The Porn Identity

Chapter 19

       By the next morning Manny still hadn't called. Not that I cared...anyway...

       Since I was certain that David was the murderer, or at least involved somehow, I called Ashley in for a consultation. She walked into my office, promptly at one pm and sat down in the chair in my office as gently as a bird. Neither of us mentioned the breakdown she'd had at Noah's funeral, but she didn't know I saw that, and I don't blame her for trying to bury it. Shit was mad embarrassing.

       She looked much better today anyway. She'd pulled her black hair back into a loose ponytail that was sleek and shiny, and she'd managed to iron the wrinkles from her shirt—a good sign for her mental state.

       Too bad I was about to wreck it again.

        "I'm building quite the case for you." I said as I sat down into my seat.

       She tucked her legs under herself like a proper lady. "That's good. Do you know who did it yet?"

       I watched for her reaction like a hawk stalking a rat. "I'm thinking it's David Howell. Ever heard of him?"

       She blinked hard. "Uh, no."

       "Well, he's this businessman. Long story short, Noah was blackmailing him with some text logs or whatever that suggested he was cheating on his wife with him."

       "Oh, that's terrible." She said, not surprised in the least.

       "The funny thing is, when I spoke with David, he said Noah said he never sent the photos." I chuckled heartily. "Isn't that funny?"

       She winched. "Totally."

       "And you know what's even funnier. That kind of makes sense!" I rubbed at my jaw all theatric-like. Octavia Spencer, eat your heart out. "Because why on Earth would Noah agree to meet with a man whose life he just ruined? He was practically asking to get shot."

       "I suppose..."

       "So, then I started thinking about who else had access to Noah's laptop. Bizarre, right?"

       She looked away. "Right."

       I stared at her, my gaze hard enough to pierce iron. "Why'd you do it?"

       Her eyes snapped shut against the truth. She shook her head as if to erase the memories. "It wasn't what I thought...."

       "And what did you think?"

       She stared at me, her eyes heavy with sorrow. "I thought he was..."

       "Cheating on you with a married millionaire... Who's also a man?"

       "...Yeah."

       I sighed. "So, you sent his wife the evidence—for what exactly?"

       "I thought she would make him dump Noah."

       Well, that about made me laugh, but I held strong and focused. "Okay, so instead of confronting Noah you tried to force David to dump him. And you would have been cool continuing to date a man who you thought was having an affair like nothing ever happened?"

       "I wasn't thinking straight."

       "Clearly," I said with a scoff. "And by the way, the wife didn't force David to dump your boyfriend, she cut out the middleman and dumped her husband instead." No games. No schemes. All guts.