TOTAL ECLIPSE: The Evolution (Sin City Heat Series Book 7) (38 page)

Her heart heavy, Jerra sat in the car watching Darrell as he talked to Gabby and Lorenzo. She pressed her lips together to stop them from trembling as she thought about how her sister-in-law had to be feeling right now.

With a sad smile, Jerra remembered the conversation she’d had with Gabby over the phone two days ago. As was everyone else, she was so happy that Jerra and Darrell were officially back together. Gabby had held on to the hope that maybe one day Darrell would be able to forgive Tina–again–so that they could start over. She didn’t make any excuses for Tina, but she wanted her mother and her brother to talk and get over this latest conflict. Jerra had told her she would talk to Darrell, but they needed to give it a little time. She’d told Tina the same thing when she’d last talked to her, but unfortunately…time was one thing they didn’t have anymore.

Jerra felt the tears well up in her eyes again. It was so hard to believe she was gone. She and Tina had become friends while Tina recuperated at the house. Jerra had no idea whether or not Darrell would’ve eventually forgiven Tina. Hopefully, he would have.

Wiping away the tears that rolled down her cheeks, Jerra’s eyes went back to Darrell. Her nails dug into the soft skin of her palm when she saw him crouching down with his head bowed. She knew how difficult it was for him to tell Gabby that Tina was dead. Jerra resisted the urge to get out of the car and go to him; she was trying not to hover. It was hard, but she had to give him the space he needed to deal with this in his own way. The best thing she could do was to be there for him however he needed.

Jerra’s hand curled up into a tight fist in her lap as she redirected her focus on the upcoming interrogation, because no matter what spin the detectives tried to put on it, that’s exactly what it would be. She’d seen the glimmer of suspicion in their eyes. It was the same look she’d observed police leveling towards clients she’d represented in the past. For some reason, they believed Darrell was involved in Tina’s death. Their suspicion had only intensified when they realized Darrell was a Pattel.

Under normal circumstances, her husband would have no problem handling himself with the authorities, but these were not normal circumstances. He was vulnerable and understandably distracted. That’s what the police were counting on. Facts were elusive. Cleverly evasive. It was so easy to take perfectly innocent statements and turn them around to incriminate someone in a crime.

Jerra had no intention of letting that happen to Darrell. He had kept her safe and protected her for as long as she’d known him. Now it was her turn to do the same for him. 

CHAPTER 45

Once he’d gotten back into the car, Darrell had been quiet, almost distant. After several attempts at asking questions about the phone call and getting terse one-word answers, Jerra decided to let him be.

As soon as they walked into the police station and told the sergeant at the desk who they were there to see, Darrell and Jerra were immediately taken back to Detectives Lowe and Thomas. Although Jerra knew it went without saying, she had cautioned Darrell before they got there to answer the detectives’ questions, but listen to her if she cut in and stopped him for any reason.

Detective Lowe glanced at his watch and frowned when he looked up and saw them standing a few feet away. Jerra had to concentrate extremely hard to stop herself from giving him the finger. Instead, she satisfied herself with leveling him with a defiant glare. She wished he
would
say something about the amount of time it had taken them to get there. She just wished he would.

“Mr. Monroe, if you and your wife will come this way.” He gestured for them to follow him to one of the interrogation rooms and nodded to two chairs at the table once they got there. “Have a seat, please.”

Detective Thomas followed behind and placed the
‘Room In Use
’ sign on the outside of the door before closing it. He sat beside his partner, which was on the opposite side of the table from Jerra and Darrell.

“First of all, we appreciate you coming by to talk to us,” Detective Lowe started off. “As we said, we realize how difficult this is so we’ll try to be as brief as possible.”

Darrell nodded once in acknowledgement.

“Mr. Monroe, when is the last time you saw your mother alive?”

“About two and a half months ago at her hotel.”

“Do you have any idea who would want to hurt your mother?”

Darrell’s lashes dropped down to hide the uncertainty in his eyes as Tina’s words suddenly came back to haunt him.

You need to realize the kind of people the Pattels are. They’re dangerous…

“Excuse me, Mr. Monroe?”

Darrell looked up at the detective. “I’m sorry, what?”

I can imagine the side they chose to show you when you went to New York, but believe me, Isaac and Joseph are far uglier than they seem.

After the detective asked the question a second time, Darrell cleared his throat then answered. “No. I don’t know of anyone who would want to hurt her.”

“What did you talk about when you saw her?”

Darrell stared over the detective’s shoulder at an invisible spot on the wall, as his mind went back to the fight he and Tina had. “We…she and I were not on the best of terms. We argued, I left.”

“Okay. Let’s backtrack a little. Before you saw her at the hotel, when was the last time you spoke to her before that?”

Darrell remembered the call he’d made to her after he’d met with Isaac. “I don’t know, almost five months ago.”

“And how did that conversation go?”

He hesitated, but said, “Not well.”

“Why is that?”

Darrell’s jaw jumped as he clenched his teeth. “I found out she was untruthful about some things she told me.”

“How did you find out she was untruthful?”

“From my…father.”

“And who is your father?”

Darrell’s eyes burned with irritation. Lowe knew the answer to that question.

When he remained silent, Lowe gave him a verbal nudge. “Mr. Monroe? For the record, please state your father’s name.”

Eyes narrowing dangerously, Darrell asked, “Why?”

Jerra called his name softly. “Darrell.”

Sighing harshly, Darrell gave Lowe the confirmation he was obviously waiting on. “His name is Isaac Pattel.”

Darrell saw the silent message that passed between the detectives before Lowe asked, “And he resides where?”

“Man, come on,” Darrell snapped impatiently. He wasn’t in the mood for these weak ass mind fucks. “You know good and damn well where he–”

“Darrell!” Jerra cut in sharply. She leaned in close and whispered furiously in his ear. “This is exactly what they want you to do. They’re deliberately trying to goad you and provoke a reaction. Calm down.”

Darrell had been staring at them while listening to Jerra. Nostrils flaring he answered the question. “As far as I know, he lives in New York. I’d just found out his identity before I flew there to meet him. I think I maybe spent an hour in the man’s presence, so anything you want to know about him specifically, sorry, I can’t help you.”

“What did he tell you about your mother that set you off?”

Darrell looked at Jerra. When she nodded for him to answer, he gave a quick run through of what went down in New York.

Detective Thomas had been silent the entire time, but when Darrell finished, he commented as if they were four people sitting there shooting the breeze. “Wow. That must have really pissed you off.”

“Was that a question, Detective?” Jerra asked.

Thomas glanced at Jerra and smirked. “I’m sorry, let me rephrase that, Counselor. Were you angry when you called your mother from New York?”

Darrell blew out a breath and massaged his temple. “At first I was, yes. But I said what I had to say, told her I didn’t want her in my life or my family’s lives any longer and that was that.”

“Well, you certainly have your wish now, don’t you?”

“Detective!” Jerra’s eyes shot fire. “That is quite enough.”

Darrell’s face was stiff with anger. “Let me tell you something. Tina and I had our problems, yes, but I never wanted anything like this to…” He glanced away and shook his head.

“Let’s fast forward to the last day you saw her alive. Around what time was that?”

“I don’t know, around four, four thirty, I guess. My wife called and told me Tina had visited my son after I asked her not to. I left the office right after that and went to her hotel.”

“To say that you were angry then as well would be an accurate statement, correct?”

Darrell shrugged. “I guess, but–”

“You said you argued.”

Darrell paused. “Yes.”

Detective Thomas nodded slowly and opened a file on the table in front of him. Glancing down at it, he commented in a casual tone, “You seem to have quite the temper, Mr. Monroe…especially when it comes to your mother. Is it true you threatened Ms. Gibson before leaving her hotel room that day?”

Darrell frowned, ready to unequivocally deny that he had done any such thing, but with a flash of clarity, he realized what Thomas was referring to. His eyes went to the file. Darrell snorted and knocked his knuckles rhythmically against the table a few times. Somehow they knew about his argument with Tina, but were trying to see if he’d come clean and tell the truth.

Sitting sprawled back in the chair, he sneered at the two men in front of him. “You boys been busy, I see.”

Jerra frowned at him quizzically before looking back at Detective Thomas, this time with extreme caution.

“Answer the question, Mr. Monroe.”

“You seem to know so much…” Darrell drawled, gesturing towards the file. “You tell me.”

“Okay, fine. We lucked out and spoke to one of the maids who happened to be passing by your mother’s room that day at the exact moment you and she got into a verbal confrontation. The door to the hotel room was slightly ajar. The maid says she heard you tell your mother that you would, quote/unquote, ‘bring her world tumbling down around her so fast she wouldn’t realize what happened’. And that it wasn’t the first time you’d ‘wreaked havoc on someone who had pushed you to your limit’. Does that ring a bell, Mr. Monroe?”

“Wait a minute.” Jerra held up her hand to stop him. “You expect me to believe you just happened to come across a member of the hotel staff who somehow remembers a two month old conversation with one of the hundreds of hotel guests I’m sure she comes in contact with?”

“Actually, that’s exactly what happened. She came to the manager after she found out which guest had been murdered. The employee remembers Ms. Gibson because, for one thing, she was a beautiful woman and very hard to forget. It seems when Ms. Gibson saw the maid in the hallway after Mr. Monroe left, she asked her to bring clean towels to the room. Ms. Gibson was in a talkative mood,” he shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe she needed to vent, but she told the woman about the disrespectful son who’d just spoken so horribly to her.”  Detective Lowe looked at Darrell. “Her words, not mine. In any case, do you deny saying that to your mother, Mr. Monroe?”

Darrell folded his arms and just stared back at him with cool eyes.

Jerra knew that look. He’d had enough and was refusing to participate in the cat and mouse game they were so obviously playing. If she didn’t get them out of there now, things would quickly go from bad to worse.

“Alright, we’re done,” she said, standing and heading towards the door. “Darrell, let’s go.”

But Thomas ignored her and remained focused on Darrell. “If you have nothing to hide why not answer the question, Mr. Monroe? Either yes or no. Is that what you told your mother? And if so, exactly what did you mean by you’d ‘wreaked hell on someone who had pushed you to your limit’? I have a feeling that’s something we may need to look into.”

Darrell hunched his shoulders in apparent unconcern. “Do what you think you need to do.”

Jerra immediately thought about her stepfather’s death and the untimely demise of the men who had shot Roni. The last thing they needed was for the detectives to start digging around in Darrell’s past.

“I said that’s enough,” Jerra snapped sharply. “Darrell…”

Darrell stared at Thomas unflinchingly. Several beats passed before he stood and followed Jerra to the door.

“One more thing, Mr. Monroe.”

Clearly out of patience, Darrell swung around and took a couple of steps towards the detectives before Jerra grabbed his arm. “Yeah? What’s that?”

“Darrell, not another word.” Jerra’s voice sounded tense to her own ears.

“Where were you two days ago between the hours of 7 p.m. and 2 a.m.?”

“I was at home,” Darrell replied in a tightly restrained voice.

“Were you alone?”

“He was with me, Detective,” Jerra interjected.

“He was with you.” Lowe scoffed, sitting back in the chair and looking at Jerra with skepticism. “
You’re
his alibi. Very convenient.”

Darrell leaned forward, his eyes never leaving the other man’s. “I don’t need an alibi. I didn’t kill my mother,” he said in a low voice. “Instead of trying to railroad me for something I didn’t do, shouldn’t your focus be on finding out who did kill her?”

Jerra tugged at Darrell’s arm until he reluctantly stepped back. However, the angry scowl stayed on his face.

Jerra turned to calmly meet Lowe’s suspicious glare. “I don’t see what’s so ‘convenient’ about it. I
do
live there, Detective. And yes, I got home around six o’clock. We were
both
home all night. And since you seem to have developed early tunnel vision in regards to my husband, let me give you another piece of information that might provide some insight into who may have a motive to harm Tina. At the moment, I’m working on a very high profile case. A man was arrested almost a month ago for issuing a threat against me because I’m representing the accused murderer. Now, we both know that sometimes these threats can extend even further to a person’s family. Hopefully, that’s not the case here but it
is
a possibility.”

Jerra felt Darrell’s eyes on her but kept her attention on the detectives. If someone murdered Tina as a way to get at her, she didn’t know how she would live with that, but now was not the time to dwell on it. For some reason these bastards were out to get Darrell. He was their main focus. All of her attention was required to carefully navigate through the detectives’ motives and keep him off their radar.

Squaring her shoulders, she lifted her chin and directed an icy glare at them. “As my husband had already stated, you need to stop throwing these veiled accusations towards him and do your job, which is looking elsewhere and finding out who really killed my mother-in-law.”

Detective Lowe pressed his lips so tightly together they almost disappeared in his ruddy face. “Of course we’ll check into the person who issued the threats against you, Mrs. Monroe, see if there is anything that links him to Ms. Gibson. But for the record, we know how to do our jobs, ma’am. A thorough investigation will be done. You don’t have to worry about that.” Lips curled into a nasty sneer, his bushy eyebrows bunched together as he turned his sour glare back to Darrell. “We’re finished…for now. It might be a good idea if you didn’t plan any sudden trips for the time being, Mr. Monroe.”

“Oh yeah? Thanks, I’ll take that under advisement.” Darrell’s tone was deliberately sarcastic. He gave them an exaggerated wink before slamming out the room.