“What do you want to know?” he finally says.

I don’t dare let out the breath I’ve been holding and go right for the jugular. “Why did you and Cassandra break up?”

There’s more fury-filled silence and then he leans in again. “That has nothing to do with what happened to her.”

“You don’t know that. There could be something in there. Or not. But I have to think that your reluctance to talk about it could be the thing the real killer is counting on.”

“I broke up with her.”

“Why?”

He does that thing with his hand that Cora does when she’s agitated—tapping the tips of his fingers on the tabletop, pinkie to index finger, pinkie to index finger, like a wave. “I’m going to say this so Cora will finally let it go, but you have to promise me you won’t tell her or anyone.”

I agree. I warned Cora that I might not be able to tell her everything Beau tells me.

“She got pregnant.” The shift in Beau is subtle and filled with pain. “We talked about keeping it, but in the end…I went with her to her appointment.”

“Why did you break up with her?”

“She had a hard time dealing with it. I tried to help.” Resting his elbows on the table, he scrubs his hands over his face. “Her parents are very religious. That’s how she was raised. The guilt ate at her and she took it out on me. We argued. A lot. I didn’t know how to fix things for her. Then she told me she met someone else and, I don’t know, I sort of lost it. I told her I never wanted to see her again.” He lowers his hands. “But that wasn’t true.”

“Was she seeing someone else?”

“Yeah. A few times.”

“Do you know who it was?”

“Ask her friend Maisy.”

“You don’t know his name?”

“Would you want to know the name of the guy your girl was cheating on you with?”

“Only so I could find him and punch him in the face.”

He cracks half a smile. “It was tempting. But then I’d have a name and a face to imagine her with.”

I change the subject. “The two of you were getting back together.”

“She called me one night and we talked. She apologized. I apologized.” He bows his head. “She cried.”

Cora’s tear-streaked face flashes in my mind and I feel for him. I hate it when chicks cry. I especially hated seeing Cora do it.

“What else did you talk about?” I ask.

“She told me about the strange things that were happening around her apartment.”

“Do you know if she ever called the police?”

“I told her she should call the cops. She said she would. We talked a few more times over the next couple of weeks. Things got…better. She invited me over to her apartment.”

“The night before she was killed.”

“Yeah.”

“You had sex with her.”

He doesn’t answer. He doesn’t have to. It was his DNA on and inside her body that hung him at trial.

“I loved her.” His softly spoken words echo inside me, reverberating in time with my heartbeat.

It takes a moment before I can find my voice again. “Thank you.”

I start to rise, but he reaches a hand out. “Is there really a new lead, like Cora said? A witness?” He pulls his hand back when I resume my seat.

“The downstairs neighbor, but we’re having a hard time finding her.”

“Mrs. Wheeler?”

“That’s the one.”

He rubs at his jaw. “She had a cousin who used to come and take care of her. Joni. No, Jodi something. Aagh. What was her last name?”

“Jodi Samuels. She’s dead. Can you think of anyone else who might know where she is?”

His harsh laugh has heads turning. “Just my f*cking luck. Are you sure Mrs. Wheeler isn’t dead too?”

“There’s no death certificate and someone keeps cashing her Social Security checks.”

He’s quiet so long I start to shift in my seat. And then, “Zelda would know. Have you talked to her?”

“Cora tried—”

“But she wouldn’t talk to the sister of Cassandra’s murderer.”

“Something like that. I’m planning on taking a shot at her on my own. She doesn’t know who I am or that I’m working with Cora. I can come at her from a different angle—a law student investigating a local case, maybe.”