him.
“Why don’t we jump right in,” he suggested, unsnapping his briefcase with two sharp clicks and removing a fresh new yellow legal pad.
She related the full saga, trying to be succinct but not omit any pertinent details. She admitted going to Kelman’s room in Islamorada for a drink but left it at that. If Naylor’s head was spinning from all the bizarre permutations and the roller coaster aspect of her tale, he gave no hint, just took notes with firm, fast strokes of his pen. Here and there he shot questions at her for clarification.
When she’d finished, feeling unsettled from rehashing it all, Nat leafed for a few minutes through his pages of notes, his look pensive. She wondered if he was simply trying to grasp all the details and commit them to memory, or pondering what truths might be tucked away beneath the story, truths that Kit had hesitated to disclose. Or maybe he was really sitting there thinking, “This woman needs to get herself a normal life.”
Finally he let out a breath and looked up.
“Kit, tell me why you want to go to the police,” he said.
The question stunned her. Why? She couldn’t imagine the reason for asking that. “Well, because a homicide occurred in my stairwell and I have information that might prove valuable to the detectives in charge of the investigation, information I should have provided them with sooner. Why wouldn’t I go to the police?”
“I see why it’s your first instinct. But you never want to entangle yourself with law enforcement unless you absolutely have to. Once that happens, you have no control. There are just some very good reasons not to do it.”
“But if I don’t report this, aren’t I guilty of obstructing justice? I’d be withholding critical information.”
He hesitated for a moment, as if he was picking his words.
“Actually, I don’t believe you would be. Obstructing justice is when you actively make it difficult for the police to do their job, such as destroying evidence or deleting relevant emails. But failing to divulge that you know a man who is connected to a company whose employees may have played a role in the victim’s death doesn’t fall into that category.”
So what was he suggesting? she wondered. That she do nothing and let sleeping dogs lie? But the people who were after her weren’t sleeping dogs. They were hounds from hell that wanted to eat her alive.
“But if I don’t go to the police, they won’t have everything they need to figure out who killed Avery. I’m partly responsible for her death, and I can’t bear the thought of her murderer never being caught. And I have to also consider the fact that I’m a sitting duck right now.”
“All right, I just wanted to put it out there. There’s one more question I need to ask. Did you have sex with Garrett Kelman?”
She should have known it was coming.
“Yes,” she said, looking him in the eye. “But I don’t understand how that matters.”
“If you’re going to speak to the authorities, it’s critical not to shade the truth or to leave out anything that could be relevant.”
“But how is sex relevant?”
“As far as the cops are concerned, sex can be a motive. They might decide you feel jilted and that you’re exacting revenge by going to them with your story.”
“I’m not,” she said, annoyed that it might come down to having to defend herself against that kind of a suspicion. “I just want the police to know who the possible suspects are. But if it’s necessary to admit I spent the night with Kelman, I have no qualms about doing so.”
“Good. Why don’t we try to set something up for early Monday? I can accompany you.”
“Nat, is there any chance we could go down there later this afternoon?”
A part of her had been wildly hoping that he’d suggest dashing to the precinct right now so that it would all be over and done with.
“I think we need to do some prep work,” he said. “I want you to run through your story again to make sure there are no inconsistencies. And I need your phone.”
“My phone? I don’t understand.”
“I want to make a record of all your calls to Kelman so we don’t miss one. And then we’re going to create a spreadsheet, listing them, plus every encounter you’ve had with him. We’ll review it all so when you talk to the cops, you leave nothing out.”
“Why don’t we sit in the dining room then?”