“And where were you?”
“Ah, um, in the Grabinskys’ yard?”
109
“Nina . . .” he warned.
I sat upright, getting tangled in the chenille blanket. “I’ve, um, got to go.”
“Wait!”
I winced, bracing for the worst.
“We can hash out the whole trespassing thing later, not to mention crossing a crime scene line.” He sighed. “The bad news . . .”
I’d forgotten about the bad news. My heart sank down to the pit of my stomach. “Do I want to know?”
“You have to know.”
“What is it?”
His voice dropped to a whisper, as though he didn’t want to be overheard. “I shouldn’t be telling you this.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I kept quiet.
“The captain, well, he’s looking to make a case with the prosecutor’s office.”
“What kind of case?”
“There was a case in New Jersey recently where a man died of a heart attack because he’d been scared to death at a bank robbery.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning that the prosecutor’s office is looking into charging someone with murder for Russ Grabinsky’s death.”
“Someone as in me?”
“You and the Lockharts.”
“Even if it was a heart attack?”
“Even if. It’s like what that annoying HOA lady was saying the other day. He might have died from the shock of it all.
Look, the prosecutor is desperate to make a name for himself, Nina. You know the problems the department has had lately, so the captain is bending over backward to help him.”
There had been some rumblings over the past six months in the department of briberies and kickbacks, rumors of bad 110
Heather Webber
cops. Nothing had ever come of it, and the prosecutor ended up looking like a fool.
“I was just doing my job!”
“Nina, calm down. I’m just saying it’s being talked about.
And it probably wouldn’t be murder charges. Maybe man one, or involuntary manslaughter.”
“Oh, that makes me feel much better.”
“I just wanted to let you know.”
“Thanks,” I mumbled and hung up the phone.
“You okay?” Ana asked from the doorway.
I looked up at her. “If I get probation, will you find a good job for me?”
Thirteen
I was afraid to go home, but since I didn’t have any clean clothes, I didn’t have a choice.
Ana had done her best to cheer me up, but at ten on a Sunday Ana is not at her best. Especially since she’d had many more drinks than I did last night.
Ana dropped me off and drove away before I even made it to the front steps. I didn’t blame her. She knew my mother was inside and assumed my father had filled her in on our foray into the Blue Zone. She didn’t want the lecture any more than I did.
Unfortunately I didn’t have a choice.
Ana really didn’t either. She was just delaying the in-evitable. My mother had a long memory and would undoubtedly bring up this situation the next time she saw her.
The front door flew open before my foot hit the porch.
“
It took me a second to process what she was saying.
“Good?” I hedged.
