Free Silenced By Syrah by Michele Scott

there’s anything he can do for me right now, and you’ve been really great. You don’t mind if I stay here, do you?”
    “Stay. Please. You can have my room. I just wanted to look something up about Georges’ ex-wife.”
    “I can already tell you, she’s a real winner.” The sarcasm in Janie’s voice was evident. “I can sleep on the couch. It’s no biggie.”
    “No. Hang on and I’ll be right out. I want to ask you about Bernadette Debussey and why you think she might frame you for Georges’ murder.”
    “That’s gonna take awhile.”
    “I figured. You up to it?”
    “Yeah. I need someone to talk to, and like I said, there was no way I was gonna tell that cop today. He kind of scared me.”
    “Detective Robinson?”
    “Yeah. The dude with the green eyes. He’s really intimidating.”
    “Don’t let him get to you. It’s his job.” But Nikki knew that she’d let Jonah Robinson get under her skin, too, and she could certainly see how he could do it to Janie. The girl was smart but definitely lacked sophistication. Knowing how cops worked, she figured that Robinson had probably played upon and preyed on Janie’s weaknesses of vulnerability and naiveté, the kind that youth carries with it. This thought made her angry. Jerk. How dare he frighten Janie so much that she felt she couldn’t be honest with him. But Nikki hadn’t been entirely open either. Her reasoning was different, and it wasn’t a lack of honesty. She simply hadn’t been completely forthright, and if she’d had any doubts earlier in the day about the way she’d responded to Robinson, she didn’t anymore. Janie needed help and she’d come to Nikki for it, plus she’d made Nikki promise to keep her secrets under lock and key. Aunt Cara had always taught her that a promise broken harms the integrity of all involved.
    Nikki looked Bernadette Debussey up on Google and immediately several links popped up. She opened the first one and read a story from the San Francisco Chronicle dated April 19 of the previous year. Nikki found several more articles from the Chronicle dated through August. There weren’t any more articles to find after August 27—the date when Bernadette Debussey was sentenced to spend the next two decades in prison.

Chapter 7
    The following morning Nikki poured Janie a cup of coffee and then one for herself. She brought over a couple of bowls of oatmeal and a side of bacon, her fat allotment for the day.
    “You’re really nice to do this and let me stay here. When Trevor comes tomorrow we’ll go back to the hotel. I was afraid to stay there last night because, you know, I mean, what if someone knows I’m Georges’ daughter and they come after me, too?” Janie said.
    Nikki hadn’t thought about that but could see why Janie might. But foremost on Nikki’s mind was the question that had plagued her all night after reading through the articles on Bernadette. She didn’t have a lot of time to get the story straight in her head before heading out to see how Simon and Marco were doing, and Derek, too. She knew they’d all have to pull together to do damage control and manage the guests at the hotel until the police gave the okay for them all to go. There were a few people Nikki wanted to track down today. Baron O’Grady was for sure on her list because he had been Georges’ partner and friend. Maybe he would have an idea about who might have wanted to kill Georges. She also wanted to speak to Charlotte, Georges’ spa therapist yesterday, who had conveniently left before Nikki had found Georges dead in the water.
    “I learned a lot about Bernadette last night.” Nikki sat down and picked up a piece of bacon. Before taking a bite she pulled the fat off, which didn’t leave a whole lot of the meat. “You helped put her in jail? You didn’t tell me that she was in jail.”
    Janie poured almost half a carton of cream into her coffee and spooned in several sugars. “Yeah. She deserved it.”
    “From what I