gun?”
She looked at the ground, turned away, and then looked at me straight on, teeth clenched.
“I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Did you give your gun to Brett?”
Her eyes were on fire. “No.”
“Did he steal it?”
Her shoulders sagged for an instant. She took a breath, straightening her spine, holding her head up.
“How should I know? I didn’t know it was missing until Detective Carter told me someone used it to kill Frank.”
“Is that why you freaked when Carter asked you to show him the gun? I thought you were going to crawl inside the sofa pillow and hide.”
“Carter scared me, that’s all.”
“Did Brett know Frank Crenshaw?”
“What difference does that make? If that makes him guilty, they’ll have to arrest the whole neighborhood because everybody knows everybody.”
“Have you seen him since we were at the hospital Sunday night?”
“No, but he called me yesterday morning to see if I was okay.”
“Does he know you were arrested?”
“Grandma Lilly told him. I called him as soon they let me go.”
“Did he say anything about your gun?”
“He didn’t answer. I left him a message.”
“I want you to go home, stay home, and stay away from Brett until this is over.”
She raised her hands to her shoulders, ready to push me away. “Look! I’m going home to clean up and see my mom and grandma. Then I’m going to my office to see if I have any clients left who can pay my fees, and if I want to see my boyfriend, I’ll see him.”
“So now he is your boyfriend? Listen to me, Roni.”
“No, you listen to me, Jack. I’ve known you for two days. I appreciate how you helped me out, but back off. Go find someone else to rescue.”
She strode past me, arms at her sides, fists clenched. I waited until she and Bonner were at the curb.
“Hey, Roni!”
She stopped, turned, and glared at me. “What now?”
“The moon is pink.”
Chapter Thirty-eight
Jennings called my cell before they were out of sight, his way of letting me know I was on a short leash.
“What?”
“What did she tell you?”
“Nothing.”
“Don’t fuck with me, Jack.”
“You’re not my type.”
I snapped the phone shut. Jennings had made a huge investment in this case-cutting deals with the FBI and KCPD, conscripting me, and risking Roni’s life. The question was why he would lay so much on the line for a case that was a blip in the news cycle. Not that gun-dealer robberies and hospital-bed murders weren’t cases that had to be solved. They were. It’s just that they weren’t bet-your-career cases. If Jennings’s gamble didn’t pay off, his would go south with the case, meaning he’d stay on me or make certain someone else did.
Kate waited until they reached Bonner’s car. “So are you going to tell me what that was all about?”
“I pissed her off.”
“I had no idea except that you transformed her from bubbly to boiling. What did you say to her?”
“I told her this wasn’t over, and she didn’t believe me, kept saying she didn’t do anything wrong. I asked her what happened to her gun, and she wouldn’t tell me. The only straight answer I got was when I asked her if she gave the gun to Brett and she told me flat-out no. When I asked her if he could have taken it, she bobbed and weaved, said how should she know.”
“She avoided eye contact and touched her mouth and eyes a lot which are classic deception gestures. There was one time she did look you in the eye. Was that when she told she didn’t give the gun to Brett?”
“Yeah. Said it like she meant it.”
Kate shrugged. “Could be she’s telling the truth.”
“Could be? I thought you were the deception expert.”
“It’s not like on television. One glance and aha, she’s lying or she’s telling the truth. It’s more nuanced than that. I have to have a baseline from talking to her or observing her or watching her on video before I can be more certain. Some people are better liars than others, and some people come across as lying because they’re afraid they won’t be believed.”
“Well, one thing is for certain. She knows more than she’s telling me.”
“Or she thinks she does and she’s afraid she might be right. How strong is her relationship with Brett?”
“She says he’s in love with her but she’s not so sure how she feels about him. They’ve been together a long time, since they were kids, really, but she comes across as more resigned than committed.”
“What makes you say that?”
“We were talking about their relationship yesterday. She said they were comfortable, and I told her she didn’t have to settle for that, but she acted like she did, said that Brett was all she had.”
“Sounds like she’s put too much in the relationship to let it go even if she’d be better off without him,” Kate said.
“Seems likely.”
“And now she’s making bad decisions because of that, maybe passing up better options without realizing it.”
Her voice was loaded with the unmistakable sardonic tone of can you believe anyone could be so stupid? the message clear. She wasn’t only talking about Roni and Brett. She was talking about us. I didn’t want to go down that road and pretended not to notice.
“She told me to butt out, leave her alone.”
“She fired you?”
“Sort of. I don’t think you can fire someone you never hired and who works for free.”
“Which means you won’t leave her alone. That’s called stalking.”
“I’ll get Ethan to defend me. He’s good at getting people off, no questions asked.”
“I’ll give you that. What about the phone call?”
“What call?”
“The call you got right after Roni left.”
“It was nothing.”
She sighed. “Fine. We both know you’re lying. Your face was twisted like a man possessed the instant you answered your phone. You pulled it back together, but the expression was there long enough for me to see it. If that was nothing, I’d hate to see you when it’s something.”
“I thought you didn’t make snap judgments.”
“About Roni Chase? No. But you’re another story. I know you.”
“Don’t thin-slice me.” The words came out like razors, the look I gave her just as sharp.
It was an old argument, one that had burdened our relationship from the beginning. Kate couldn’t help what she saw, and there were too many times I didn’t want to be seen. She had no difficulty keeping her observations to herself when she was working, disclosing them as her professional obligations required. It was different with us, she said, love giving her a license to care and share. We had struggled to find a balance between her need to know and my need to hold back.
