Shadow Of Suspicion (Margot Harris 3)

“You do know he won’t call me because of you. I don’t get why you did that. Especially after I specifically asked you not to.”

Margot looked at her sister's face. It’d been long enough the black eye he gave her was healed up. She was back to looking like a younger version of Margot with darker eyes and darker hair like their mom. Margot had her father's lighter complexion and was five years older but otherwise they looked like twins.

“Do you just want me to be alone?” Melanie said, “Are you going to chase off every guy that likes me?”

“Only the ones that punch you in the face,” Margot told her.

“I told you that was a misunderstanding. You assume every guy is like dad and that’s not true.”

“You can do better than Randy.”

“Oh, like you? You still seeing the dirty cop, the one they say is a murderer? The one who got you kicked out of the police department?”

“He didn’t get me kicked out. I quit.”

“Because of him.”

Margot shrugged, Melanie wasn’t wrong.

“We’re not a couple,” Margot told her, “we’re still friends, but I’ve been seeing someone else.”

“You find another crooked cop?”

“A cop. So far, he seems to be an honest one.”

Melanie looked like she was going to say something snide, but she swallowed those words and instead asked, “So, if you’re not checking up on me, why are you here?”

“I just wanted to say hi. You are still my little sister.”

“I’m not so little anymore. You need to remember that. I don’t need you to look out for me.”

Margot didn’t agree. Since dropping out of college Melanie seemed to be a bad decision machine. Of course, seeing how Margot threw away a promising career in law enforcement for a guy who was questionable at best, Margot wasn’t exactly a role model in the decision-making department.

She didn’t argue though. All she said was, “I know. I just don’t like seeing you hurt.”

Melanie nodded and then said, “You really just came by to say hi?”

“Yeah,” Margot lied. She immediately felt bad, but she didn’t correct it.

“I appreciate that. I’m still mad at you, but I do appreciate the effort. I was going to call you so I’m glad you came by.”

“No problem.”

“Yeah, well, you don’t know what I was going to call you about.”

“Okay, what did you want to tell me?”

“Dad wants to talk with us.”

“That’s not going to happen.”

“No matter what happened, he’s still our dad.”

“Okay, but that doesn’t mean I have to talk to him.”

“I think he's sick. He wouldn’t say it, but I can tell something’s up. He said he had something he needed to tell us face to face.”

“Like I said before, that’s not going to happen.”