Crystal sat on a bench outside her apartment in Whispering Pines with a blanket around her shoulders and Jade’s hand locked in hers. A deputy had walked the apartment with Crystal’s attorney and cleared the place before letting her back inside. The broken desk drawer was still broken. The closet still had clothes dragged out from the search that had sent Crystal running. None of that looked safe yet.
Now deputies and an attorney knew where to look.
Records sat in more than one hand, and Ike Pendleton’s statement was already moving through channels Frank couldn’t close by making one scared bookkeeper disappear.
Crystal lifted her face to me from the bench. “What happens to the bond?”
“Your attorney is already handling it.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“No,” I said. “It wasn’t.”
Jade’s attention came to me.
I leaned against the porch post and kept my hands loose. My ribs hurt when I breathed too deep. My knuckles were scraped. My shirt had dust and a smear of Ike’s truck on the shoulder.
I’d been worse after cleaner jobs.
“This recovery is done,” I said. “I’m not taking you in.”
Crystal blinked fast.
Jade didn’t move at all.
“You can just do that?” Crystal asked.
“I can refuse the pickup. North Fork can be angry. The bond issue still has to be handled legally, but your attorney has enough now to make that happen the right way.”
Crystal pressed the heel of her hand to her mouth.
Jade watched me with something raw enough that I had to turn away first.
A battered sedan pulled in behind my truck. Crystal’s attorney stepped out with a phone still pressed to one ear and a file folder tucked under her arm. She nodded toward Crystal, then me.
“Go,” Crystal said to Jade.
Jade’s head snapped toward her. “No.”
“Yes.” Crystal squeezed her hand. “I’m not alone. I’m not hiding. I have an attorney, two deputies, and a woman on the phone who sounds like she eats men like Frank for breakfast.”
“She does sound promising,” I said.
Jade ignored me. “Crystal.”
Crystal’s mouth trembled, then steadied. “You bought me time. Dex got me to the records. Now I need to sit in my own apartment and answer questions without you standing in front of me.”
Jade went very still.
Crystal touched the back of Jade’s hand. “I love you. Move.”
Jade let out a breath that almost broke.
Then she leaned in and hugged her sister hard enough to make the blanket slip off Crystal’s shoulder. Crystal held on just as hard.
I turned toward the street and gave them that much.
When Jade stepped back, her eyes were bright and furious about it.
