actually in interrogation—or that Richardson suspected him of murder. Trying to keep his voice flat and calm he said, “Chloe is here because I want her to be with me. As for a lawyer, I don’t need one. I’m not guilty of anything.”
“I happen to think you are,” Richardson returned. “And I’m not the only one.”
“Oh, really?” How the hell is this happening? “Then why don’t you stop playing games and tell me who else thinks that I’m somehow the killer that Chloe and I have been working so hard to catch.”
Richardson smiled at him. Joel hated the agent’s smile.
“A witness has come forward.”
From the corner of his eye, Joel saw Chloe tense.
“This witness says you were in the alley with Donnie Adams. The witness saw you swinging a baseball bat at him. And you know what? When we went to your apartment, guess what we found hidden in the back of your closet?”
Bam. Bam. Bam. Joel’s heartbeat suddenly seemed to be beating so hard he felt as if his whole chest had to be shaking. “Bullshit.” His immediate response.
“No. I’m afraid it’s quite true. The bat is being run for prints and evidence collection as we speak. I can assure you—”
“I can assure you…” Chloe cut in with a voice that sounded completely steady. Almost bored. “Joel’s prints will not be found on that baseball bat. The true killer planted that bat in his apartment, probably after Joel moved out. It would certainly have been easy enough to do. Child’s play. Joel’s neighbor—when Joel lived at that location, by the way, because that is his former address—his neighbor spent most of his nights chugging beers until he passed out. His wife died two years ago, and the poor man hasn’t been the same since.”
How did she—no. Joel wasn’t even going down that road.
“The perp knew that Joel had moved. So he thought it would be easy to stash that baseball bat in Joel’s former home. He thought—”
“There was blood on the bat.” Richardson drummed his fingers on the table. “Did I forget to mention that part sooner? Whoops.”
“You didn’t forget,” Chloe assured him. “You were just being a dick.”
She said it so easily. So properly in that accent of hers. Joel almost smiled.
Then he remembered he was in freaking interrogation and that the agent thought he was a killer. Smiling felt very wrong.
“Wonder if the blood on that bat will belong to poor Judith Key?” Richardson’s lips pulled down in a sad frown. “I heard you rammed the bat into the back of her head before you stabbed her.”
“I didn’t!” Joel’s hands fisted on top of the table. “Look, I tried to save her—”
“Tried and failed.”
“I—”
Chloe curled her hand over one of his fists. Immediately, Joel took a breath. A deep, slow breath.
“Oh, Agent Richardson, even a man as dense as you should see that this is a setup. A bat in an empty apartment. Woo.” Again, Chloe sounded bored. “I’m disappointed that you had Joel come down for this. We just found a body, after all. If you’d given us a few more hours, we probably would have gotten your killer for you, too. What a waste of time and energy.”
Richardson had his attention locked on Joel. “I’ve got my killer. Like I said, it wasn’t just the bat. It was the witness.”
“Who is the witness?” Joel demanded.
“You want a name? Why? So you can go out and slam a baseball bat into—”
“I want a name because I want to know who is lying about me.” Chloe’s hand was still wrapped around his. Just her touch was helping him to stay focused. To breathe.
Chloe was there. They were going to figure this mess out.
I didn’t kill Donnie Adams.
“It’s not a lie if it’s the truth,” Richardson fired back.
“It’s. A. Lie.” From Chloe. Clipped.
“And how do you know that?” Now Richardson turned his head toward her. “How do you know that this witness—who swears that Joel was the one swinging the bat at Donnie Adams—is not telling the truth?”
Joel glanced at her. Chloe’s profile was perfectly smooth. Expressionless.
“That’s what I thought,” Richardson said. He nodded. “That’s what I—”
“Joel couldn’t have been in that alley. Because that night…”
The night before Joel had met Chloe at the bank… Shit. I don’t have an alibi for that night. He’d just realized…I was running around the city. Jogging aimlessly because the apartment was closing in on me. I ran and ran and can’t even remember all the streets I took. I can’t—
“That night,”