“Well, well, well. If it isn’t Encyclopedia Brown.”
I recognized Tripple’s voice before I saw him. He stood at the reception desk, flipping through a stack of papers. He glanced up at me with a smirk. “Did you save your buddy yet?”
Next to me, Indira radiated anger. Fox snorted in their sleep. Millie burst into a fresh wail of tears. Louis had successfully freed one hand and was reading something on his phone.
“Ignore him,” I muttered.
“Let me guess,” Tripple said. “You and Bobby are going to play boyfriend detectives as soon as he’s off duty.”
“No,” I said. Not because I didn’t like the idea of playing boyfriend detectives with Bobby, but because Bobby had this whole thing about honor and duty and responsibility.
Tripple just laughed, though. “Sure, you are. You were already poking around at the RV park. Let’s hear what you learned, Deputy Dash.” His tone had that patronizing good humor I associated with distant (and usually unpleasant) elderly relatives. “Did you crack the case?”
“I wanted to talk to Keme’s mom. He didn’t do this, and if you—” I almost saidwere halfway decent at your job, but since my conflict-averse meter was quickly buzzing up into the red, I just sank down in my seat and mumbled, “—knew Keme, you’d know that too.”
“Oh yeah? Did you find some evidence? Got any proof?”
I refused to look at him, but a flush prickled its way up my neck and into my face.
“Don’t you have anything that requires your attention, Deputy Tripple?” Indira asked in a clipped tone.
Tripple only laughed again. He tapped the papers on the desk to line up their edges and headed for the door that led deeper into the station.
As soon as Tripple cleared the door, Sheriff Acosta stepped into the lobby.
I shot out of my chair.
Sheriff Acosta was a sturdily built woman with warm brown skin and dark hair pulled into a ponytail. She was a good sheriff. She was fair. She didn’t throw children in the slammer (never mind that Keme was, legally, an adult). In fact, as far as I knew, she didn’t even call it the slammer. She was a smart, reasonable, competent professional.
Which is why I said, “This is wrongful arrest. This is false imprisonment. You can’t—”
Bobby followed the sheriff into the lobby, and she turned to look at him. He didn’t do anything, but something in his pose suggested a nonverbalI warned you.
“Hello, Dash,” the sheriff said. “Indira, Fox, Millie.” There was a slight pause. “Louis.”
“Hiya, Sheriff,” Louis said. “We’re all so worried. What can we do to help?”
He didn’t sound particularly worried, but it still made Millie erupt in a louder-than-usual sob.
“Is Keme okay?” Indira asked as she got to her feet. Her voice was steady, and her face was smooth, but her hands were tightly clasped, and there was an electric charge of worry in the air around her. “May I see him?”
“He’s all right,” the sheriff said. “You’ll be able to see him in a little while, I think.”
“HE DIDN’T DO IT!” Millie’s shout rang out in the lobby as she got up stiffly from her chair. (For that matter, Millie’s shout probably rang out in the next town over. I thought Louis’s eyes might have rolled up inside his head.) “KEME DIDN’T DO IT! HE WAS WITH MEALL NIGHT.” (The italics are to help you understand she goteven. louder.) “AND I HAVE PROOF!” She fumbled her phone out of her pocket to display a picture of a group of people. Keme might have been in the mix, but before I could spot him, Millie swiped. “WE WERE AT A PARTY, SO HE COULDN’T HAVE DONE IT!”
The sheriff must have been made of sterner stuff than the rest of us mortals because she looked unfazed. She listened to Millie (if listened is the correct word when you feel like someone has a megaphone pressed to your ear) without her expression changing. “That’s good to know, Millie. Thank you for telling me. I’ll need you to make a statement to Deputy Mai, and I’ll need those photos as well.”
Millie looked like she hadn’t expected that response; her own face seemed caught between the lingering desire to carry on the fight, and numb relief.
That was until Louis cleared his throat and said, “Well, Sheriff, he wasn’t with us thewholenight.”
“YES, HE—” Millie began.
Louis shushed her and caught her hand to pat it. “Be quiet now, babe. I’ve got this.”
You could have heard a pin drop in that room. (If you still had functioning eardrums.)
I swear to God: Indira growled.
