Page 77 of Back for Seconds

“Please?” I asked.

“I’m sorry…” She began shifting away from me, and I resisted the urge to tighten my hold on her. “I gotta get home, and I gotta wash my hair. If I keep my brother waiting, he’ll kill me.”

I groaned, burying my face in her neck. “That fucker.”

She laughed. “Lucky for you, Mimi took my car last night. So, I’ll need a ride home.”

***

Getting out of the house took forever—I made damn sure of that.

By the time I turned down Venus Avenue, it was almost one o’clock and June had explained the entire plot of some movie about a sentient snowman getting laid.

It was only when we got closer to the beach house were we truly brought back to reality.

Officer Burke, dressed in a raggedy rental Santa costume, was sitting on the weather-worn steps that led to the front porch. His faux beard was yanked down under his scruff-dusted chin, and he was fixing the horizon with a look that said either: I am so hungover I can actually see noise or I hate being alive. Maybe both.

“What the hell?” June grumbled, and we both hurried to get out of the car. I hung back as she approached him with a casual: “Hey Officer! Merry Christmas!”

“June, Merry Christmas.” He raised a hand to me. “Joey, same to you. Look, I don’t want to be here right now—this…this really isn’t my sort of thing, but I wanted to get you on a day when the street would be quiet. Brian Mahoney filed a police report over his van, so we need you to come in and give a statement.”

“A statement?”

“She already spoke up at the town meeting,” I jumped in.

Burke held his hands up in a gesture of exhaustion and acknowledgment. “That was what triggered him to file the report. He was pissed you got the best of him, I’m sure. Not for nothing, you’re a good-looking fella, Joe, and Brian’s got this idea in his head that… that it was June’s brother.”

June’s mouth dropped open and she quickly snapped it shut. “Am I under arrest?”

“No! God, no. You just have to come in, give a statement about your whereabouts and then this whole thing will…” Burke scrubbed at his face. “No promises, but it should go away. I’m not gonna perp walk you. Come to the precinct tomorrow at five a.m. It’ll be dead.”

“I’m not a snitch, Officer.”

He gave her a long, dry look. “Oh, believe me. I know how loyal the Alfieros are.”

***

June walked blankly up her front steps, her face pale and eyes void of emotion.

“He thinks it was my brother,” she said, slowly. “I’m going to have to lie.”

“No one thinks that, June.” I eased her house keys out of her hand, hanging limply at her side, and opened the front door. “You don’t have to do anything. Just tell them the truth—you were with me, then you went right home.”

“The night it happened, Sal called me to tell me about Brian moving back and he heard how upset I was.” June paused in the threshold, both of us squeezed in the doorjamb, big eyes turned up on me. “He found out from his girlfriend or fuck-buddy or whatever because she works with Brian’s…person.” Her throat bobbed with a heavy swallow. It felt like she was confessing to me, like she wanted me to absolve her of the sin of familial messiness. “He could have easily gotten Brian’s new address from her.”

“So, what? You wanna go in there, ready to prove your brother’s guilt?” I reached out and dusted a hair off her forehead. “This isn’t your problem.”

“But Joey—”

“But what? Burke doesn’t care about this. And neither should you. It’s Christmas.”

She knew I was right, so she let it go, turning into the living room which, judging by the shallow gasp in the back of her throat, was a touch messier than usual.

The pink couch was strewn with discarded clothes. A glittery wad. A men’s dress sock. A purse. On the floor a dinner plate had been repurposed for rolling joints, and the incense burner was filled with ash. In a trail to the kitchen, which we followed, was more mess. A high-heeled shoe with a broken strap. A lipstick. A tote bag. A bag of tortilla chips.

“Oh my god…”

In the kitchen, June turned slowly to survey the wreckage. “Mimi…” Using a pair of kitchen tongs, she lifted a row of clip-in extensions out of the fruit bowl. “What the hell happened?”