“I’m so tired,” she said, lowering herself into the nearest chair. “And I can’t lie on a good day, so forget about it now. Yes, Frank and I have a special relationship. We care deeply about each other, but I never—and I mean never—cheated on my husband.”
Hunter’s glance immediately focused on Molly, who hadn’t reacted at all during this part of the interview. Molly, who’d questioned his tactics in order to keep Sonya and her father’s relationship from him. He knew that for certain now, he thought, disappointed in her and in her basic lack of faith in him.
“I’d like your permission to look through Paul’s office,” Hunter said to Sonya. “Maybe I’ll turn up something helpful.”
She nodded. “Of course. I just want to help Frank.”
“I know you do and the best way to do that is to level with me. Always,” he stressed. “Anything I don’t know can come back to bite me. If I know the facts, even if they seem bad, I can work with them. Okay?”
Sonya nodded. “Then there’s one more thing you ought to know. I didn’t bring home pizza for Seth last night, I brought it home for Frank and I.”
“I thought Frank had a meeting.”
Sonya forced herself to meet Hunter’s gaze. “He made it up. We spent the evening together. We just wanted to unwind and have some peace without the family wondering what was going on, so once everyone was out, he dropped me off in the back parking lot of Joe’s, then he picked me up again. We spent the evening at a friend’s house who’s out of town.”
“And his mother picked up the kids from the party?” Hunter asked.
Sonya nodded. “I lied when I saw you and Molly earlier.”
Molly let out a slow exhale.
Hunter ignored her. “I appreciate you telling me,” he said to Sonya. “Now, let’s call it a day as far as questioning goes, okay?”
She nodded again. “Thank you,” she whispered. “You, too, Molly.”
Molly inclined her head. She certainly didn’t look shocked by Sonya’s confession. She’d obviously known or suspected something was going on between them all along. And she’d chosen to keep it to herself.
Damn her.
Time to wrap this up, he thought. He and Molly needed to have a few words alone. “I’m sure I’ll have more questions.”
“Just call me,” Sonya said.
“We will,” Molly replied.
Hunter glanced at the small room off the family room. “I’d like to go to Paul’s office now.”
Sonya wrapped her arms around herself, then nodded. “The police already went through it looking for the gun.”
“Which they didn’t find. When was the last time you saw your husband’s gun?”
She shrugged. “I wouldn’t know. He didn’t take it out much. He just always kept it in a locked drawer in the office. He promised to keep the bullets in a separate place for safety’s sake and I believed he’d put them someplace safe.”
“Okay, then. Thanks.” Hunter inclined his head toward Molly. “Ready?”
“Sure.”
“I’m going out for a while. Would you mind locking the door behind you?” Sonya picked up her purse.
“Of course,” Hunter said.
Sonya left the house, while Molly led Hunter into the office.
She swept her arm around the room. “So where do we start?”
Hunter made certain Sonya had shut the front door behind her before he answered Molly. “How about we start with the goddamn truth?” he bit out. “Sonya and Frank. You knew they had a relationship.”
She shook her head. “Not exactly. I didn’t suspect anything until last night.”
“What exactly happened last night?” He met her gaze, taking in her flushed cheeks and guilty expression.
“Other than the obvious?” She stepped closer, placing a hand against his cheek.
He stepped back, deliberately pushing her away. “Don’t try to change the subject. Which by the way is getting more and more interesting. You suspected something between your father and Sonya last night and instead of telling me, you had sex with me instead?”
“That is not what I did.” Molly’s eyes filled with tears and she angrily brushed them away. “I made love to you.” She met his stare without backing down.
Which, he had to admit, was a pretty amazing sight. Her damp eyes flashed with determined fire, and despite it all, that aroused him. But he wasn’t about to let her off the hook so easily.
“You claim to have made love to me? With a lie between us?” He shook his head, disgusted she’d even try to say something so outrageous.
Molly let out a sigh and shoved her hands into her front jeans pockets. “Look, last night at Joe’s, when I went to the ladies’ room, I saw Sonya from the back window. She was in the parking lot with her pizza. My father pulled up in his Jeep, picked her up and sped away.”
She pursed her lips, a sure sign she was thinking what to say next. He decided to let her figure it out on her own, with no help from him, and he waited.
“I told myself there were any number of reasons he wasn’t at the meeting, and I shrugged it off. Or tried to. And then I played the answering machine at the house and there was one from Jessie, reminding Dad to pick her and Seth up from the party. That’s when I knew, combined with what I’d seen earlier, that Sonya had lied to us and there could only be one reason.” Molly expelled a long breath of air.
“They were involved,” Hunter said.
She nodded. “At least, they had something to hide.”
“So why not tell me?” And that, Hunter thought, was the crux of it. She hadn’t trusted him enough to confide in him.
She rubbed her hands over her face and sighed. “Because I was afraid if you knew my father had lied about where he was last night, then you’d come to the conclusion he’d lie about other, more important things.”
“Like guilt or innocence?” Hunter asked.
“And if you decided he was capable of lying, you wouldn’t be willing to represent him anymore and I couldn’t risk it.” She had deliberately ignored his question, he noted. And her eyes grew wider and more imploring with every word she spoke.
“Once again you didn’t trust me enough to believe I was in this for the long haul.” He shook his head in frustration and walked across the room to look out the window to the front lawn beyond.