A Bad Day for Sunshine (Sunshine Vicram #1) - Darynda Jones Page 0,102
that out.”
When he turned again, she jumped up and stopped him with a hand on his arm. She closed the door to her office and gestured for him to sit down.
He released a lungful of air, then sat.
“Of course I’m still working the case, but it’s very sporadic. I haven’t had a lead in years, and I’m just flying blind, but I am working it.”
“Then why lie to me about it?”
“Because you’re my best friend, and I didn’t want to lose you.”
He stood and went to the window again. “What the fuck does that mean? How would your working the case—”
“You think I don’t know?”
Sun could read her best friend like a paperback, so when he stopped breathing, she knew he was growing worried.
He gave an indifferent shake of his head. “What do you mean?”
She walked around her desk and rested against it. “Quincy, I could tell every time I brought the abduction up how uncomfortable it made you feel.”
“That’s bullshit. I’ve been trying to get you to talk about it for years.”
“Yes. To talk about what I can and cannot remember about my abductor. About where I was being held. About how I showed up at the hospital. But there were always certain aspects of the event that made you uncomfortable.”
His look morphed into one of incredulity.
She ignored it. “At first, I thought it was the whole pregnancy thing. The rape. I mean, I get it. You’re a guy, and unless you’re actually a rapist, talking about that kind of thing should not give you the warm and fuzzies.”
“Especially when it’s you,” he said with a whisper.
“I know.” She walked to him and lifted her hand to his cheek. He wanted to rear back. She could tell. But he stood his ground. “And I understand that.”
“So, then, what are you talking about?”
She lowered her hand but stayed close. “Quince, do you understand that none of that, nothing that happened to me, was your fault?”
“My fault? Of course. How could it—?” When she offered him her best sympathetic smile, he stopped and turned back to the window. “How long have you known?”
“Took me a while to figure it out. Alarming, since I’m in law enforcement and we speak almost every day. But I’ve known for a couple of years now.”
He scoffed. “Years.”
“And if I do say so myself, I’m amazing at reading people. You’re good.”
“Fuck that.” His voice cracked.
She walked around him, leaned against the wall, and waited for him to get it off his chest. It didn’t take long.
“It wasn’t like I didn’t want you to find out. Once I realized it could actually help the investigation, once I knew a little more about what it takes to solve crimes, I was going to tell you, but it had been so long.”
“Sit down.”
“I’m okay.”
But she led him to a chair anyway and sat in the one next to him. “Quincy Lynn Cooper, I hereby absolve you of any wrongdoing, not that there’s anything to absolve, but I want you to know that none of that was your fault, no matter how much your machismo tells you otherwise. I’m only bringing it up now because I can still tell how much it eats at you.”
His blue eyes shimmered with emotion. “I wasn’t there.”
“I know.”
“I was supposed to be.”
“I know.”
“I bailed on you to go out with Kristen Ulibarri.”
“I know. And really? Kristen Ulibarri? She was a little above your pay grade at the time, don’t you think?”
“And . . . wait, you knew it was Kristen?”
Sun smiled until he figured it out.
“Holy shit, that’s how you found out.”
“I’d suspected for some time, but she confirmed a couple of years ago. She was in town and invited me to lunch. It was like this weight she had to get off her chest. She had to apologize for dragging you away from me that night. For making me go into town alone. It all made so much more sense once I knew that.”
He lowered his head into a hand. “I’m so sorry, Sun. If I hadn’t bailed, you never would have been taken.”
“That’s where you’re wrong.”
He raised his gaze to her. “What do you mean?”
“This is just like Sybil’s case. He’d been planning it for a while. Why else ask my dad for a ransom? He knew he had money and how much. Like almost to the penny. This was not random and would have happened either way. But your not being there that night was a coup for us, trust me.”