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His eyebrows scrunch together as he mulls this over, then without warning, he turns on his heel and bolts. It takes me a second to snap into action. By that time, he’s already out the front door and racing down the hall. I chase after him, calling his name over and over. He’s much quicker, though, and tears out the door into the night.
I can’t abandon the crime scene to chase after my nephew.
Dammit.
Trotting to a stop, I fish out my phone and make the call. This whole day is the biggest shit show of my entire life and that’s saying something because my life has been hell since the day I was born.
After I place the call, I make my way back inside the apartment, not closing the door all the way. The detectives are going to want this place dusted for prints and the less I contaminate the scene, the better.
It feels like an eternity later, but officers begin arriving and taking over. When the detectives—two colleagues I speak to every single day—show up, the realness of this situation begins to set in, especially when I’m immediately relieved of my Glock that’s bagged and tagged into evidence.
They’re not joking like they do in the break room. No, I’m being drilled with questions from two hard-assed cops. I tell them everything from the issues Lenny and Rhiannon had, to Trevor getting mixed up with a bad drug-using crowd, to Kaden staying with me because of it, to the altercation from this morning, to the point we’re at now. By the time I finish, another man shows up, crisp and out of place in an expensive suit.
“Officer Thurman,” Tanaka says, voice icy cold. “Detectives, I’ll take over from here with Thurman.”
My two colleagues give him a firm nod and then move on to do their jobs. Tanaka’s eyes narrow, resembling a hawk before it swoops down to snatch up a field mouse.
Am I done?
The look in his gaze says I am.
What if this was all some setup to get me into trouble? Tanaka knows I’m onto his corruption. This could be a way to silence me, right? Have my sister’s lowlife boyfriend murdered and put me right in the middle of it. I’m forced to retell the entire thing to the man I’ve been secretly investigating.
“Am I in trouble?” I ask, voice shaking when I finish.
“Not if you continue to cooperate,” Tanaka says smoothly. “You were just worried about your nephew, right?”
My stomach sinks. “He didn’t do it if that’s what you’re thinking.”
Tanaka’s black eyebrow arches up, reminding me of an evil villain. “He ran from the scene of a homicide, Thurman. It’s not a good look.”
They’ll haul him in, though, and interrogate him like I tried to. Trevor is innocent. They’ll come to that conclusion too. In the meantime, a real killer is out there.
What if Rhiannon had been here? Or Lucy or Kaden?
“I’m going to follow you back to the station,” Tanaka says, gesturing for the door. “We’ll continue this talk while the detectives work the scene.”
Great.
Being brought in for questioning at my own workplace has to be a new low for me. It’s humiliating and infuriating. But if I want to move past this, I have to go through the thick of it first. I concede with a nod and head out the door. There’s one thought that replays in my mind.
Thank God Dempsey wasn’t here with me.
The last thing I need is to pull him deeper into my shit.
Dempsey
Come on, Sloane. Where are you?
I pace her front porch as I wait for her to come back home. I’m still reeling from her text from earlier.
Sloane: Someone killed Lenny. Trevor found his body and called me. He ran off after, so it looks really bad for him. I’m on my way to the station now with Tanaka to finish giving my statement. Can you keep an eye on Kaden until I get back?
Of course, after receiving that text, I’d blasted her with questions, none of which were answered. I slipped out of the house and came right over, not bothering to follow Dad’s stupid rule about taking Gemma with me.
I wasn’t sure if Sloane wanted me to tell Kaden, so I stayed tightlipped and told him I’d come over to hang out for a bit. We played video games while I checked my phone every three minutes. Eventually, I made spaghetti and we watched a movie. He fell asleep on the sofa, but I’ve been unable to sit still, my mind racing with worry.
Sloane was already having a terrible day after the run-in with Lenny when she took her sister away, but for it to end like this? My chest aches. I just need her in my arms so I can hold my girl back together. Something tells me she’s going to need it.
