didn’t want to believe Clint could be so cold and callous, but it was obvious the man she’d thought him to be in the beginning was nothing but an illusion hiding a monster.
“I’d like to see him face charges. The two women who were willing to tell me their stories did so with my promise to keep their anonymity.”
Liz didn’t blame them for wanting to protect their privacy while still trying to get Clint to pay for his wrongdoings. Still . . . “More stories with ‘unnamed sources,’ lending credibility but not enough to really get people to believe they’re absolutely true.”
Tim nodded his agreement. “It gives Clint wiggle room to claim they lied and made it up to get back at him for some slight. But it puts Clint on notice that people are paying attention. The cops are looking at him and so am I.”
“But he knows interest will fade and he’ll be right back to doing what he does.” Bitterness filled Trinity’s words.
Someone needed to stand up to Clint. “Here’s my side, Tim.”
“We can take this inside if you’d like.” Tim notched his chin toward the spa doors.
She wanted to give him her side, add her voice to the other women who spoke against Clint, and be done with it. “It’s a short story that echoes the ones you’ve probably already heard.”
Tim went along with her wishes, pulled out his phone, clicked Record on an app, and held it up for her to speak into. “I dated Clint for nine or ten weeks. The relationship started out good. Normal. Little things tripped my radar. He wanted to keep me all to himself. At first, that seemed nice. Until he made a big deal about me spending time with friends instead of him. He didn’t like it when I mentioned my best friend, Tate.”
“The man you’re seeing now?” Tim asked, making sure he had the details right.
She assumed Detective Valdez told him about her. “Yes. Things changed dramatically when Clint met Tate. Clint staked a claim and made it clear I should not see Tate anymore. I wasn’t even willing to entertain the idea of cutting my childhood friend out of my life. Clint got angry. It became a thing between us. I didn’t like the way Clint handled the situation. He became possessive and aggressive.”
“How so?”
“When I broke up with him, he tried to convince me that’s not what I wanted at all. I know my own mind. I didn’t like being told what I thought. I didn’t like the way he tried to make it seem like Tate was playing games with me. I know Tate. That’s not him.”
“Clint tried to undermine Tate to try to get you back?”
“Yes. And he didn’t like that I saw right through him. He confronted me in my condo and things got physical. He grabbed my arm and left bruises. It wasn’t the first time he aggressively grabbed me. He frightened me that night. If not for my neighbor pounding on my door threatening to call the cops, I’m not sure what he might have done to me that night. I made it clear we were over and he left. I hoped to never see him again.”
“But you did.”
“I spotted him watching my place from the parking area of my complex. Another time while I was working at the farmers market, and a couple times when Tate and I were out to eat. I didn’t tell Tate because I didn’t want them to get into another fight over me.”
Trinity pressed her lips together, not liking that Liz kept something from Tate. She’d done it to keep the peace and not let Clint taunt Tate into doing something that would ultimately get him in trouble.
“Clint sent texts and tried to call. I ignored all of them. One day I received texts from Tate saying he didn’t want to see me anymore. The texts were hurtful and unlike him, but I believed them because Clint had planted the seed that Tate’s interest wasn’t genuine. What I didn’t know was that Tate had lost his phone that morning.”
“You think Clint stole the phone and sent the texts.”
“I can’t prove it, but it seems suspicious because immediately after I received those afternoon texts Clint surprised me at a place I frequent for lunch. He was kind and consoling. The guy I liked when I started seeing him. He seemed to think we could reconnect since Tate was out of the picture. He played me.”