by Starla Night
No, that was crazy. Briar made bad choices, but she wasn’t a criminal.
“You should lawyer up,” Shawn said.
“Oh, that would make me look guilty. Besides, who has the money for a lawyer?”
They exchanged glances.
“Maybe you should call Jasper,” Patty suggested. “Just in case.”
Rose took their advice and left a voice message on the way to the station.
Her unease grew.
This was probably nothing. Well, nothing sinister. She’d have to pay impound and tow fees, and any damage to the car. Please don’t let Briar have hit a street sign! That was something she would do. Crash into a street sign, abandon the car, never say anything. How much was it to repair street signs? A crash probably totaled the car. And Rose had just finished paying off her last accident.
Shawn parked in front of the squat, unassuming, glass-and-brick fronted station. “Good luck.”
Her heart sank. “Thanks.”
She got out, thanked him again for the ride, and he drove off, leaving her alone in front of the steps.
How bad could it be?
An itch burned the small of her back, and so she called Grandma. Briar wasn’t there today and hadn’t been for the last week, but she explained why she’d called.
“You better see what they want,” Grandma replied tiredly.
“Yeah, okay. I just thought Briar might know.”
“She doesn’t keep track of things. She’d lose her own head if it wasn’t screwed on.”
Rose had to bite her lip from snapping, Then why did you lend her my car? But Grandma would have no answer, and anyway, Rose blamed herself. She’d thought Briar had been out of town that week.
“Your sister can’t take care of herself, Rose,” Grandma reminded her. “That’s why you have to. She’s your family. You’re all she has left.”
“I know.”
Rose stowed her phone and braved the bulletproof glass. It felt funny talking to the man behind the window, like making an order at a payday loan shop. She asked for Officer Hitchens, and after getting her information, the desk officer led her around the glass and into the station.
Officer Hitchens was a tall, fit, black man with a friendly smile who offered her a seat and a coffee in a small conference room. When the door closed, it sealed up like it was locking her in. The reality of being inside a station for the first time strung her nerves tight.
“Now, Rose.” Officer Hitchens poised his pen over a pad. “Why don’t you tell me what happened?”
“What happened to what? My car?”
He nodded, friendly.
“I, uh…well…” Be honest, be honest, be honest. “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“I left the car for my grandma to get to a doctor’s appointment while I was at work. It wasn’t there when I got home. She said that my sister had borrowed it, and I haven’t seen it since. Until now, I mean.”
He tapped his pen. “Where are your grandma and your sister?”
She gave her grandma’s address. “I don’t know about my sister. Sorry.”
“But you let her borrow your car?”
“I let Grandma borrow my car.” She started to sweat. “Is something wrong?”
“Why do you ask?”
Because she was in a police station answering strange questions. “I thought maybe Briar was in an accident or hit a street sign…maybe…” She swallowed. “Was it a crime?”
He sobered. “Where were you last Wednesday at eleven forty-five pm?”
Her brain turned to panicked mush. “Home? Alone?”
“Can anyone vouch for that?”
“No.” She hugged herself. “Maybe my neighbor. I don’t know. Why?”
“Think hard. It will go better if you cooperate.” He stared her straight in the eye. “You don’t want to end up in jail.”
No, she couldn’t go to jail. She had to fight.
Last Wednesday she was with Jasper on his spaceship. And she told Officer Hitchens with relief.
He clicked his pen. “On a spaceship.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Like, a ship filled with little green men?”
“No, it was empty except for us.”
“Us.” He fixed on her with a face that told her he didn’t believe her but wasn’t calling her a liar yet. “Can anyone corroborate that?”
“Liam was there, but he’s four.” And she didn’t want him at the station. “Oh, you can ask Jasper. It’s his ship.”
“I see. Can we get this ‘Jasper’ down here?”
“I can’t. He was kidnapped to Sweden.”
He looked up. “Look, this will go easier for you if you cooperate.”
“I am cooperating.”
“The same way you cooperated by telling me you haven’t had your car in over a week, even though we know you parked it in the Houck neighborhood last Wednesday?”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “I don’t even know where that is.”
“So you didn’t drive it to Houck?”
“No. And I would never abandon my car.”
He leaned back, satisfaction on his face. “I never said it was abandoned.”
Heat and then icy cold flushed through her. “I assumed because it’s been missing.”
“I thought you said you lent it to family.”
“Right, but my sister never brought it back.”
“Your story doesn’t fit the evidence, Rose.”
“How?!”
Officer Hitchens leaned forward. “Help me help you.”
She nodded vigorously. “I want to. I swear.”
“Now, we have video evidence of you entering the house.”
“House? What house?”
“The house where you panicked and abandoned your car.”
“Where? That Houck place?”
“It’s starting to come back to you, huh?”
“No!”
His eyes narrowed. “We only want the truth. Can you give us the truth?”
“I told you the truth. Jasper saw me all Wednesday. I’ve got a witness. He’s just not available.”
“Uh-huh.”
“I’m telling you, I can’t get him here. He’s been abducted by another dragon.”
Officer Hitchens frowned and tapped the pen against his jaw, thinking. Then his brows cleared, and he pointed the pen at her. “Tragger and Dave brought in a dragon a few weeks back. A prowler with a kitchen knife.”
“Yes. That’s him! He came to my apartment with a…well, it was a misunderstanding.”
“Oh. I see.” He did not return her relieved smile. “The obsessed boss is your alibi.”
“No, that was part of the misunderstanding.”
“And we can’t talk to him because he’s conveniently been abducted.” Officer Hitchens leaned forward again, unchanged. “Rose, I want to help you, but if you can’t explain how we have video evidence of you breaking into a house and destroying property, I don’t have any choice but to put you in jail.”
“Jail!” She jolted upright as if a wire had run through her chair. “Please, no. I can’t go to jail. People are relying on me. And my job—I can’t lose my job.”
“Here’s a pen and paper.” He slid both in front of her. “Start explaining.”
“I can’t. I mean, are you sure it was me?”
Officer Hitchens nodded. “One hundred percent.”
“It’s impossible. I don’t know. I can’t explain.”
“Sounds like a lie.”
“It’s not a lie!”
Officer Hitchens tapped the pen and paper. “You know the truth, Rose. You seem like an honest girl who made a mistake. Come clean and get it over with.”
She picked up the pen. “What do you want me to say?”
“You know.”
“I don’t. I swear, I don’t.”
Another officer tapped on the glass and opened the door. “You have a visitor.”
“Be
with them in a second.”
The door started to close, but on the other side, she saw her savior.
“Jasper!”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Jasper blocked the closing door with his foot. “Rose.”
Rose rushed past the table and ducked around the police officer. She threw herself in his arms.
He squeezed her tight. Everything it had taken to get to here starting from Rose’s worrisome voice message and confirmed by Kyan’s alert, was worth it to hold her. He’d pay for slipping away during Larimar’s cheese-induced coma, but he’d have a few hours before she came to. And he had left a note.
Rose pulled back. Her eyes glimmered with unshed tears. “You escaped?”
“I took an unexcused absence.”
Her eyes widened. “You too?”
He tipped up her lips and kissed her. Her taste confirmed everything he was doing was right. Her arms tightened around him and he scented her lovely arousal.
He ended the kiss first.
She licked her lips, her lashes fluttered, and then she seemed to realize her surroundings and stepped back but let him keep her tucked against his side.
He looked up at the officers. “Kyan has brought Rose’s lawyer. They need to conference before we continue the interview.”
The officer tapped his pen against his pad. “We have questions for you, too.”
“Officer Hitchens needs proof I was with you last Wednesday.”
He flicked his gaze to the interviewer. “Will video evidence from my lair suffice?”
She stepped back from Jasper. “I was on video?”
“For safety, all areas are under constant visual monitoring.”
“All areas?” Her voice flattened and her eyes flashed. “Even the bathroom and the bedroom?”
“The bathroom contains critical plumbing, and the bedroom is also a critical, inhabited area.”
“You better edit that tape to not include those areas!”
“But Rose, that is where you spent the most time.”
Her mouth opened. A high squeak emerged.
“And if they compare a physical scan of you now to the video evidence, they will see the necessary body markers to know it’s you.”
She coughed. “Body markers?”
“Hairs, moles, freckles.” He gestured at his inner thigh. “The birthmark you have on your—”
She clapped her hands over his mouth. “The police don’t need a body scan. You will skip the voluntary nude pictures and they can ask for that when they bring you a warrant. All right?”
He nodded.
Officer Hitchens cleared his throat. “Send over the video. Before you leave, Miss Owens, we need a DNA sample.”
“Oh, sure.”
“No.” Jasper stopped her from accepting the kit. “Your lawyer said human DNA analysis isn’t advanced, so it is difficult for humans to differentiate between you and your genetically identical twin sister.”
The officer coughed. “Your sister’s an identical twin?”
“Yeah. She borrowed my car.” Rose tilted her head. “You said you had video evidence of me breaking into a house and abandoning my car, but I don’t look that much like Briar anymore.”
“Briar is a size 20, while Rose is a size eight,” Jasper inserted. “She wears her hair short and has a four-inch scar over her brow.”
“How blurry was your video?”
Officer Hitchens didn’t reply.
Rose softened. “How bad is the trouble? Did she break into a house?”
“I can’t answer questions about an active investigation.” Officer Hitchens looked like he had a painful toothache; he grimaced and rubbed his jaw. “Don’t leave town.”
Jasper walked Rose out to the main office to Kyan, who looked him over gratefully, and introduced Rose to her new lawyer. Because the officer had dismissed her, they returned to the legal office. A few of the more frightening terms such as accomplice, liability, charges, and whatnot were tossed around, and the lawyer advised Rose to not talk to the police again; all communications should go through the law office.
“About custody of Liam…” Jasper mentioned.
“Family law is a different practice.” The lawyer picked up the phone. “I can refer you to a friend.”
“Will they give me custody while I’m under investigation for some crime?” Rose asked.
“Not my area.” The lawyer leaned forward. “But get any current custody arrangement in writing. The liability is an issue. There are many issues.”
“Briar doesn’t write.”
The lawyer folded her hands around her materials and gave a flat smile. “You have my advice.”
They thanked her, and then Jasper took Rose out of the offices, bid farewell to Kyan, and launched into the air. “Do you think ‘out of town’ means orbit?”
“Yeah, that would count as leaving town.”
“I could anchor the ship over Vancouver. It would burn more fuel.”
She patted his chest. “You have to leave if you get called, right? Better to stay at my place. I can get a ride to work from Taylor from home, not from your spaceship.”
“I’ll show you how to pilot.”
“Oh, like that’s easy.”
“Well, it’s more complicated than the floor sweeper. And the plumbing. And all the systems. And if you make a mistake, you’ll burn up on re-entry.”
“Let’s not.”
They flew to Grandma’s house. She wasn’t there.
Rose pulled out her phone to call, and it rang in her hands. She snorted in surprise. “Second time today. I swear, nobody ever calls me.”
“I’ll call you, Rose.”
“Thanks.” She put the phone to her ear. “Grandma?”
Briar’s voice leaked around the seal to Rose’s ear. “Rose, don’t tell them you lent me the car.”
“Briar, I didn’t lend you the car.” Rose rubbed her forehead. “Look, it’s too late. I already talked to the police.”
“Don’t tell them you lent me the car.”
“I already talked to them, all right? They know you had it.”
“Don’t turn your back on me, or else you’ll be sorry. Liam’s still mine. If they come after me, I’ll make you regret it.”
“I already regret it! What did you do?”
“Say it was you.”
“What was me? Breaking into a house? What else?”
“Figure it out.”
Rose gritted her teeth and shouldered away from Jasper, even though he could still hear everything. “You want me to lie for you? How can I confess when I don’t even know what I did? Anyway, it would never work.”
“We have the same DNA.”
“Yeah, but different fingerprints. And there’s a video! I’d lie for you if I could, Briar, but it’s too late. You should have given my car back when I asked.”
“You’ll regret this!” The phone went silent.
Rose pulled it away from her ear, wincing and shaking her head. She glared at Jasper. “That was your fault.”
“It was my fault Briar committed some crime with your vehicle that you should have listed as stolen to prevent this very scenario?”
She tapped the phone against his shoulder. “Okay, that’s not your fault. It’s your fault Briar hasn’t been around to prep me on her lie because she’s been out spending your money. I thought two grand would go faster, I really did.”
“And if she had prepped you? Would you have lied?”
Her lips pulled to the side. “No...”
“Then it doesn’t matter.”
“I would have known what not to say to the police. Briar can never keep her mouth shut. She would have bragged about what she ‘got away with’ and I would have stayed clear.”
“Thus implicating yourself. Again.”
“Not necessarily. I mean, I’m not a criminal genius, that’s for sure, but someone has to take responsibility, and if it’s just money…” She sighed and rubbed her forehead. “Well, I kno
w how to save, and I could always just accept the fine. She can’t take it on, anyway.”
He scooped her against his chest and nuzzled her. “You are the definition of a team member. Taking on the burden to distribute the weight. You can lift so much more when everyone works together.”
“Yeah, it’s the ‘together’ part that needs improving.” But she smiled and accepted his touch. Then, she noticed the neighbor watching, and she stepped back an appropriate distance. “Where’s Grandma?”
The neighbor answered. “She had to go to the doctor. The other appointment.”
“She didn’t tell me.” Rose’s expression dropped to horror. “Where’s Liam?”
The neighbor pointed.
Liam played two apartments down, with another family, in a sandbox. Rose’s shoulders sagged. “So, what does your spaceship do to combat bed bugs?”
“Nothing survives decontamination.”
“Good.” She called. “Liam! It’s time to go.”
He threw himself on the ground and arched his back. “I don’t want to!”
“Great. He skipped his nap.” She raised his voice. “Now.”
“I want to stay with Grandma!” He threw sand. It sprayed in the eyes of the near children. One stopped and blinked; another waddled into the house wailing for mama.
“We can’t, Liam. Don’t make me come over there. Jasper wants to go.”
“I’m not in a rush,” Jasper murmured to her.
“He’s just hungry.” Her stomach growled. “Ugh. I forgot to eat lunch.”
Jasper called his supplier while Rose marched Liam back to the house.
Luis meandered out on his porch, saw Jasper, and waved. “Hey, man, you’re back. You forgot your car here. I’m taking good care of it.”
“Thanks, Luis.”
“Yeah, man, no problem. You help me, I help you.” He sipped a beer. “So, you been chained to a wall, or what?”
“Only on the first day.”
He laughed. “Yeah? You know some crazy women.”
“Not by choice.”
Rose carried Liam under her arm. His arms and legs thrashed as he screamed. She shouted over his screams. “Okay. He’s ready.”
“Where’s his backpack?” Jasper asked.
“Oh, great.” She eased Liam to the ground and headed into the house. Liam raced for the sandbox.
