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“Wow,” I said. “That’s a lot of money. What are you going to do with it?”
His grin widened when he said, “Looks like I might be bailing you out of jail with it.”
I punched him in the arm.
“Not funny,” I said sullenly. “Come on. Let’s go back over there.”
“All of you need to come down to the station and give a statement,” the sheriff grumbled as we walked back up. “Even you, sweetie.”
He started to point at me again but showed the first stroke of intelligence he’d shown the entire time and dropped it before he did.
I gritted my teeth and said, “I’ll meet you down there.”
“You better, or you’ll wish you did,” he grumbled.
Then he walked back to the car.
“Not a single person here knows what he’s doing,” Keene grumbled. “So you’re working here now?”
Coffey offered Keene his hand and said, “New chef at your service.”
“Oh, thank fuck.” Keene took his hand and shook it. “I’ve never been happier to see another man in my life.”
Everyone around us laughed, even my sisters.
Because it was true.
There were a lot of females in the circus, but there were just as many males. They just didn’t tend to hang out with us because of the “overload of estrogen” that we tended to give off. According to some of the other men, anyway.
“What the hell happened, Simi?” Keene asked, then looked to Coffey. “Do you know?”
I looked at Coffey, too.
God, he was really here.
“I got here in time to see her losing her cool,” he admitted, his eyes apologetic, as if he’d wished he’d been here earlier.
I smiled, then rubbed my hands against my eyes.
“I couldn’t find my silk or Mary, who’s usually the one who sets it up with a few of the men,” I added for Coffey’s benefit. I looked at Coffey, then back to Keene. “So Rosie offered to help me as we started talking about not seeing Mary for a while. We unlocked the trailer door, and she fell out.”
Keene grimaced, then looked back toward the trailer.
“There’s no blood,” he murmured.
“There should be blood,” Coffey confirmed. “The fact that there’s absolutely zero means she was dumped into the trailer after she’d bled out. She also looks clean as well. Like they washed her off first.”
“Fuck,” Keene grumbled. “What do we do?”
“You go to the station, give your statement, but make sure you do it with your lawyer,” Coffey suggested. “These guys don’t seem like they know shit about shit.”
“Agreed.” Keene ran his hands through his hair. “I got a shit ton of donuts in the car. Let’s go grab a few things to eat, let them figure this out, and let me talk to one of those officers to see if we can continue to set up. If we can’t, we need to announce that we’re not going to be able to open in the morning. Which’ll be a shit ton of work.”
Keene disappeared to do what he did.
I looked at Keene’s truck and knew I wouldn’t be able to stomach a donut.
Not with today and the aftereffects of yesterday.
“Want a ride to the station?” Coffey asked, flicking his fingers toward a motorcycle that I hadn’t seen parked beside our travel bus until now.
I blinked and stared at it, then turned back to him with the straightest face I could muster.
“Of course, but what’s the motorcycle for?”
CHAPTER 9
You let out between two and six and a half cups of fart a day.
-Fun fact
COFFEY
“Of course, but what’s the motorcycle for?” she asked, face void of any emotion.
I snorted and pulled her into my side, hugging her tight.
She looked like she could really use a hug.
So hug her, I did.
She leaned into my chest, her body fitting perfectly in my arms, and sighed.
In the distance, I watched as the deputies started to load the body into a body bag. Zero crime scene technicians in sight.
Nobody processing the scene.
All kinds of evidence were being destroyed.
It was as if they were completely oblivious to what was normal when processing a murder scene.
I took my phone out and started to record.
“What are you doing?” Simi whispered into my chest.
“Recording this bullshit,” I said. “I feel like it’s something your lawyer can use if this moron of a sheriff decides to get extra about you leaving the station later. Just because you were the first to find the body doesn’t mean you’re a slam dunk as the murderer.”
She blew out a shaky breath, then wrapped her arms around my torso, now clinging on so tightly that I knew she was scared.
“I’m about to tell you something that nobody knows except for a very select few in the circus and my family,” she said shakily. “Maybe it’ll help explain my reaction.”
I tensed, repositioned the phone to continue recording by switching to the front camera, placed the magnetic case against the trailer we were next to, and then moved her away.
