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“Jack,” Agent Bell chastised, and then Lauren passed out.
* * *
Roughly eight hours later,Lauren clutched a piping hot mug in her hands. She wrapped her icy fingers around it, trying to infuse some warmth into herself though the Texas July heat was brutal that day.
Not inside this police station, it wasn’t. Her house had been likewise chilled with air conditioning. She’d bundled up in a pair of jeans and a mustard-yellow sweater to come with the agents to give her testimony.
Hertestimony.
Lauren had never done anything of the sort, and she had no idea what her life had come to. Agent Bell had taken her phone last night, and Lauren hadn’t seen hide nor hair of it since. The only thing they’d allowed her to keep after going through it was her purse.
She felt violated on a level she’d never even considered, and she knew that everything in her home was currently being examined too.
Seven-point-two million dollars. Gone.
Six named thieves.
The company name of Simple Solutions all over the news.
She knew the full story now, and she found it hard to believe. Sheila had always been professional and kind at the same time. She’d calmed irate clients, had a London fog at the precise temperature Lauren liked on her desk each morning, and never missed a memo.
She’d become a grandmother last year, and Lauren pressed her eyes closed so she wouldn’t be staring at the cold, white wall. She wasn’t sure how long she’d been here. The gray tea she’d been brought was half-gone and cold by the time someone came into the room.
Agent Bell put her phone on the table, and the level of relief shooting through Lauren couldn’t be quantified. She wasn’t sure why, but she felt connected to the outside world with that phone. She had no idea if anyone had tried to get in touch with her, but she suspected both Joy and Cass had.
At least she hoped so. How pathetic would it be if she had no missed calls? No texts from anyone?
She could literally be arrested, detained, experience a debilitating panic attack and be anywhere in the world by now, and she didn’t have one person who cared.
She didn’t reach for her phone immediately, but after several seconds, she couldn’t resist the pull of it. “Thank you,” she murmured.
“We can’t find anything to hold you,” Agent Bell said. He smiled at her. “This is good, Lauren. You’re cleared. You can go.”
Go?she wanted to rage at him. Where was she to go? Back to her house, which had been filled with strangers? Strangers touching all of her belongings?
Lauren had seen crime dramas, and she had no desire to return to her house. Not right now, and not alone.
She could call Bessie and see if she could get off of work and go with her. Then she’d have to tell someone about the past several hours, and she had no desire to do that. She closed her eyes again, this time just in a long blink.
Pure humiliation pulled through her, filling her to the point of choking. There was no way she could tell any of her friends about this.
“Come on,” Agent Bell said, standing. “Let’s get you processed and out of here.”
Processed. Like she was some kind of meat.
Lauren stayed numb and silent through the rest of the process, and when she finally found herself sitting behind the wheel of her car, the doors all closed and locked, and the engine running so she didn’t fry in the heat, she leaned her head down and started to sob.
* * *
That evening,Lauren sat alone on the outdoor patio of her favorite restaurant in Corpus Christie. She’d once dated a chef at the resort here, and she loved the deviled eggs with chicharróns, as well as the fried green tomatoes.
She’d only ordered her favorite appetizers, and the three plates sat half-eaten as the sun went down in the west, painting the Gulf of Mexico in pinks, purples, and golds.
The strategy she’d started on after she’d stopped sobbing in her car sat on the table in front of her, anchored in the wind by her coffee mug. She had some savings, and she’d be okay until she found another job.
She’d sell her house here and move to Hilton Head Island permanently. Her thoughts jumbled here, because Bessie, Joy, Sage, and Cherry were so important to her. She’d put stars out to the side of “Sell your house and move to SC” and written,Can fly in for Supper Club, or video chat like Bea has before.
She couldn’t lose her friends, not when so many other things in her life had crumbled.
