With a dazed shake of his head and one last look of sadness, he turned and headed for the door.
CSU technicians were already coming into the house as Ben was lumbering out. One of them shot me a concerned look, glanced over his shoulder at Ben’s back as he disappeared down the front steps, and then returned his gaze to me.
“Are you okay, sir?” he asked.
“No,” I snipped.
He reached his hand toward me and started to ask, “Do you need…”
“No!” I cut him off, my tone still livid. “Just leave me alone!”
He shook his head and muttered a sarcastic “Excuse me” as he took a step back then turned away and joined up with the other techs as they began fanning out through my home.
I didn’t bother to drag myself up from the floor until I heard Ben’s vehicle back out of the driveway then speed away, taking my entire reason for living with it.
CHAPTER 5:
“This isn’t good,” Jackie’s voice hummed from the earpiece of the phone.
Our attorney had patiently listened to me as I relayed to her the story of Felicity’s arrest, interrupting me only when necessary to ask for clarification on particular facts. Then, following a proverbial pregnant pause at the end of my diatribe, those three words were all she said. Unfortunately, they were far from what I wanted to hear.
Jackie had a habit of thinking out loud, and I’m certain that the comment was nothing more than her rhetorically voicing her thoughts. However, I was still at least five notches beyond pissed off, not to mention the fact that a handful of crime scene technicians were turning my house into a disaster area all around me as I stood there. Therefore, I was really in no mood for listening to someone tell me something I already knew. Especially when it wasn’t helping to fix the problem.
“No fucking shit,” I spat into the handset. “Are you billing me for that? Because I already had it figured out on my own.”