Only Murder by Rylie Dark

Author:Rylie Dark [Dark, Rylie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rylie Dark
Published: 2021-08-30T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

There were two small interview rooms at the station. They left a red-faced and angry Peter in one, demanding a lawyer, while the Sheriff and Sadie went to interview Gemma, leaving Deputy Cooper to co-ordinate the dismantling of the makeshift meth lab.

Sitting opposite Gemma, Sadie felt a similar rush of compassion for her to the one she had experienced in the lab. Under the flickering lights of the interview room, which highlighted her freckles and the crop of acne on her chin, the girl looked even younger.

“I’m not telling you nothing,” Gemma announced, raising her chin. “This is entrapment.”

Cooper grinned at her, not unkindly.

“I’m afraid,” he said in a firm voice as though he was chiding a schoolgirl – which really, she was – “we’ve got you dead to rights, Gemma. You were literally cooking up a batch of meth right in front of us. That’s serious time, even for a minor. There’s a good chance they’ll lock you up with the adults, I mean you’re nearly eighteen, right? You can look after yourself, isn’t that what you told us on the way here?”

Gemma shrank back into her chair, obviously terrified in spite of her attempts at defiance, but didn’t answer. Sadie leaned over the table towards her.

“Gemma,” she said in a gentle voice, “if Peter was coercing you, to help him with the drugs, or was violent to you in any way…” She left the question hanging. Gemma’s eyes flickered and she looked away, and under the strip light there was a faint suggestion of an old bruise around her eye. Sadie clenched her jaw and exhaled slowly.

But the girl’s loyalty – or fear – wasn’t going to let her betray Peter so easily. She shook her head vehemently.

“Peter is good to me,” she insisted. “He looks after me.”

“Bit of a father figure, is he?” Cooper said. Gemma glared at him. “What would you know?” she all but spat the words out, a fine mist of spittle landing on the table between them. “I’m over the age of consent. You can’t do nothing.”

“Is he pimping you out?” Cooper responded. Gemma looked shocked and immediately clammed up, but Sadie saw her expression flood with shame and guessed that Cooper was right.

“Peter won’t protect you, Gemma,” she said, using the same soothing sort of tone she might use on an injured animal. “If he could pin this on you, he would, believe me. We go back a long way. Luckily, he’s not wriggling out of the meth charges, whether you give us anything or not. He will know that. But we can help you.”

Gemma looked suspicious but interested. “Help me how?”

Sadie glanced at Cooper, who gave her a small, almost imperceptible nod, authorizing her to bargain with the girl. Technically, she didn’t need his authorization, but she knew he would appreciate the gesture, and they needed to work together if they were going to crack this.

“Get you in a rehab program, or, if the Sheriff here is right – and

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