Free Settling Ashes: A New Adult/College Romance (The Ashes Series Book 2) by Diana Gardin

with this. I was a hindrance to this investigation by being away from him for the past month. I would be one no longer.
    “It was you, wasn’t it?” Dechlan said, not unkindly. “You were in Hannah’s house that night, too.”
    I nodded, and Clay groaned inwardly. “Yes. I was.”
    I explained the night of Hannah’s scheme to the room. Dechlan took notes on an iPad, and Christopher and Maria’s eyes grew larger and larger with every word I said.
    “I didn’t kill her,” I said quickly when the story was finished. “The way I felt about her that night, though, I could have.”
    “No you couldn’t,” Clay reassured me, scooting his chair closer to mine so he could wrap a comforting arm around my shoulders. “You could never hurt anyone. You were there that night because she wanted to hurt you . So don’t say that, Paige. You would have never hurt her. That’s why I didn’t even want you to be a part of this.”
    “Let’s see,” Christopher said thoughtfully. “It could have been Paige’s hair they found in the house. But it may not have been. I mean, Hannah was a young girl, and she had many young girlfriends. It could have been any number of theirs.”
    He ran his hand over his hair as he thought, a gesture very familiar to me because it was the same one his son used when he was thoughtful or frustrated.
    “I have another idea, ”Dechlan said.
    Everyone’s eyes jetted to his face, and he relished the attention, pausing for effect before he spoke.
    “My investigator found something,” he announced.
    “What?” Maria said, her voice rising just a bit from the cool level of calm she had been exhibiting thus far.
    “Well,” Dechlan said. “Apparently, the police department and the Prosecutor’s office really feel like they have this case in the bag. Which is silly, because you’re a politician’s son.”
    “What’d the investigator find?” Clay asked, leaning over the table and squeezing one of my hands in his.
    “A witness,” he said calmly. “A student was walking by that night. She saw an unconscious girl being dragged from the house by an unidentified female. It was quite the spectacle, because the woman was having quite the time getting the girl from the house to the car waiting in the front yard. But it was done, the girl was placed in the backseat, and the woman drove away.”
    “Holy shit,” Clay breathed. “Unconscious? So that doesn’t prove whether or not Hannah was alive when she left the house?”
    “Not exactly,” Dechlan said slowly. “But we don’t need to prove that. The police already know that Hannah was killed where her body was found, not at her house. There was no blood at her house.”
    “That’s true,” Clay said. “But still, this is good news, right?”
    “Why haven’t you shared it with the police?” Christopher asked. “Hell, why hasn’t the witness shared this with the police?”
    “We only found this witness today,” Dechlan said. “It’s one student, and he was most likely drunk that night. So he won’t be very credible. He isn’t very willing to become involved with this investigation in any form. He isn’t overjoyed that we found him at all, actually. Becoming a witness in a murder investigation, combined with letting the police know you were drunk and underage…not a pretty picture Also, we don’t exactly want the police to know what we’re working with. Especially now that I’ve met Paige.” He smiled wryly at me.
    “What does Paige have to do with it?” Clay asked, suspicion clouding his features.
    “Unidentified woman? Isn’t Paige an unidentified woman? Especially since we have now confirmed she was there that night?”
    “Damn,” Clay said. He stood abruptly. “You have to keep this to yourself, Dechlan.”
    Dechlan held out his hands to Clay, entreating him to take his seat again. Clay did, but his back was ramrod straight and he aimed a gaze as steely as his mother’s at his attorney.
    “If they bring Paige in