The Case of the Amorous Assailant by Terry Ambrose

Author:Terry Ambrose [Ambrose, Terry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Satori
Published: 2022-10-18T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 26

Zoe and I watched Gina have another meltdown in an awkward silence. I kept expecting Gina or Zoe to say something, but neither seemed ready to make the first move. I desperately wanted Gina to tell me she hadn’t slept with Bert, but deep down, I knew she had. The only question was, why? And I didn’t think it was because of the money.

To break the silence, I pretended to shiver, then said, “Getting chilly in here again.”

Zoe rolled her eyes; Gina sniffled a couple of times and whimpered something I interpreted to be a yes.

“Gina, I understand you didn’t actually kill Bert, but did you help him along?” I asked.

The color in her cheeks slowly drained. She croaked, “No.”

Gone was the rich-girl persona. Gone was the aura of confidence. Those pretend images had been replaced by the real emotions of fear and worry. I might have only been a PI for a week, but I was sure my client finally got it—she was in trouble.

“Then you’re innocent,” I said, doing my best to sound reassuring.

Zoe was still silent and biting her lower lip as she watched Gina. She caught me looking at her and glanced away.

I frowned and peered at her. “Zoe?”

“I’m like thinking.”

“It’s more than that. What’s up?”

She chomped down on her lower lip again and winced. “I totally want to believe this is for real, Jade, but how do we know she’s telling the truth?”

“Hello? I’m right here,” Gina snapped. She glared at Zoe and let out a loud huff, but a moment later, she added, “I get it. You hate me because I went to private schools and wore thousand-dollar prom dresses.”

Zoe gaped at Gina for several seconds before she responded. “You spent a thousand bucks on a prom dress? My mom got mine second-hand, and I totally hated it.”

A wry smile formed at the corner of Gina’s mouth, and she bit her lower lip. “For real? My mom picked mine out, too. It was so beyond ugly.”

They both laughed, and I was happy they’d finally found common ground. But Gina still hadn’t answered Zoe’s question—how did we know if she was telling the truth? “So what did you do, Gina? I mean, when you found out what Bert wanted, did you walk out on him or did you give in?”

“Bert got all handsy,” she blurted. “I guess he thought he could turn me on by…I told him to stop.”

“And?”

The single word hung in the air like a dark cloud on the horizon and the color in Gina’s cheeks reversed direction by deepening to a bright scarlet.

“Tell me you didn’t,” I groaned.

Gina sat straighter and glared at me, her eyes growing redder by the second until they brimmed with tears. “It’s not like we’d never done it before!”

“Oh, gawd.” I sighed and handed Gina another tissue. Slowly, very slowly, the puzzle pieces fell into place—the woman I’d once seen as the strongest of role models—was human. Just like me and Zoe. And like us, she was in need of constant reassurance.

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