Flashback (Kendra Michaels #11)

He stepped toward her. “It isn’t just Sloane, you know.”

“I know. Chloe, too.”

He still didn’t pull off his mask. “What does this have to do with me?”

“It wasn’t that long ago that you and Sloane were going to be married. You didn’t keep in touch with her? She didn’t talk to you about the case she was investigating with her sister?”

He muttered a curse under his breath. “I heard enough about that damn case. It’s all she wanted to talk about when we were together. I knew about her family history when we started dating, but I had no idea it was still such a big part of her life, you know? Sometimes I wanted her to just leave it behind for a while. She wouldn’t do it.”

“Did that make you angry?”

He glared at her over the mask. “You think I had anything to do with what happened to her and her sister?” He cursed again. “I was frustrated that we couldn’t just live our own lives. I was pissed that this killer still had so much power over her and our relationship. And yes, I felt sorry for her, too. But it wasn’t a recipe for a great marriage, so I finally broke it off.”

“I think most people could understand that.” Kendra stepped back, knowing that the next words out of her mouth could royally piss him off. “But tell me… at what point did you start sleeping with her sister?”

His eyes literally bulged. “What?”

“When did you start dating Chloe? Before or after you broke up with Sloane?”

“After!” He spoke so loudly that he felt the need to repeat it again in a quieter voice. “After. No way I would’ve cheated on Sloane, especially not with her sister.”

“Then why the big secret? Nobody seems to know anything about it.”

“Sloane wouldn’t have understood. How could she? She probably never would have forgiven Chloe or me. It’s nothing we planned. It just… happened.”

“Relationships are rarely that simple.”

He nodded. “Okay, maybe it wasn’t. Chloe reached out to me after Sloane and I broke up. I think she felt guilty.”

“Guilty? Why?”

“Because of how she got Sloane so involved in their case again. They were like a couple of addicts. Nothing else in their lives mattered to either one of them. When Sloane and I split up, I think Chloe felt it was partially her fault. She called me a couple of times, and we started spending time together down at the beach. One thing led to another.”

Kendra said slowly, “You do know how bad this looks? You were involved in something of a romantic triangle in which both women are now missing. And it’s something you’ve kept hidden.”

Charlie was looking down and away from her. For an instant he appeared ashamed. “I didn’t think it mattered.”

“That’s up to the police to decide.”

“To be honest, I didn’t think anyone would find out about me and Chloe. It’s the last thing she would have wanted, and I sure as hell didn’t tell anyone. I was too embarrassed. Who told you?”

“No one. As far as I’m aware, you and she are the only ones who knew.”

He stared at her for a long moment. “Then how the hell did you find out?”

“I’ve been to Chloe’s house.”

“Yeah?”

“I saw the bottle of Gojo skin cleaner in her shower. It’s very popular among mechanics, pumice-based, and it has a distinctly orange scent. That’s what is coming off you right now. I guess you scrubbed with it here before lunch.”

“A lot of people use that. How do you know it wasn’t Chloe’s?”

“I didn’t, although I never saw any indication that she got her hands dirty enough to use a product that could scrape her skin raw. But more than that, I could smell what I presumed to be a hair product on one of her pillows. It wasn’t a product I could recognize. It wasn’t a common one, whatever it was, but you’re wearing it now. Some kind of mousse?”

His glance sidled away. “Conditioner. I buy it online. It doesn’t hold the grime from this place like a lot of the stuff out there.”

“When was the last time you saw her, Charlie?”