“Suspect? Isabella is the lead suspect. Why isn’t anyone listening to me?”
“Is it true that Miss Monroe threatened to kill James during her speech at your reception?”
“What? No.”
“And I quote, ‘I will literally kill you if you hurt her. So stop doing it. I’m serious this time.’ ” The detective stared at me.
“She was joking.” I thought about what Melissa had said during the rehearsal dinner. How I should be enjoying it while I could because it could disappear in an instant. I knew she didn’t do it. But she had been saying weird stuff. What if Tyler had been in on it? What if he had told Melissa? What if she had known this was about to happen? No. They were just twisting my thoughts.
“Given the circumstances, we have to take her threat seriously.”
“And what about Isabella? Why don’t you take my concerns seriously given the circumstances?”
“We talked to Isabella this morning,” Officer Daugherty said. “She’s on vacation in Maine. She wasn’t even in the state this weekend.”
“And the only person who verified that was the person she’s currently having sex with? Check your sources.”
“Mrs. Hunter…”
“Don’t you dare. Don’t you dare show me the respect you should have when we came to you with this problem in the first place. My husband is dying in the next room because of you. And your incompetence.”
“You gave us a dead end. We’re trying to determine who was actually behind the threats and the shooting, but you keep putting up road blocks.”
“Just because Isabella wasn’t here doesn’t mean she didn’t hire someone else to do it. Of course I don’t think she was actually behind the gun.”
“We’re still trying to get a hold of Tyler Stevens. And we already have Melissa Monroe in custody. The investigation is going well. Go be with your husband. We’ll continue our discussion with the victim’s father.”
Fuck you. “Officer Daugherty, Tyler didn’t do this. And neither did Melissa. If you don’t investigate Isabella further and it turns out to be her, which it definitely is, I will… sue you.”
Officer Daugherty laughed. He was staring at me like I was insane.
No, I didn’t know if I could sue the police. I didn’t know if that was even possible. But how dare he laugh at me. At my grief. At my pain. I would end him and the stupid detective next to him that was trying to hold back a laugh too. My hand was already in a fist. I tightened it even more and was about to pull my hand back when James’ father grabbed my arm.
“Penny, go be with James. Let me take care of this while you go take care of my boy. He needs you.”
But I’m not strong enough. I tried to take a deep breath. “She’ll never stop.” I handed Officer Daugherty the manila envelope. I had never felt so defeated. She’s never going to stop.
Friday
“Wake up, James.” Tears rolled down my cheeks. “Please. Please, I need you.” I gripped his hand a little tighter. It killed me that his fingers didn’t intertwine with mine. I dropped his hand and put my face in mine. My hope was fading. I was drowning. Darkness was encroaching and I had nothing left to fight it off. Nothing.
Saturday
A knock on the door made me look up. Everyone had just been coming and going. No one ever knocked.
Porter slowly put his head in. “Can I come in?”
I nodded.
He closed the door behind him and walked over to the opposite side of the bed that I was on. His eyes locked on the monitor that was showing James’ pulse.
There had been no change. The doctor said that each day that passed, the likelihood of him waking up again went down. It had been a week. I didn’t know what that meant for the likelihood now. A fifty percent chance was bad enough. And I didn’t have the courage to ask. I tightened my grip on James’ hand. Wake up. You have to wake up.
“Cole.”
I looked up at Porter. “What?”
“My first name is Cole.” He gave me a weak smile.
“Cole Porter? Like the composer?”
“Yeah.” He laughed and sat down across from me. “And Briggs’ first name is Paul. Like the Australian boxer.”
I laughed. It sounded weird. I realized I hadn’t laughed since my wedding night. I closed my eyes.
“We really just go by our last names because we both have embarrassing full names.”
I shook my head. I was pretty sure that wasn’t true. But I could tell he was trying to cheer me up. The only problem was that it wasn’t working. Nothing could cheer me up except James opening his eyes. “Thanks for telling me.”
“James and I met in A. A. He knows those things about me. You should know them too.” He gave me another small smile.
“This isn’t your fault, you know.” Maybe he had just come in to tell me his first name and to help me preoccupy my mind with anything but worry. But it seemed like he needed to hear that the blame wasn’t on him. Because it wasn’t. It was on me. It was all my fault. I bit my lip so I wouldn’t start crying in front of him.
“It is, ma’am.”
And just like that, he was back to being formal. “It’s not. And please call me Penny.”
He nodded. “All right, Penny. I just needed you to know that I was sorry. I thought… well, I didn’t think. That was the problem. We had the perimeter checks and guest list…”
“You couldn’t have known.”
“It’s my job to know.”
I didn’t know what to say to that. We all felt guilty about what had happened. It helped me to know that I wasn’t the only one.
“He’ll want me to hand in my letter of resignation once he gets out of this. And he will get out of it. But I’m not leaving until then. I won’t let anyone into this room that doesn’t have permission. I won’t let anything happen to you. That was always Mr. Hunter’s first priority. You should know that.”
I did know that. But hearing it made my chest hurt. Because it felt like he was lying in that bed because of me. “You don’t have to resign. I want you to stay.”