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I found it hard to respect the asshole, and apparently, I was having a hard time hiding it. Not that I’d bothered trying yesterday. I’d just been less obnoxious about it. I knew it was a bad idea to antagonize him, but he was wasting valuable time and resources to find a missing girl. Maybe if he’d done his job, Eddie Johnson wouldn’t be missing and possibly dead.
His eyes narrowed. “What were you doing that kept you out until midnight?”
“My client doesn’t have to answer that,” Mr. Hale interjected in a congenial tone. “Your questioning has to do with her whereabouts this morning. I’m sure we can get the video feed from the Adamses’ residence to prove what she said is true.”
Chief Larson clenched his jaw so hard I was surprised I didn’t hear his teeth shatter. He took a deep breath. “Why were you talking to Millie and Casey LaRue yesterday afternoon?”
“I like making new friends.”
“With Ava Peterman’s best friend and her mother?”
“Vanessa arranged it,” I said. “She asked me to speak to Millie.”
“Why?”
“You’ll have to ask her.”
“What did you discuss?”
Mr. Hale held up his hand again. “That’s not really pertinent.”
“I’ll say when something’s pertinent,” the chief ground out. “Now what did you discuss?”
My attorney leaned into my ear and whispered, “Tell him you made small talk.”
I found this annoying. I used to be on the other side of the table, on the receiving end of such bullshit. I didn’t want to follow Mr. Hale’s instruction. It made me feel like a hypocrite, but I also didn’t trust Larson not to take anything I said and use it against me. Sure, he hadn’t read me my rights, thus making anything I said inadmissible in court, but he’d find another way to go about it. While he might not be sharp, he obviously held grudges.
“We talked about Ava,” I said with a forced smile. “My friend is upset, and I wanted to find out more about her daughter.”
“Have you ever met Ava?”
“No.”
“So then why the interest?”
“Because Vanessa’s been through this with my sister. This whole situation has to be a nightmare for her.” I decided to go on the offensive. “I take you haven’t found Ava yet?”
He squirmed in his seat and drew in a sharp breath as he looked away.
“Still calling her a runaway?”
His gaze jerked up to mine. “We’ve seen nothing to convince us otherwise.”
“What about Eddie Johnson? He was taking two twelve-year-old girls into his janitor closet for weeks, possibly months, and then he disappears the day after Ava goes missing? You don’t find that suspicious?”
“You’re the one being questioned here!” he shouted, pounding his fist on the table. “Not me!”
“Someone needs to hold you accountable,” I said in disgust.
Mr. Hale put his hand on my arm, his fingers pinching tight, but he said in his good-natured tone, “Things seem to be getting a little heated here. Maybe we should all take a beat.”
But Chief Larson didn’t seem interested in backing down. “If you’re gonna accuse Eddie Johnson of taking that girl, maybe I should be lookin’ at you as a suspect. You seem mighty interested in a runaway you never met before.”
“You know that her mother was my sister’s best friend. And you’d be stupid not to realize she’s plagued with survivor’s guilt.”
His face perked up. “And maybe you’re full of survivor’s guilt too. Maybe you thought it should have been Vanessa Peterman who was kidnapped that day instead of your sister. So you took her daughter as revenge.”
My mouth dropped open. “Are you insane?”
