Tangled Web: A Small Town Romance (The Cortell Brothers Book 6) by Giulia Lagomarsino (an ebook reader txt) 📕

trouble. He sat down across from me and sighed, reaching out to grab my hand.

“How are you?”

“Fine, you know, other than being locked in a cell and going crazy wondering what’s happening.”

“Well, I can answer that for you. It seems that the evidence came out of Newton County, Indiana.”

I frowned, shaking my head slightly. “No, that can’t be possible. That’s where I live. Who would think I was a murderer, or even investigate me?”

He leaned forward and pushed a document in front of me. “I did some digging. Barty took a trip out there when you first moved to town.”

“Of course, he did.”

“He met with a private investigator.” He pulled out some photos from street cameras, ones that caught the inside of the diner where Barty sat, and right across from him was none other than Andrew. I gasped, covering my mouth with my hand.

“The investigator is Andrew—“

“Cortell,” I finished, closing my eyes in disbelief. “Oh my gosh.”

“What? What’s wrong?”

I opened my eyes and stared at Callum. “I was sleeping with him. I had no idea.”

I ducked my head in my hands, groaning at my own idiocy.

“Lorelei, what did you tell him?” he asked urgently.

I shook my head. “Nothing. I didn’t tell him a thing.”

“You’re sure? Think back, anything that might have made him suspect that you could have killed Arlen.”

Disappointed tears filled my eyes as I thought back over our weeks together. I thought that we had something special. I had opened up to him more than anyone since Matthew. How could he do that to me? How could he deceive me like that?

But a bigger part of me knew that he wasn’t solely to blame here. I hadn’t been honest with him either. I thought back to that night when I told him that secrets required trust. It felt like he had wanted to tell me something then. Was it that he was investigating me? And if he had wanted to tell me, then he must have believed that I was innocent, so what changed his mind?

“Lorelei, I need to know,” Callum cut into my thoughts. “Did you say anything to him?”

“I told him about my dad…about the night Matthew saved me.”

He narrowed his eyes at me. “About the night your dad disappeared.”

I nodded. “I told him that I had heard from him again, so I don’t think that would make him think anything.”

“Okay, anything else?”

I thought hard, trying to remember everything that had been said. “He knows my mom died at home and that we couldn’t afford an autopsy. And I’m sure if he was investigating me, then he knows about Murray.”

He nodded. “I would assume so.”

“He knows my dad is out of the picture, but he might have looked into Matthew after I told him what happened with my dad.”

He swore, leaning back in his chair. “Why the hell would you tell him that?”

“I had a freakout, okay! It just happened.”

“I fucking told you not to get close to anyone,” he hissed.

“How the hell was I supposed to know he was investigating me?” I shot back.

“You wouldn’t, that’s why I told you not to date anyone. Besides, do you know what they’ll do to you in court? They’re going to rip you apart after he gets called as a witness. The grieving widow that moved on just months after her husband died. You’ll lose all credibility just like that,” he said, snapping his fingers.

I sighed, leaning forward on the table. “Look, it’s over and done with. We need to figure out what to do now.”

“And I need to know what the hell I’m looking for. Did you kill him or not?”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Of course I didn’t. We had a plan in place. It would have been stupid to kill him, and the fact that you keep asking me makes me really question what you think of me.”

He dropped his head back and stared up at the ceiling, taking in calming breaths. “Look, I’m sorry, alright? This is just a really big hit to our plan.”

“Don’t you think I know that?”

“Okay, logically speaking, they’ve arrested you, but their case is thin. All they have to go on is a witness saying he heard you say you killed three people and—”

I frowned and then all the blood drained from my face. “Oh God. That’s why he ran.”

“What are you talking about?”

“That night you called, he was with me. I said that I had killed three people and he must have overheard. He was acting all weird afterwards. I thought he was just freaking out about our relationship, but he must have heard me say that and then he ran.” I looked up at Callum, worried that I was about to go down for a murder I didn’t commit. “What do we do?”

“A confession from him isn’t enough. There has to be corroborating evidence, and unfortunately, they have it.”

“They what?”

“Barty allowed the body to be exhumed. The tests came back positive for poison.”

My jaw dropped in shock, but the more I thought about it, the more everything clicked into place. “It had to be Barty.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“Look at who’s been pushing for the stall of the trust. Barty doesn’t want me to have a penny. Without that trust, all he has is his position at the company. With the trust, he would at least be named CEO and would have the power of the board of directors backing him. He hates me, Callum, and he hated his father. I wouldn’t put it past him to do something like this just so he could gain a little power.”

He nodded in agreement. “Alright, I’ll see what I can find out, but they’ve already exhumed the body and found poison in Arlen’s system. Now, they can’t tie it to you, but that confession is going to hurt you. But they won’t hear that until the trial. In the meantime, I’ll try and get you out on bail.”

“What are my chances?”

“Based on the evidence? I would say