Gunderman put his hands on his hips with a frustrated sigh. “I’m going to get down to the truth one way or the other.”
He wasn’t ready to throw his brother to the wolves. Not when he was just inside the hospital room.
“Do you think my brother killed his girlfriend, Detective?” he asked.
“We’re looking at every possibility. At this point he’s a person of interest.”
Demarco was tempted to blurt out what he saw, and mortified that he’d even consider doing so. His own brother. Except his brother wasn’t his brother anymore. He wasn’t the boy from his childhood. The defenseless brother. He was a criminal.
“I understand the position you’re in,” Gunderman said. “He’s your twin brother. You have an instinct to protect him. But if you’re hiding something crucial to this case, you can be prosecuted right along with him.”
“Well, I wouldn’t want that to happen,” he said with a note of lightness. Inside, he thought of his wife and what prosecution would do to her.
“You have my card,” Gunderman said, then gave him a wave in farewell and started down the hall. Demarco watched him go and then intended to go back into the hospital room, but nausea took him to the bathroom before he could go in and face his brother again.
Splashing cold water on his face, he stared at himself in the mirror, eyes round and shadowed with dark circles, his face gaunt.
When Demarco was ready to leave the restroom, he went out into the hall. Standing outside Damen’s room, he didn’t go inside. His brother was someone else now and it was too late to save him.
Abandoning his own twin brother was the hardest thing he’d ever do. He felt hollow and lost. Wretched. There in the hall, he finally admitted to himself that there was no saving his brother. Damen had turned to crime. Demarco was no criminal, and he refused to be dragged into his crisis. Instead of going back into the room, where he was certain Damen was nervously waiting for him, Demarco started down the hall.
Damen would have to find his own way back to Denver. Now the only question Demarco had was, how much trouble would he be in if he turned in the murder weapon? He’d hidden evidence. Aided Damen in murder. What kind of a price would he pay for that?
Chapter 14
“How well do you know this man?” Savanna looked at Korbin as she walked beside him in snow boots, jeans and classy polka-dot jacket. He was in a black parka with the zipper undone, making him appear even bigger than he was.
“Not well. I’ve met him a few times.”
He rang the doorbell. A few seconds later, an attractive woman answered. Her eyes darted back and forth between them on the other side of the glass outer door and then fixed on Korbin.
“Korbin?” She sounded unsteady. “What are you doing here?”
“We need to talk to Demarco.”
“He isn’t here. He went to Pagosa Springs to get Damen.” She eyed him warily.
“I didn’t kill Collette,” Korbin said. “Damen set me up.”
“Like I said...he isn’t here.”