“Miss Quinn, when was the last time you were home?” Detective Brooks questioned.
“Uh, three days ago, I think?”
“You think?” Detective Cameron chimed in, tone harsh and full of suspicion.
“I hadn't gotten out of bed until those two meanies dragged me out to go to lunch today,” I answered, pointing a finger at Jamie and Louie. Both of whom were standing by the door, holding veiled expressions I was sure looked intimidating, like guards quietly watching and waiting for an order or a threat to appear.
“Why were you in bed?” Brooks inquired.
“I was crying. My boyfriend and I broke up.”
“Why’d you break up?”
I purposely looked at Stefan and then to my feet, trying to appear apprehensive. “Do you really need to know that?” I mumbled.
“Yes, we do.” Cameron said firmly.
I crumpled into Stefan’s chair and willed some tears to fall from my eyes. I quickly wiped them away and sniffled. “I thought I was pregnant,” I said quietly. “The test came back positive and Tom asked me to marry him, but I refused. Then I got my period, but things couldn’t go back to normal after that. He asked if I ever wanted to get married and I said no. I’m not ready. I’ve…I’ve only been with Tom, if you know what I mean. I’m just not ready to settle down.” I looked up at the detectives and made sure I rambled as fast as I could. “I’ve never even had a one night stand or a threesome! Not that I’m sure I want one of those, but that’s not really the point! The man could barely get me to orgasm! Do you know how many vibrators I’ve gone through during our relationship? Four! I just can’t spend the rest of my life getting myself off. I need good sex! Mind blowing sex!” I said loudly and mimed my head exploding with my hands. “So I left. I got into my car and I left him and school. Shit! What am I going to do about school?” I groaned, covering my face with my hands, and cried some more.
There was an awkward silence. I knew everyone was shocked on both sides, but that was what I'd been aiming for.
“Uh…” Stefan cleared his throat. “Is there a reason you’re asking my daughter about her ex-boyfriend?”
Detective Cameron sighed. “Yes, I’m sorry to inform you, but apparently after you left, the home you and your, uh… ex rented together caught on fire.”
I shot up from Stefan’s chair. “What? Oh my God! How bad is it? All my stuff is still there. Wait, what about Tom? Is he okay? Oh my God!”
“We walked through the scene. I’m sorry, it didn’t seem like anything was salvageable,” Brooks said, eyes holding sympathy.
“We haven’t been able to locate Tom. We’ve spoken to his employer and they say he hasn’t been to work for the past three days,” Cameron said as he eyed Stefan. It was clear what he was thinking. Even though he was right on the money, I refused to feed his suspicion.
“Daddy, what am I going to do? All my stuff. Pictures of Mom. It’s all gone,” I cried hysterically, full on snotty sobs, and threw myself into his arms. And the Academy Award goes to…
“Shh, it’s going to be okay, sweetheart,” Stefan shushed as he rubbed my back.
“We don’t know if Tom Morris is responsible. We need to locate him first. I think we’re done here for today. Here’s my card. If you have anything you want to add or have any questions, please give me a call,” Detective Cameron said as he placed his card on Stefan’s desk.
Jamie volunteered to walk them to the door.
After the door closed behind them, I waited a minute before pulling away from Stefan and wiped my cheeks clean. “Well, that was fun.”
Both Stefan and Louie stared at me with blatant shock on their faces. The room was so quiet, you could hear a pin drop. That was, until Louie practically fell over laughing.
CHAPTER 10
“That was the best thing I’ve ever seeeeen!” Louie wheezed. “I almost lost it when you asked them about vibrators.” Louie was laughing uncontrollably while holding his stomach with one hand and bracing himself on the wall with the other.
Stefan scrunched his nose, walking away to go sit behind his desk. I was sure it had been uncomfortable to hear me talk about sex and vibrators. Saying all that in front of him hadn't been easy for me either. “It was incredibly risky to lie like that. How did you know I hadn’t said something that wouldn’t have corroborated with your story?”
“You told me you didn’t, remember?”
Stefan nodded, seeming pleased I’d caught that lifeline of information he'd slipped me.
“I swear, the shit that comes out of your mouth is amazing,” Louie said after he calmed down. Catching his breath, he plopped down on the couch.
“They’re gone,” Jamie announced when he returned and took a seat on the opposite end of the couch from Louie. “Are you going to tell us what all that was?”
“We didn’t discuss what we were going to say to the cops if they ever showed up. So I felt it was best to take the lead and make sure this situation was as uncomfortable as it possibly could be. By unloading information that is normally too uncomfortable for a sober woman to say, especially with her father present, I created an acute-stress environment.” The three of them each gave me varying confused expressions. “When presented with stress, a distress signal is sent from the amygdala to the hypothalamus.” I realized I was getting too technical when Louie’s eyebrows puckered. “Have you ever heard of fight or flight?” They all nodded. “It’s kind of like that. The basic human response is to flee in uncomfortable situations. Did you notice how they were asking me question after question in the beginning, trying to take advantage because I’d been drinking and my inhibitions were hindered? Then the moment I started crying and rambling on hysterically about threesomes and wanting mind blowing orgasms, they couldn’t get out of here fast enough?”
Stefan leaned back in his chair, his head resting against the headrest as he pondered. “But your inhibitions weren’t hindered?” he asked.
“No, but I certainly made it appear that way,” I replied.
A proud smile slowly formed at his mouth.
“They’ll be back. When they realize they didn’t get everything they needed from you,” Jamie warned.
“Yes, but we’ll be better prepared next time,” I said, taking a seat between him and Louie. “Speaking of being prepared…” I directed my question at Stefan. “Why didn’t we go over what we were going to say to the cops?” Stefan didn’t make mistakes or have slip ups. He was too meticulous. Too controlled. Everything he did or didn’t do served a purpose.
The Stefan I knew wouldn’t have cared how upset I'd been these past couple of days. He would have torn me out of bed and made sure my alibi was so ingrained into my brain, I would’ve believed it was actually true. He hadn't, though. That told me one thing. He'd wanted to see how I would handle this on my own. He'd just tested me. Motherfucker. “We had a deal.” I glared.
Stefan’s smile fell, his face relaxing to reveal nothing, but his eyes said everything. He was debating how he should respond. “We still do. You were upset. As any caring father would do, I gave you space. I knew the police would come, and soon. That’s why I tried calling your room. You didn’t answer. I didn’t push. So I left this moment up to fate.”