The O'Connells Box Set

Chapter 25

He walked Reine into the station, through the front door, and only shook his head at Charlotte in response to her big eyes as she took in Reine.

“Marcus…” she said.

He just kept walking, spotting Harold holding the baby in one arm and thinking his sister had better have her a*s in that car and be on her way back as ordered. Though, at the way she had stared at him and told him to drop dead, he had decided picking a fight with her wouldn’t solve anything.

Reine had stopped talking completely as he walked her back to the only interrogation room and took in the bar on the table where they cuffed people under arrest. With Reine, he didn’t even know where to begin. Why had she done it?

“Marcus, a word,” Harold said as Marcus undid Reine’s cuffs.

“Sit down. I’ll be right back,” he said to her before starting to the door, where he shut his eyes for a second, then turned around and watched her rubbing at her wrists. All he saw was the woman who’d given birth to his daughter. Would she ever wonder about this day and ask why her mother couldn’t just keep her head down and her nose clean? Harold was still standing outside the doorway of the interrogation room. There was no window. Reine had refused to sit and look his way.

“Do you want some water or something else?”

She shook her head. “No,” she said, curt, short. She wasn’t going to make this easy.

He pulled the door closed and locked it from the outside, then took in his deputy, who had handed the baby off to Charlotte. He spotted Therese at her desk, too, her phone to her ear.

“Suzanne called,” he said. “Your sister is one step from serving your head up.”

He let out a rude noise under his breath, because Suzanne knew how to push every one of them. “She needs to keep her nose out of this. I’m not having her interfering in the Reine situation.”

Harold had pulled his arms across his chest. Marcus could see he had something on his mind. “I told her that, but, Marcus, you sure you’re the right person to talk to Reine? For you, this is personal.”

If it were anyone other than Harold, the look he gave would have had him shutting up and walking away. But not Harold. He was shorter than Marcus, but he just stood his ground and nodded toward the room. “You arrested her? She confess to taking the jewelry?”

Marcus shrugged. “Haven’t filed all the charges yet. But you forget I’m the sheriff, and, personal or not, I can be objective here. Didn’t find the missing jewelry on her, but I can’t see her carrying it around. But she had the opportunity. Her employer said she was last there, and then it went missing. Have Therese get over to her place and take it apart. I’m going to talk with Reine and get her to tell me where it is. Told her to make it easier on herself. Dammit! How am I going to tell Eva? I’ll have to have a word with her parole officer…”

“Hold up, Marcus,” Harold said. “This is Eva’s mother, you’re right about that, so you can’t be the one to go in there and interrogate her. It’s bad enough that you showed up for the call and arrested her. With the anger between you two, she’s not going to be too forthcoming. If it were the other way around, you’d be telling me exactly the same thing. In this, you can’t take the lead, because of Eva.”

Marcus was already shaking his head. He was furious Reine would do this and Eva would have to hear her mom was going back to prison. This would hurt his daughter.

“At least let me do the talking and take the lead,” Harold said. When Marcus pulled in a breath, Harold seemed to take that as his cue. “Therese,” he called out to the newest deputy, who leaned back in her chair, “get a warrant to search Reine Colbert’s place. Reach out to her parole officer, and then get over there. You have a list of what we’re looking for?”

Marcus pulled out his small notebook, seeing the old woman’s name, her address, and the description of the missing items. “Ruby earrings, a diamond ring, and a brooch that’s apparently over a hundred years old, a family heirloom. They’re saying it’s all worth fifty thousand.”

Therese nodded and reached for the phone. “Okay, on it,” was all she said.

Harold tapped his chest with the back of his hand and only shook his head before stepping past him, reaching for the door, and opening it.

Marcus knew he was right, but he wanted Reine to tell him why she would jeopardize Eva’s peace of mind. She had to know now that she’d never see her again.

Reine was still standing when Harold stopped at the table and pulled out her chair, scraping the steel.

“Reine, sit down,” he said. “I’m Deputy Waters. I need you to tell me where the jewelry is.”

Marcus could see Reine didn’t want to listen, but she walked slowly toward the chair, her blue eyes flickering with such hate for him. She sat down, and he could see she was unwilling to talk.

“Do I not have a right to call a lawyer?” she said, looking right at him and then at Harold, who had walked around the table.

“Of course, but as soon as you do, anything I could do to make this easier for you goes away. One of our deputies is already on her way to your place, and your parole officer too. When they find the jewelry, there will be no deal. As we stand, your parole will be revoked, and you’ll have to serve out the rest of your sentence, but how much more time is tacked on to it is up to you.” Harold had a way of talking that was so matter of fact.

Reine seemed to have pulled into herself as she flicked her gaze over to him. “You love this, don’t you? Then you get to tell Eva how her mother screwed up, how she’s better off.”

Marcus leaned against the wall and pulled his arms over his chest. “You think I’m enjoying this? Let me tell you, there’s nothing I dread more than seeing the pain in Eva’s eyes, my daughter’s eyes, over what you’ve done. I don’t know how to tell her. I don’t want to tell her. Why would you do this, Reine? You had to know I would’ve worked something out with you. I wouldn’t have completely cut you out of her life…”

“Oh, you are such a liar, Marcus O’Connell—or, excuse me, Sheriff.” Her tone was overly sarcastic, laced with a ton of disrespect. “The only intention you had was to keep me away from my daughter. What exactly did you say when I showed up at your door? No! You said it wasn’t going to happen, and when my daughter wanted me to show up to your mother’s house last night, you waited until your wife got her out of the house before telling me I wasn’t to go. What was the exact word, uninvited? So excuse me if I don’t believe a word you say.” She leaned forward, then sat straight.

By the way she carefully looked over at Harold, he wondered whether she expected something else to come at her. He could still see the bruising on her face, the swelling underneath the makeup that had worn off.

“Reine, we are way past that,” he said. “I guess at this point it doesn’t matter what you believe. Is that why you helped yourself to someone’s jewelry? Was the plan to pawn it? You have to know we’re going to look, and we will find it. Pawn shops have security footage.” Well, most did. Some had cameras that conveniently didn’t work.

She pressed her lips together, digging in. “So is that a no to my request for a lawyer? Let’s be clear here, cards on the table. I already told you I didn’t take the jewelry, but it seems you’ve convicted me. I can’t understand how quick you were to take the word of someone who pointed the finger my way. I have a record, but I’ve never stolen anything in my life. And what really infuriates me is that I was never even supposed to be left alone in that home. I was the slave who did all the dirty work the nurses don’t, cleaning up soiled adult diapers, scrubbing the bathtub and the floor. Apparently, that’s all I’m good for.

“But I was never meant to be in the house without Ivy, the nurse I was assigned to. I was to leave with her and show up with her, not be told to stay and clean because she was done when I still had way more to do. Then I had to chase a woman with dementia down the street because her daughter never came home. I had to stay hours after I was supposed to be off, and I’ll never get paid for it, and now I’m suddenly accused of taking jewelry. Really?” She kept looking his way instead of at Harold, who was perched on the edge of the table, looking down at her.

The deputy dragged his gaze to Marcus, who knew that look. She’d said it enough times, asking for a lawyer, so they had to listen.

“You can have a lawyer,” Marcus said, “but as soon as you get your lawyer and we’re done here, there’s no negotiating something better for you.”

She flicked her gaze up to Harold. Marcus couldn’t remember ever having seen the kind of determination that was on her face now. She stood up and held her arms out in front of her, saying, “Take me to my cell, because I’m not talking again. I told you the truth, and you don’t believe me. We’re done. I have nothing to say to you.”

Harold stood up and looked Marcus’s way. There was nothing more they could do, so Marcus put his hand on the door and pulled it open, then tossed over his shoulder to Harold, “Let her call her lawyer. Then charge her.”