Total pages in book: 159
Estimated words: 155775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 779(@200wpm)___ 623(@250wpm)___ 519(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 779(@200wpm)___ 623(@250wpm)___ 519(@300wpm)
Cash snorted and moved over to where she was leaning against the counter. He leaned against it next to her, crossing his arms over his chest.
“You okay, Stowaway?”
She nodded.
“Stowaway?” the police detective asked, not really missing a beat. “Oh, because she hid in the back of your pickup after getting scared during a bar brawl.”
They’d decided not to mention Addie seeing the man with the dead body. She wasn’t entirely sure why. Part of her wondered if people still thought she’d made it up, and they were trying to protect her.
Though Ink had told her it was because he didn’t want the cops interrogating her about what she’d seen, that it might put her in danger. But even though they had no proof it had happened, they also didn’t have proof that it hadn’t happened.
“I’ll interview you after Monroe,” the detective said to Addie.
What?
They wanted to interview her? Why? She knew nothing. She understood why they’d want to talk to Monroe, but why did they need to talk to her?
“Why do you want to talk to Addie?” Dotty asked.
“It’s best if I talk to everyone,” the detective said.
Dotty narrowed her gaze and started tapping her foot. Uh-oh, things weren’t going to go well now.
Butch stepped into the room and moved across it to grab some coffee for himself. He eyed Dotty, then the detective. “Everything okay?”
“I’m just trying to do my job,” Detective Jackson said. “You don’t need to all look at me like I’ve committed some crime.”
“Addie doesn’t know anything more than I do,” Dotty said. “You already interviewed me. You can ask Monroe about her husband.”
“Soon to be ex-husband,” Monroe said, as she played around on her phone, seemingly not paying that much attention to what they were talking about. “What the heck are all my social media passwords?”
“And we don’t have anything more to add,” Ralen told him. “So no need to talk to us either.”
“I would like to know why this didn’t get reported until hours after you’d been to the hotel,” the detective said.
Cash shrugged. “We were busy.”
“Busy doing what?” the detective asked as Ink walked into the room.
“Trying to find us,” Dotty said with a smile. “Only we’d been arrested by some of your fellow police officers and stuck in jail like we’re common criminals, right, Monroe?”
“I was so stressed that I bit off two of my fingernails,” Monroe said, holding two fingers up. Both of them were her middle fingers. Her naughty fingers. Addie wasn’t sure if she actually meant to do that, or if it was just a coincidence that those were the fingernails she’d chewed.
Addie had to choke down a surprised giggle, and she noticed that Cash seemed to be biting back a smile. Even Butch snorted. Which was a big show of amusement from him.
The police detective sighed. Unfortunately, Ink’s contact at the police station was out of town, so they’d ended up with this guy, who seemed a bit arrogant.
“Well, Addie won’t talk to you,” Dotty told him. “So you can just leave her off your list. She was with Ralen and Cash at the time anyway, so they saw everything she did.”
“What do you mean she won’t talk to me?” he asked.
“Addie doesn’t talk to people who scare her,” Dotty told him. “You’re scaring her.”
The police detective actually looked shocked at that and turned to Addie. His face seemed to soften a little bit, and he sighed. “Can she write stuff down?”
“You can talk to her,” Cash told him. “Just because she might not reply verbally, doesn’t mean she doesn’t comprehend what you’re saying. She’s not stupid.” There was anger in Cash’s voice, and she turned to look up at him in surprise.
She couldn’t remember the last time someone had defended her like that. Well, except for her sisters.
“Right, sure,” the detective said. She was starting to feel a bit sorry for him, if she was honest. “Addie, can you write down your answers for me?”
Addie nodded.
“Good. Right. Monroe, you’re next.”
Monroe got to her feet and started towards the door. She walked as though she was moving towards her execution.
It had been a really long twenty-four hours. In fact, everything had started to go wrong well before that. But these past twenty-four hours have been the worst.
And Monroe was no closer to figuring out where Vextar had gone, not that they really wanted to find him now. It certainly seemed like he didn’t want them to either.
Dotty followed after Monroe.
“It’s not necessary for you to come as well,” the detective told her.
“Yes, it is. As well as being Monroe’s sister, I’m also her lawyer.”
“She’s not under arrest. I’m just taking a statement from her.”
“She still wants me with her, don’t you, Monroe?” Dotty said.
“Yep,” Monroe said.
The three of them had an unspoken rule that even if they didn’t agree with the other sister publicly, they’d never let on. They always stuck together.