You Betrayed Me (The Cahills #3) - Lisa Jackson Page 0,66
was lined with cubbies filled with samples of fabric, tile, hardwood, and quartz. And a drafting table sat in one corner, a design partially finished, while a computer screen displayed a 3-D image of the interior of a small house on another desk.
“You said you remembered,” Mendoza prodded. She’d slipped out of her jacket and placed her phone on the desk, hitting the record button. “This okay?”
“Sure.” Cahill slid into his chair, his arm in its sling resting over his chest. “It all came back this morning.”
“Everything?” Rivers asked.
“Some details are kind of blurry, but yeah, it feels right.”
“Why don’t you just tell us what you recall,” Mendoza suggested. “About the last time you saw Megan Travers.”
He leaned over the desk and started right in. “I came home to the house as usual, about the same time as I always do. And just like every other day, I’d picked up takeout from the inn—chili and cornbread. Once I got home, I grabbed a beer from the fridge and thought I was in for the night. But I guess I was wrong.” He proceeded to explain about Megan arriving and accusing him of cheating on her. How she’d tossed a note at him before things had gotten more violent. According to Cahill, Megan Travers had been the aggressor, working herself into a rage, attacking him, lashing out with sharp fingernails, pushing him. In trying to avoid her blows, he’d stumbled, scraping against the fireplace, his head smacking against the hearth. He didn’t wake up until he was in the hospital. Megan was long gone.
“And that’s it?” Mendoza asked.
“All I remember.” He seemed sincere, though there was a little bit of hesitation.
Rivers asked, “What time was this?”
“Around six-thirty, maybe seven.”
The timeline jibed with what Knowlton and the driver of the snowplow had sworn to. It also meshed with the dog walker’s story of seeing Megan’s car speeding through town.
Still, Rivers wasn’t convinced of James Cahill’s innocence.
Cahill swore he hadn’t had any contact with Megan since that night and had no idea what had happened to her.
Mendoza pushed. “Megan Travers was your girlfriend.”
“She had been,” he admitted.
“But you’d broken up?”
James’s gaze moved from Mendoza to Rivers. “In the process.”
“But you were seeing Sophia Russo at the same time.”
“Yes.”
“Did Megan know?”
“She’d found out. Just like I said.”
Mendoza said, “Were you seeing anyone else other than Megan Travers and Sophia Russo?”
“Don’t you think two is more than enough?” When Mendoza didn’t respond, he clarified, “No, I wasn’t seeing anyone else.”
“But you’d dated other women in the last year or so.” She glanced at her notes. “Jennifer Korpi?”
“Long over.”
“And Rebecca Travers. Megan Travers’s sister.”
Cahill tried not to react; Rivers could almost feel the monumental effort he employed. But it didn’t work. A vein pulsed just beneath the shaved area visible beneath the brim of his hat. “We broke up.”
“And you ended up with her sister.”
“Not my finest hour,” he admitted.
“How did Rebecca Travers handle it?”
“She was pissed. At me. Not so much at Megan.”
Cahill’s return gaze had grown penetrating. Mendoza had hit a tender nerve. “If you’re trying to say that Rebecca had something to do with Megan’s disappearance, there’s not a chance.”
Rivers asked, “How do you know?”
“I know Rebecca. She was always there for Megan, always. Megan could be . . . emotional . . .” He pressed his lips together, then continued, “Rebecca was always the calmer one, has a more level head. She would never do anything to hurt her sister.”
Mendoza further poked the bear a bit on that subject, but Cahill didn’t budge. He was adamant that there was no bad blood between the Travers sisters. Rivers wasn’t ready to buy it, however, nor did he think his partner was.
Rivers asked, “How would you describe your relationship with Megan?”
Cahill smiled faintly. “Not exactly rock solid.”
“She’d left before,” Mendoza said. “Twice, right? You filed missing-person reports.”
“That’s right.” He was wary now.
“Did you fight then, too?” Mendoza asked.
“Argued, yes. Let me be clear—it had never gotten physical before.”
Rivers said, “But you were arrested once—”
“A bar fight, a long time ago. Nothing since. Never with a woman.”
Rivers let it go. They grilled him more about the confrontation, asking if anyone else had been in the house or had come with Megan, even suggesting that he might have been the aggressor, but Cahill’s story was set in concrete.
Finally, James said, “I’ve told you everything I know. Haven’t held back, but there’s nothing more to say, and I really have to get back to work.” He stood,