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“It’s not the same.”
“How?”
“Angie is…”
“Be careful,” I warn, my tone edging on dangerous.
He looks over at me, his body rigid with alarm. After another moment, he says, “…Angie was not a suspect in a murder investigation.”
“Is that your only objection?”
“The fact that you couldlose your job?” he practically yells. “Yes! That’s my only objection!”
“Do you think she did it?”
“No.” He doesn’t hesitate. “But that’s not the point. If you get caught-”
“I’m taking myself off the investigation,” I say, and I don’t know who I’ve surprised more, myself or Mani.
“What?” He pulls his cruiser into the station parking lot and turns off the engine but makes no move to get out.
“It’s one case.” The answer seems so obvious now. “In the scope of things, it’s one knock on my record, if that. But this girl…”
I think of how I can help Mani understand. “My last first date was when Angie set me up with Joy. Mani, my last dateperiodwas with Joy. You know me. Better than anybody else. Would I throw away my career on someone I didn’t think was important?”
“It’s notyouI don’t trust,” he insists, but the attempt is half-hearted. He’s losing ground fast.
“You don’t have to trust her. Dude, you don’t even have to like her. But you have to support me in this because you’re my best friend. And that’s what friends do. They show up.”
He leans forward onto the steering wheel, locking his arms, one over the other. He doesn’t look at me. “I get the sense you’re going to do this whether I support you or not.
“I am.”
Placing his forehead on his arms, he mumbles a long string of curses interspersed with random words, one of which I’m pretty sure isbarista.
“What was that?”
“I said,Dickhead couldn’t just fall for the barista at the Starbucks on 7th!”
“I guess not.”
He looks at me and shakes his head, his eyes searching my face for some emotion, some doubt, he can exploit. Seeing none, he adds, “This doesn’t end well, man.”
His words cloud foreboding into the vehicle with us. For a moment, rationale rules and I am astounded at myself. Doubt begins to eek in. My heart rate increases so that I can actually feel the anxious ticking of it in my chest.
The panic forces Catherine back to the forefront of my mind. And then I remember the feeling of her in my arms, and the weight of her head resting against my chest. I remember that she looked at me with complete, unaltered trust. “Probably not.” I smile. And it is genuine. “But I’m going to do it anyway.”
Mani groans.
“I would apologize.” I laugh, feeling carefree for the first time in…possiblyever. “But I’m not sorry in the least.”
“You can’t take yourself off the case.”
“What?” That has me raising my eyebrows in surprise. I expected him to accept my decision—Maniisa good friend. But I would have thought he’d see the logic in me recusing myself from working the case.
“It makes no sense. You’re the best. And with nothing to go on, we’re going to need you.” He shrugs. “Besides, if you drop the case, I’m going to have to work with Carmine. And I hate that dude.”
“Mani…”
