Dead Red Cadillac, A Read Online Free PDF Page B

right."
    At the entrance, I dug in my heels, resisting all further efforts to push me inside. "Tell me, am I their first or second choice for a suspect?"
    "Go on," he said, as if my being a number on a list for murder was amusing. "I'm going back to your place to watch the Ident team try to get prints on those cracked, unpainted wood doors on your barn. That should be fun."
    "You'll explain it all to my dad?" I said, holding onto the doorframe as if actually stepping through his office door was an admission of guilt. "That someone stole my car and somehow Patience ended up drowned in it? You'll tell him so he won't worry, right?" I giggled nervously and then bit at my thumbnail. It sounded incredibly dumb, even to me. Though my life had been relatively trouble-free since my divorce from Ricky, if there was going to be trouble, my dad wouldn't be surprised to find that I was in the thick of it—again.
    "I got it covered," Caleb said. "It's a courtesy call because of your dad's health." He pecked me on the cheek and patted my shoulder before abandoning me to my fate, not in the least bit worried I might be charged with a murder I didn't commit. I could've asked to have a lawyer attend the meeting, but knowing Caleb had my back, what could go wrong?
     
     
    I spent the next hour with Detective Rodney and his sidekick playing good cop, bad cop. The upshot of their routine was a big fat zero; I couldn't prove I'd been at home all night, and they couldn't prove I hadn't. But neither could I explain how Patience and my Caddy ended up in the lake.
    I was thoroughly relieved when the detective finally put down his pen and closed his little notebook.
    "You're free to go, Ms. Bains." I was up and all but sprinting for the stairs. Free and no longer a suspect, what could be sweeter, right?
    I was finally released and pushed through the double doors to stand under a hot cerulean sky clinging to the tops of the buildings.
    In my eagerness to slide out from under the steely-eyed suspicions of the local police detective, I might have been a bit hasty.
    Damn. I think I've just been set up. I was the odd piece in an apparent homicide, someone who wasn't going to immediately work out as a suspect, but obviously I had my uses. That's me, usable.
    Patience's nephew had better be real cute.

 
     
     
     
    Chapter Five:
     
     
    Directed to the visitation room, I sat down in front of the green-tinted glass separating the free and the brave from those who were not. Still, if the next suspect should prove to be innocent, I would be feeling less than brave while I begged a lawyer to find a loophole in a murder charge.
    The door opened and I forgot about feeling sorry for myself as Patience's nephew sat down across from me. Dark curly hair spilled over a high forehead; the brown eyes crinkled at the corners with what might have been amusement. He would be taller than me, and the chest and shoulders I noticed nicely filled out the standard-issue orange jumpsuit. Cute. Oh my God, Lalla, give it a rest, will you? Your choice for dating material has gone to an all-time low.
    He sat down and picked up the phone. I picked up mine. Twining large, square hands around the phone, he said, "You Lalla Bains?" The voice came through the electrical conduit in a tinny, hollow sound.
    "Uh-huh," I answered, still numb from my own recent foray with the law.
    His eyes wandered over what little he could see beyond the glass. He didn't look unhappy with what he saw. "Damn. She said you was pretty, but she was always matchmaking, if you know what I mean." He saw my confusion and said, "My aunt Patience? I'm Garth Thorne, her nephew. I'd offer you my hand, but I guess it'll have to wait. This is all embarrassing," he said, waving a hand at the glass between us. "I wanted to speak to you as soon as possible because I didn't want my aunt's best friend to think I'd been arrested for killing the old girl."
    I had no idea why Patience's nephew would think I was her best friend