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Nina seemed to have mostly recovered, and Jessie was about to return to more probing questions. But a little sniffle from Nina made her decide to ask one more softball to let the woman recalibrate.
“So where did you go to school?” she asked.
Nina dabbed her eye again, looked up, and offered a thin smile. Jessie was about to return a reassuring smile of her own when she noticed something. Nina’s eyes weren’t wet. She didn’t seem to really be crying.
“University of Texas,” Nina said.
“Oh,” Ryan noted. “Is that why your husband was wearing a UT sweatshirt when we stopped by this morning?”
“That’s right,” Nina said confidently.
A thought popped into Jessie’s head in that moment, and before she’d even had an opportunity to question the wisdom of it, she took a chance.
“I know it was probably hard to do this and still make ends meet,” she said casually, “but were you ever able to take in a football game? I know the Aggies are king down there.”
The question made Nina smile.
“We were able to go to a few, sure,” she said. “We got discounted student rates, so we took advantage any time we could.”
Ryan looked like he was about to speak up, but Jessie cut him off.
“Listen, Nina, we’ve taken up enough of your time,” she said, standing up quickly. “Detective Hernandez and I will be in touch if we need anything else.”
“Okay,” Nina said, standing up as well. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be more help.”
“That’s all right,” Jessie said, eyeing Ryan pointedly to let him know not to say anything else, “we appreciate your efforts. We’ll see ourselves out.”
She led Ryan out of the inner office. He looked like he wanted to ask her a question, but she shook her head forcefully.
“What the—?” he started to ask once they were outside, but she cut him off.
“Wait until we’re out of sight,” she told him, giving him a broad smile that belied the intensity of her words.
Once they had walked out to the street, where the car was parked, he tried again.
“Is it okay to talk now?”
“Yes,” she told him.
“So why were you so anxious to shut me up back there?’
“I was worried you might ask the wrong question,” she said.
“What question is that? You mean about the football team?”
“Hold on,” she told him. “I don’t want to get your hopes up yet. We need to talk to Jamil first.”
“Jamil’s hands are full looking at the financials of half of Brentwood.” He reminded her.
“I’ve got a new assignment for him,” Jessie said.
“What’s that?”
“Looking into the Kirbys.”
Ryan looked incredulous.
“The couple we’ve already exonerated?” he asked.
