Page 44 of The Arrangement

She slammed the door, and I stared at the crack in my bumper. What the hell just happened? I realized then that Gina likely hadn’t been joking about Mallory adding Nair to her shampoo. I shook my head, forcing the thought away. A cracked bumper was the least of my worries, but I would fix that, too.

From here on out, I was going to fix things. I wasn’t leaving it all up to Ainsley anymore. I was going to do things my way for a while. Whether she liked it or not.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

AINSLEY

As I’d expected they would, the police pulled into our driveway that evening while Peter was out. I’d hoped Illiana would’ve kept her mouth shut, but I knew that wasn’t likely to be the case.

The officer that stepped from the vehicle was around six foot tall, and wide, but made purely of muscle. His strong jaw and tough expression could be seen from where I stood at the door. His partner was short and thin, with red hair and freckles spattering his pale skin. It was hard not to notice the juxtaposition of the pair.

I opened the door before they reached me. “Hello. Can I help you, Officers?”

“Are you Ainsley Greenburg?” the short one asked.

“I am.”

“I’m Officer Chad, and this is Officer Andrews,” he said, gesturing toward his large and in charge, but oddly silent, partner. “We’d like to speak with you about Stefan De Luca.”

“Of course, come inside.” I held the door open wider, letting them past me. “Can I get you anything to drink?”

“That won’t be necessary,” Officer Andrews said, startling me with his booming voice. It matched his frame perfectly. “Let’s take a seat.”

I gestured toward the couch, and they sank down before I took my place across from them. “Illiana said they found his truck. Does that mean they found him? Is he okay?”

They exchanged a glance, and Officer Chad answered, “No, ma’am. We were able to locate his truck and they’ve begun to do DNA analysis, but there are no signs of Officer De Luca yet. Can you tell us what your relationship to Officer De Luca is?”

“Officer,” I whispered the word, staring into space as it hit me, “that’s right. He’s a police officer, isn’t he? I keep forgetting. Do you guys know him?”

Again, they exchanged a look, and Officer Andrews said, “We do, ma’am. We’ve worked with him for quite a while.”

“And your relationship with him is…” Officer Chad went on, clicking his pen.

“Sorry, I, um, I don’t really know him. We met on an app, Dater, and we went on a date last Tuesday. We’d messaged each other a few times, and I’m sure Illiana told you he came over on Friday night. But I never let him inside my house. We didn’t talk, and he left a short while later. I haven’t heard from him since.”

“Why didn’t you let him inside?”

“I, er,” I rubbed a finger across my forehead, “I don’t want to speak ill of your friend.”

“Anything you can tell us at this point would be helpful to our investigation. We all want the same thing here.”

“Well, to be honest, his messages had gotten a little…obsessive. I’m having problems with my marriage and I made a mistake, but I didn’t want a relationship with him. It was just…like I said, it was a mistake. But Stefan didn’t seem to understand that. At first I thought he was being nice, but then after he didn’t stop messaging me when I was ignoring him, I started worrying about what he might do. I had no idea he was a cop, so when he learned my real name, I panicked. And then he showed up at my house… I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t feel safe letting him in. I wanted him to leave me alone.”

“Did you tell him that?”

“I ignored him. I felt awful for leading him on.”

“Is there anyone who can corroborate your story about that night?” Andrews asked.

“Besides Stefan?” I asked, furrowing my brows. “I don’t think so. I called my husband to come home—he’d been working late—but by the time he got here, Stefan had gone. I hadn’t heard from him since, so I assumed he’d given up. Then I saw the news.”

“Is it possible your husband went after him after he left? Maybe he was angry that Officer De Luca had scared you?”

“No, no. Definitely not. Peter didn’t leave my side that night after I called him to come home. I was too freaked out. And he had no idea what Stefan looked like or what he drove. He wouldn’t have known how to find him or have had any reason to want to.”

“I’m assuming he was angry about your affair, though?”

“No, he wasn’t. We’d agreed to take some space, see other people, clear our heads. He wasn’t mad about Stefan.”