“Which is why they did it that way,” he said, with a nod. “Okay, you need to let us know the next time you feel scared or see that vehicle drive slowly by. What kind of vehicle was it?”
“He’s got a muscle car,” she said. “You know? One of those things with that raised piece in the front that sounds really loud and dangerous.”
He nodded. “Black, I presume?”
She snorted. “Of course, shiny with lots of chrome. How did you know?”
He shrugged and said, “It’s fairly typical.”
“Wow, so anytime I see one of those vehicles when I’m in the city, I’ll think they’re all assholes.”
“No, that’s not quite fair,” he said, with a smile. “But you’d be amazed at how many of these guys drive vehicles like that because they think it makes them look dangerous.”
“Well, these guys are dangerous,” she said suddenly. “He didn’t come right out and say that we would pay, but it was implied that, if we told anybody about the pressure they’d put on us …” And then she stopped and said, “You know what? It wasn’t even that. It was all just impressions. It was all just that sense that we were in deep trouble and that they knew something about us and that we would go to jail for it. They didn’t really do anything wrong, but then neither did we. It’s like the whole deal was in the shadows. I couldn’t believe just how grateful I was when it was done, and they actually paid.”
“Well, they have lots of money,” Angela said, “so it makes sense that they would pay. If nothing else it gives them more power again for having done so.”
Isabel shrugged. “I don’t get how any of that works,” she said, with a shiver. “We’re just simple folk here.”
“Simple folk maybe,” Bonaparte said quietly, “but that doesn’t mean you’re stupid. You knew exactly what was going on. Otherwise you wouldn’t feel guilty now, and they wouldn’t have been able to pressure you into it being afraid every time you see them.”
“Right,” she said, “well, I’m wholeheartedly admitting to knowing about it.”
“And you don’t have any compunction about your granddad having a problem with it?”
“No,” she said. “When we told him that we had a buyer, he was over the moon. He’d been really worried about Mom’s care. He wanted to sell right away.”
“Good enough,” he said. He turned to look at Angela. “Anywhere else you want to go?”
She turned and looked at her friend, gave her a hug, and said, “We’ll talk later.” Then she walked out. As they got back to the truck, she asked, “Do you believe her?”
He looked at her sharply. “You don’t?”
“I do,” she said, “but something was in her tone.”
“Outside of the fact that she’s afraid she’ll get thrown in jail or the fact that she’ll lose her friend, who is even now looking at her as if she might be a criminal?”
She nodded. “Yeah, I guess that’s a big part of it, isn’t it?”
“Whenever somebody fesses up to a crime like that,” he said, “even if it feels justified at the time, they know it’s wrong, so they’re always looking over their shoulders. And some guys like this, they’re just predators. Predators in the business world,” he said. “They could have made them do anything. It wouldn’t even have taken much. Even now that leverage is a perfect blackmail tool.”
“Sounds like they did,” she said, with a heavy heart. “Now Isabel’s always got that fear going on.”
“Absolutely,” he said, “and that’ll make it tougher for her as well.”
“She’s a really nice person,” she said, “and everything she’s doing would be entirely to save her mom.”
“I get it,” he said. “Really. Don’t worry. I do get it.”
She smiled, nodded, and said, “I’m glad. Because she’s good people.”
“Isabel might be, but even good people do wrong.”
Angela groaned. “I know. I know. I know.”
And, with that, he had to be satisfied.
Chapter 3
“Now where?” Angela asked, as he drove the truck back the way they had come.
Bonaparte looked at the clock on the dashboard and said, “I’m hungry.”
“And where will you stay?” she asked, with a tilt to her lips.
“I’m staying at your place,” he said immediately.
She stared at him in shock. “You don’t even wait for an invitation?” she asked in a droll tone.
“Nope,” he said, “too many undercurrents going on here. The sooner they figure out where I’m staying, the better, and then we can assess your property too, from a defensive standpoint.”
“Sometimes I think I’m making too big of a deal out of this.”
“You’re not,” he replied.
“But you don’t know that for sure,” she said. He looked over at her, and she went quiet. “Okay, I wish I’d known about what had happened to Isabel.”
“She couldn’t tell you. She didn’t dare tell you,” he said, “because, even now, she’s afraid you’ll arrest her.”
“And yet, in theory, if it was her mom’s idea, it’s her mom who should be arrested.”
“Sure, except that she also hid the truth from you.”
“I know. But there wasn’t an investigation, so it’s not like she lied to me.”
“Nope, so she’s free and clear.”
She sighed. “It still feels odd.”
“The joys of being in law enforcement and having a lot of friends you care about, and, in this case, they were pressured to do something because of the circumstances, so you’ll have to figure out how you feel about it.”
“But this is where right becomes cloudy.”
“Nope, not at all,” he said. “You just have to sit down and think it through. And, if you need to talk to somebody, there are people you can talk to.”
“Yes,” she said, “I do
