“And you yelled back?”
“Of course I did! He was being a jerk.”
“Was he only yellin’ at you about the coffee, Zora?” Jack said. “Seems like a lot to get that angry over.”
“All he yelled about was coffee,” I said, “but no, he was probably angry at me about, like, the fact that I exist.”
“What do you mean?”
“My dad took all his money, like he did to everyone else in this town. You might have heard about it. Was a bit of a headline.”
Okay, that was a little sarcastic.
Norm stood in stony silence. Jack looked uncomfortable. Dad was in prison, so it wasn’t like they could do anything else to him.
Finally Norm said, “Can you tell us what you did fromthe time you spoke to Mr. Masrell yesterday to the time you arrived at school this morning?”
Well, here it was.
“After the coffee thing, I left school and went to the dog park for a while. Then I went to work for the rest of the night. Captain Jack here knows—he stopped by for the Chocolate Killer Sundae.”
Jack beamed. Norm glared at him.
“It’s fall,” Norm said. “What are you doing getting ice cream? It’s too cold.”
“They only serve it till the end of October.” Jack shrugged. “Gotta get it while it’s there.”
Norm made a noise of discontent and turned back to me. “Why were you at the dog park?”
I shifted in my seat and crossed my arms. “Because I like dogs.”
“What time did you leave there?”
“Around five.”
“And when did you get to work?”
“Five ten.”
“Was there anyone there who can confirm that?”
“Yeah, everyone else working that night. Hal, Mads, Lorelei. They’re all working tonight, too. And Bach was there. He ordered his usual; we talked for a bit. Ask him.”
“Bach. Forester’s Bach? You friends with him?”
“We don’t hang out.”
“What about after work?”
“I went home and watchedCheers.” I paused for a heartbeat, glancing between Jack and Norm, thinking how I probably still smelled like trash. “Then I waited until Sadie fell asleep, then went out. I was on the west side of town until three a.m., fixing porch lights and pruning flowers. Around three I went home and went to bed. My alarm went off this morning, I ate breakfast, got dressed, and came to school.”
All three adults stared.
“Excuse me?” Norm said. “You admit you were out last night?”
“You know the person who’s been going around fixing things for people overnight? Broken fences, lights, things like that? That’s me.”
Norm and Jack looked at each other. “Can anyone confirm this?
