“That’s why you’re an idiot,” Jake hissed. “Just … sit tight. This is going to get ugly.”
“WHERE is she?”
I heard Eliot’s voice before I saw him and slumped further in my chair. Jake was right about this getting ugly.
“She’s over there,” Jake said.
I forced myself to turn around when I heard the sound of a scuffle. Eliot and Jake were playing a little game where Jake tried to keep Eliot behind the wooden partition that separated us and Eliot was having none of it.
“I need to see her,” Eliot snapped.
“Or you could tell us who this guy is and who told her where to find him,” Jake suggested. “I know you were with her last night.”
Eliot straightened, his eyes landing on me. I could tell what he was thinking.
“Don’t you dare,” I warned.
Eliot sighed and ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “I need to talk to her first.”
“Tell me first,” Jake said. “I know you know. That’s what she wanted you for yesterday, wasn’t it? She needed you to find this guy. You guys even worked out a plan where she picked you up so I couldn’t follow you.”
“She knew you’d try,” Eliot said. “I … let me talk to her.”
“No.”
“I can’t tell you anything until I talk to her,” Eliot said. “Let me convince her to work with you.”
That was never going to happen.
“You’re not magic,” Jake pointed out. “She’s digging her heels in now because she won’t admit she’s wrong. She’s going to beat Ludington even if she has to go to jail to do it.”
“I saw him talking on his cell phone outside the side door,” Eliot said. “Who is he trying to get down here?”
“Every television station and newspaper reporter he can find,” Jake replied. “He’s turning this into a circus. He thinks focusing on Avery will allow him to take the onus of the story she broke off of us.”
“You mean him,” Eliot corrected. “Avery made him look like an idiot because she found information that no one else did. This is all because he’s a … jackass.”
“It’s all because he’s hung like a pimple and he’s overcompensating,” I corrected.
“Let me talk to her,” Eliot said. “Please.”
I knew how hard it was for Eliot to beg. Jake did, too, because he wordlessly stepped aside and let Eliot pass. Eliot pushed through the small wooden gate and walked over to me, kneeling and giving me a quick hug before focusing his serious eyes on mine.
“I’m not telling,” I said before he could get a word out. “I … can’t. You know I can’t.”
“I don’t know that,” Eliot said. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I was in a great mood until I was called into the publisher’s office this morning and found Jake and Tad there to question me as if this was Germany and they were the Gestapo.”
“It wasn’t that bad,” Jake said. “You just refused to play the game right.”
Eliot rubbed the heel of his hand against his forehead. “You don’t have to tell them anything,” he said. “I will tell them. You’ll be able to keep your reputation as the world’s orneriest blonde reporter intact if I tell them.”
“No.”
“I know she’s protecting Lexie,” Jake said, moving in beside us so he could keep his voice low. “Lexie is the one who identified the guy in the sketch, isn’t she?”
“I wasn’t there when the sketch was identified.” Eliot expertly skirted the question. I could see his mind working. He wouldn’t betray me … not for anything … but letting me sit in jail was out of his wheelhouse. He was trapped.
“You still know who told her,” Jake said. “She tells you everything.”
“She doesn’t tell me everything.”
“She does now,” Jake said. “It might not have been that way before, but that’s how things work in her world now. Other than Carly, you’re the person she trusts most.”
Jake’s words had a sobering effect on Eliot. “I guess I can’t turn on her now then, can I?”
“Don’t let this happen to her,” Jake pleaded. “This judge is going to throw her in jail for the night. I won’t be able to stop it. It’s going to be all over the news.”
Eliot’s worried brown eyes found my obstinate blue ones. “Is that what you want?”
“It’s not what I want, but it’s what’s going to happen,” I said. “Don’t let them bully you. I know you want to protect me, but this is still my decision.”
“I can only let this go so far,” Eliot said. “I’m willing to give you one night to get your way. After that, though, I’m doing things my way.”
“How does that work?”
“You don’t want to know,” Eliot said, brushing a quick kiss against my forehead. “I’ll be right here. You’re not alone in this.”
“She wasn’t alone before you showed up,” Jake said, irritation washing over his angular features. “You two are going to be the death of me.”
JUDGE Pat Dornish is one of those political figures who loves to be in the news. The sight of three television cameras, two big daily reporters, two weekly reporters and one radio personality practically had him preening when he took the bench a half hour later.
“What do we have here?” Dornish asked, feigning ignorance at the spectacle.
Steven Graham, a county prosecutor known more for plea deals than trials, sidled up to Dornish’s station and handed him a file. “Your honor, this is Avery Shaw,” he said. “She’s a reporter with The Monitor. It seems Ms. Shaw uncovered the identity of a material witness in a murder investigation and she’s refusing to divulge his identity.”
I didn’t often cross paths with Dornish and Graham. I didn’t know how to read them, but I was already resigned to my fate so it didn’t matter. The attorney supplied by The Monitor, David Reid, appeared bored with Graham’s theatrics. “My client has a right to protect her sources,” Reid said.
“Not when the public’s safety is at risk,” Graham countered. “She knows the identity of a potential murderer. We want that information.”
Dornish fixed his green eyes on me. “Is this true, Ms. Shaw?”
“I guess.”
“You guess?”
“I guess,” I repeated. “I don’t happen to believe he’s a murderer.”
“That’s not your decision to make,” Dornish said. “Okay, I’m going to make this simple for you so we don’t take up too much of anyone’s precious time this afternoon. You can either tell us who this man is … .”
“And who supplied her with his identity,” Tad interrupted from the peanut gallery.
“No one invited you to speak, Mr. Ludington,” Dornish said, his tone grim.
Tad looked appropriately abashed. “I … I’m here on the behalf of Technical Operations and Options League.”
“TOOL,” I blurted out, causing everyone covering the event to snicker.
“Stop calling it that!”
“Name it something better!”
“Ms. Shaw, that will be enough,” Dornish warned. “Mr. Ludington, if you speak out of turn again I’ll put you in a cell and forget where the key is. I don’t care about TOOL any more than anyone else.”
“That’s not its name,” Tad said.
Dornish shot him a threatening glare, causing Tad to cross his arms over his chest and slip lower on the bench where he was sitting. Dornish turned back to me. “Tell us the name of the individual in question, and the person who supplied you with that name, or you’re going to spend the night in jail. Those are your options.”
I ran my tongue over my teeth, wondering briefly if I was about to make the biggest mistake of my life, and then squared my shoulders. “Put me in jail.”
Twenty
“Why do I get a cell all to myself?” I asked Derrick as he directed me toward a narrow room with a plastic bunk. It was smaller than my closet. “That doesn’t look comfortable.”
“This is the ho
lding cell,” Derrick said. “Jake doesn’t want you in with the general population.”
“Is he afraid someone is going to make me her bitch?”
“You’re already a bitch,” Derrick said, squeezing my shoulder briefly. “Turn around and I’ll take the cuffs off.”
“Aren’t you supposed to do that with another deputy present so I don’t jump you and make my escape?” I asked. I was going for levity, but I couldn’t muster the energy to put much “oomph” behind the joke.
“Turn around.”
The second the cuffs fell by the wayside I lifted my arms and shook them to encourage circulation. I rubbed my wrists ruefully as Derrick studied me from the open doorway. “You don’t have to watch over me. I know I did this to myself. There’s no one in here to hurt me.”
Derrick’s face was serious. “Are you protecting Lexie?”
“Partially,” I conceded, knowing he would never rat on his own sister. “I also believe that this guy isn’t capable of murder.”
“If you’re right, he knows who committed the murder,” Derrick countered. “Did you think of that?”
“I did. I asked him.”
“What did he say?”
“He wouldn’t tell me who asked him to park the car the night Julia Grisham died,” I replied, sinking down on the plastic bunk and making a face. “Seriously, why is this bed plastic?”
“It’s the holding cell,” Derrick said. “Some people freak out when they first get arrested. There are no hard edges in here. No one can bang their head or try to cut their wrists on a metal bed. It’s … sanitary.”
I wrinkled my nose. It didn’t look sanitary to me. Thankfully the toilet was hidden by a small partition or I really was going to be in a world of hurt. “What happens now?”
“The judge will bring you back in front of him tomorrow,” Derrick said. “I’m sure Tad will call all the familiar faces to cover it again. If you won’t answer the question … I don’t know.”
“I need you to do me a favor and check on Eliot tonight,” I said. “He’s going to be … down.”
“He’s going to be blaming himself for not telling the truth and keeping you out of jail,” Derrick corrected. “Don’t worry about him, though. He’s tough. I’m sure he can survive one night without you.”
“We didn’t get a chance to say goodbye.”
“I saw him with Jake outside while you were putting your orange jumper on,” Derrick said, causing me to glare down at the brightly colored monstrosity I’d been forced to change into.
“How did he seem?”
“Angry,” Derrick said. “He’ll be okay. He told Jake he was going to pick up a few things for you. You can’t have your Kindle in here but he was going to pick up a paperback and some toiletries so you can brush your teeth.”
“I could be in here for weeks, couldn’t I?” That was a sobering thought. How was I going to live without new episodes of The Walking Dead?
“Jake will never let it get that far.”
I didn’t think Jake would let it get this far. I didn’t say it, but Derrick must have read my mind because the look he cast in my direction was pointed and dark.
“Jake is going out of his way to fight for you,” Derrick snapped. “He always has.”
“I know. It’s just … this is a mess.” I blew out a frustrated sigh and moved my gaze to the off-color ceiling tiles. “Eliot told me I was getting in over my head and I wouldn’t listen. I don’t know why I never listen.”
“If you listened you wouldn’t be you,” Derrick said. “Eliot is going to be fine. Stop worrying about Eliot and start worrying about yourself.”
“No, she needs to keep worrying about Eliot so she’ll tell the truth and get him off the hot seat.”
I jolted at the sound of Jake’s voice. From my position on the plastic bed I couldn’t see down the hallway. Derrick and Jake conducted a mostly silent conversation with their eyes and when they were done, Derrick graced me with a rueful smile. “I’ll keep up on all the family gossip for you,” he said. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Not if I see you first,” I said, rolling my eyes at the lame quip.
“You’re going to be okay,” Derrick said. “The most dangerous thing in this cell is your mind.”
“And that’s dangerous enough for everyone,” Jake said, moving into my line of sight. He had a paper bag in his hand and a pointed look on his face. “Go and make sure Ludington is off this property. I don’t want to see him again.”
“I’ve got it.”
Once Jake and I were alone he swallowed his upper lip with his lower and handed me the bag. I took it wordlessly, glancing inside to see what goodies Eliot dropped off.
“What’s this?” I reached into the bag and withdrew a tin heart. It was one of those items boyfriends and husbands buy at grocery and all-purpose stores when they need to placate their loved ones in a hurry. The difference with this one was that it was decorated with Star Wars photos. Despite myself, I could feel a lump forming in my throat. “I … .”
Jake cleared his throat. “Eliot said he was hiding that from you until Valentine’s Day,” he said. “He wanted you to have something to pick your spirits up.”
“This is my Valentine’s Day gift,” I mused, rubbing my thumb over the raised figures.
“He also told me to tell you that’s not the big gift and you’re not off the hook,” Jake said.
“You just said this was my Valentine’s Day gift,” I protested.
“I think that’s something he saw and knew you had to have,” Jake said. “He knows you. He took one look at that and knew it was made for you.”
“He’s a good guy.”
“He is,” Jake agreed. “He also bought you some a romantic suspense book and a toothbrush and toothpaste.”
“Am I supposed to have all of this stuff?” I asked.
“No.”
“Why are you giving it to me?”
“Because my hands were tied when I had to arrest you,” he said. “My hands were tied when I had to process you. My hands were tied when I had to force you into that stupid jumpsuit. My hands aren’t tied here. You can have your chocolate – or whatever is in that tin.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, lifting my eyes to his. “I know you think I’m betraying you.”
“I think you’re protecting Lexie and doing what you have to do to be right,” Jake said. “If it really came down to it … if my career was on the line … you would do things differently. I know that.”
Would I? I worried Jake had more faith in me than I deserved. “When do you have to lock me in here?”
“I’m not closing the door.”
I lifted my eyebrows. “Isn’t that against the rules? What if I run around the jail willy-nilly?”
“You have to stay in there and I can’t leave you unguarded,” Jake said, running his hand through his messy hair. “I’m going to stay here with you all night.”
“You’re going to share the plastic bed with me? No offense, but I don’t think Eliot will like that.”
“I’m not sleeping in there with you,” Jake said, rolling his eyes. He sank down on the ground and positioned himself so his back was against the doorframe and his knees were raised. “I know you don’t like feeling penned in. I’ll keep the door open and watch you myself. Something tells me you’re going to behave yourself for once.”
That sounded like a challenge. It was one I wasn’t up for testing for a change. I grabbed the tin of chocolates and climbed up from the bed, shuffling over to him and sitting down so our shoulders touched. “You don’t have to stay with me,” I said. “I don’t deserve it.”
“I’m staying with you.”
I knew he would say that. “In that case … do you want a chocolate?”
“If I’m staying here you’re definitely giving me some of that chocolate,” Jake said. “Open it.”
I did as instructed, holding up the tin when I was done.
“What are those?” Jake as
ked, peering closer.
“Chocolate hearts with caramel in the center.”
“One of your favorites,” Jake said, selecting one and popping it into his mouth.
I followed suit, surprised both the tin and chocolate were so delightful. “What are we going to talk about?”
“You’re going to tell me who the guy in the sketch is.”
“No, I’m not.”
“You’re going to do it because Eliot is worrying himself sick over you and he didn’t tell me because he didn’t want to upset you,” Jake said.
“I can’t.”
“We’ve got all night, Avery.”
It was going to be a long night. If things were already uncomfortable I figured I might as well go for broke. “Did Eliot tell you what my Valentine’s Day gift is?”
“No. I don’t want to know. I … it’s too much and I don’t want to think about it.”
“Fair enough,” I said. “Do you want to tell me what you’re getting Cara for Valentine’s Day?”
“Eat another chocolate, Avery.”
I HAVE no idea when I finally fell asleep, but when I woke the following morning the doorframe was empty and Jake was gone. In his place was a stern-looking female deputy.
“Wake up, Sleeping Beauty,” the deputy said. “You’re out of here.”
“What? Is it time for court already?”
“Apparently you’re not going to court,” the deputy said. “Charges against you have been dropped. As soon as you’re dressed I’ll show you to the front lobby.”
Wait … what was happening here? “I don’t understand.”
“I’m not the one who can explain it to you,” the deputy said.
“I need to call my boyfriend to come pick me up.” My mind was still muddled but I wasn’t going to look a gift jailbreak in the mouth.
“Your ride is already in the lobby,” the deputy replied. “Apparently he’s excited to see you.”
I always knew Eliot was magic but to pull off something like this? I was going to have to get him something really good for Valentine’s Day now. How much is a Corvette?
I dressed in record time and when the deputy ushered me to the lobby, my empty tin clutched against my chest, Eliot’s was the first face I saw. I threw myself at him, causing him to chuckle as he pulled me in for a tight hug.
Headlines & Deadlines (An Avery Shaw Mystery Book 7) Page 16
