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26
Cora sat at a table outside her favorite deli on Monday, grateful for the awning that blocked the midday sun. While it did nothing to ease the hot, prickly frustration that clung to her every time she thought of Liam, it made sitting outside bearable, and it was much better than taking her lunch back to the office. Ever since Liam got sent home, she’d been acutely aware of his empty desk across from hers. The other officers working the case didn’t talk much about his absence in front of Cora, which made things even more awkward. Liam’s choices were his own, dammit, and Cora shouldn’t feel responsible for him. Not in any way. That would just be...ridiculous.
She frowned, dragging a French fry through ketchup before popping it in her mouth. When she stood back and looked at all the facts, she was right not to trust him. Who could blame her? Liam had lied to her multiple times. He withheld important information that affected their investigation. Cora blew out a frustrated breath. She still hadn’t said a word to anyone about Liam’s tie. Annoyed with herself, she pushed her plate away. No matter how she spun it, no matter how much she told herself he wasn’t worth her time, she still wanted to help him. How ridiculous was that?
A shadow fell over her table. “Hey.”
Cora glanced up, startled to see Billy on the other side of the patio railing. He was dressed in the same baggy street clothes he usually wore, but there were mottled bruises on his face.
Cora gripped the edge of the table. “Billy, what the heck happened to you?”
“Nothing.” He glanced around nervously. “You seen Liam?”
“Not in the past couple of days.” Cora pulled a bistro chair out. “Are you hungry? Come inside and I’ll order you lunch.”
“Nah, I can’t stick around.” Instead of his usual flirtatious swagger, he shifted back and forth on his feet and looked like he was about to bolt. “I gotta talk to you.”
“Okay,” Cora said carefully. Whatever he wanted to say, it had to be important.
He shook his head. “Not here. Somewhere quiet.”
“We could sit in my car,” Cora suggested.
“All right, but you’ll have to drive so nobody sees me.”
Now he was scaring her. Billy never acted this serious. “You got it.” She grabbed her purse and walked Billy to her car parked along the sidewalk. He got in, and soon they were heading toward a different neighborhood.
“First I need to ask you something,” Billy said, “and you have to be one hundred percent honest.”
“I’m always honest with you.”
“Nah, I don’t mean honest as in that fake ‘adult speak,’ where you leave stuff out because you think I’m too young to know stuff,” Billy said irritably. “I mean real honest. Person to person.”
Cora’s mouth fell open and she gripped the steering wheel tightly. She had withheld information from Billy on occasion, but that’s because he was just a kid. Their relationship was built on harmless banter, occasional lunches and Cora trying to get him involved with the teen center. Every once in a while, Billy would let slip some information that actually did help her with a case, but she never discussed those cases with him, and she never told him things that could put him in harm’s way.
“All right, Billy. I’ll be as honest as I can. But I have to warn you that I’m a police officer, so there are some things I’m not at liberty to discuss.”
Billy hissed something under his breath that sounded like “freaking grown-ups” followed by a few choice swear words.
“What’s going on?” Cora asked. “Just tell me, and I promise you I’ll tell you as much as I can.”
Billy heaved a sigh and stared out the window. “How much trouble is Liam in?”
Cora almost slammed on the brakes, but she managed to keep her foot steady. “Who told you he was in trouble?”
“He did,” Billy said. “I ran into him at the park yesterday. He told me he was in big trouble at work.”
She was surprised Liam shared that much with him. “He did?”
“Yeah, because he’s cool like that. He tells it to me straight, unlike most adults. So, I gotta know. Is he going to lose his job, or something?”
Cora’s knee-jerk reaction was to remain vague, but she’d promised to stay as open and honest as possible. “I don’t know, but it’s looking pretty bad.”
“Because he doesn’t have an alibi proving he was at that ATM,” Billy said.
“Correct.” God, how much had Liam told him? Surely, he wouldn’t have brought up the murder case.
“Could he go to jail?”
