And secondly, it was just possible that he might be a guava.
“So, you and Justin, huh?”Ari asked as we turned onto the next street.
“Oh, no.Not like that.I’m just staying with him until I get back on my feet.”
Even as my cheek still burned from the touch of his lips.
“Sure, you keep telling yourself that if it makes you feel better.The two of you met on the Wednesday Amie disappeared?”
What did she mean by the first part?“Uh…yes?”
“Can you talk me through everything that happened?I’m trying to build up a picture of the day.”
“The day?I didn’t arrive in Reverence until the evening.”
“Yes.I’d like to understand how you ended up here.”
Bad enough that Justin knew about my mistakes without Ari finding out the details.She seemed nice, but her competence left me feeling even more inadequate than usual.
“The short answer is that I’m a fool.”
“Don’t say that.”
“It’s the truth.”
“From what I’ve heard, a man took advantage of you while you were grieving, but you managed to build a career despite his efforts to hold you back, and you found the strength to escape when the time was right.That doesn’t sound foolish to me.”
“I lost all my money,” I mumbled.“If it weren’t for Justin, I’d be panhandling with Shiro.”
“Some of those online scammers can be really convincing.Send the emails to Alexa, okay?Amie has to take priority, but after we’ve found her, we can tackle the Tiffany problem.”
“Justin already told you about that?”
“Not in any great detail.You contacted her?It wasn’t the other way around?”
“I was working my way through the rental ads.Most places won’t allow dogs, and she was the only person I spoke with who wasn’t a creep or a weirdo.”
“Who suggested the time to meet?”
“She did.I said I could get there by two thirty, but she said she had to go out in the afternoon and if I sent the money by Western Union, she’d hold the room for me.”
“A delaying tactic.”
“I guess.”
“So what time did you arrive at Justin’s place?”
“A little after seven.It was dark, and I was running a few minutes late.”
“How sure are you about the time?”
“Positive.I literally looked at my watch as I climbed out of the car, and it was nine minutes past seven.”Although Ari framed this as a friendly chat, she was checking Justin’s alibi; I understood that much.“You think I haven’t run through the timings a hundred times in my head?I saw the surveillance video at the Norquist office, and there’s no way Justin did anything to Amie.There was no time.”
“He said he drove home from the office and took a shower.”
“That’s right.”
“Was his hair wet?”
