Page 15 of Delusional

Cindy flashed him a smile. “Don’t we all.”

CHAPTER 17

CINDY WALKED WITH Rob back to the car lot. She knew her way around the lot. She greeted Gary and Lillian casually. It was a familiar interaction.

Lillian turned to Rob and said, “Cindy here helps her family around the gas station when she’s home on breaks from college.”

Rob asked, “Where do you go to school?”

“Boise State. I guess you’re going to be one of the few New Yorkers who doesn’t say something like ‘At least it’s close by.’”

Rob smiled. “I was raised here. I know it’s almost an eight-hour drive. But I get what you’re saying. People in the Northeast have a hard time conceptualizing distance out west.”

Gary took Fido into the office, stroking the llama’s white fur and murmuring softly to him. Rob shook his head, recalling how Gary had treated him most of their lives: like most big brothers treat little brothers. It stung a little bit to see him fawn over this white llama.

Pops strolled into the office, grabbed a purple Popsicle from the freezer of a small refrigerator, plopped down on the office couch, and sat back.

Lillian was telling Cindy about the fire.

Gary asked, “Did you see or hear anything?”

Cindy shook her head. It made her long hair sway from one side of her back to the other. She looked at Gary and said, “You have security cameras out front. You should be able to see who did it.”

Without a word, Lillian turned toward the computer on her desk and started typing. Within a minute they were looking at two different camera feeds. Both showed the same thing: As a nondescript Ford pickup truck drove past, someone tossed a can with a burning rag sticking out of it into the Corvette from the truck’s passenger-side window. About thirty seconds later, the Corvette was on fire.

Gary looked over at his brother and said, “You’re the expert. Do you see anything in that video we can use?”

Rob felt everyone’s eyes on him as he thought about what to say. Finally, after considering it for a few moments, he managed to say, “The video doesn’t show a license plate, any of the people inside the truck, or any distinguishing characteristic about the truck. It’d be hard to make a case against anyone based on this video. But you should file a report with the sheriff’s office.”

At that comment, both Cindy and Lillian let out laughs.

Gary shook his head.

Cindy said, “Maybe we don’t need any of the local cops if we’ve got Rob. He’s a big-city detective. He’ll figure something out.”

Rob had trouble meeting the young woman’s hopeful gaze.

Chet looked up from the couch at Cindy. He said, “Hello. What’s your name?”

CHAPTER 18

HARRY DIDN’T SEEM to be in the right mood for me to introduce him to Maggie Chin when we were in the office. Usually, he liked to know who was coming and going. But he still seemed pissed that I’d let Trilling leave for Montana.

Maggie Chin was unlike any federal agent I’d ever worked with. She was high-energy but also high-focus. She and I transitioned in a matter of minutes from chatting in the office to jumping into my car en route to looking for Jimmy Pinter.

Maggie inspected the photographs of my children I had on my key chain, then touched every scratch and dent on my dashboard as we headed toward the construction site where I thought Jimmy Pinter might be working. She fidgeted in the passenger seat as I drove. “I’m not used to someone else driving. I won’t even let my husband drive most of the time,” she said. “But it’s your town. I just live in it.”

She reached up and touched the Saint Christopher medal hanging from my rearview mirror. “Are you Catholic?”

“I have ten children. That should tell you something.”

Maggie laughed out loud. “Maybe it would if I didn’t already know that all of your children are adopted. So the joke doesn’t quite land.”

I grinned. “Yes, in fact, I am a practicing Catholic. My grandfather even joined the church as a priest after my grandmother died. It’d look bad for him if I neglected my faith.”

“Is that the only reason you’re a practicing Catholic? To avoid embarrassing your grandfather?”

“I am a person of faith. That’s really all I can tell you. I’ve learned over the years it’s hard to explain those sorts of things to people who don’t believe.”