Grain of Truth (Innocence Unit Book 1)

by V. J. Chambers

  “Um, well, it’s not a big deal, but I maybe kind of got arrested.”

  He sat straight up. “What did you do?”

  “Nothing,” she said.

  “Is anyone…” Dead? “Hurt?”

  “No,” she said. “Well, not really.”

  “Not really?”

  “Iain, this is my one phone call. You think you can come and get me out of here?”

  He groaned. “Let me guess. If I post bail, you’ll pay me back?”

  “Don’t you have friends you can talk to? You’re a police officer.”

  No, he didn’t have friends. Not many, anyway. They didn’t much like him there, and that was why they’d kicked him out and sent him to work elsewhere. Not that he minded his new job at the CRU. In fact, he was starting to really like it. He thought it was a good fit for him. But he might be able to get her out, anyway. It depended on what she’d done. “What’d they pick you up for, Harley? Who’s hurt?”

  “It was just a bar fight,” she said. “I don’t know why someone called the cops. I threw a couple punches, pulled her hair. They arrested her too.”

  A bar fight. So classy. This was going to be embarrassing.

  “Iain?” she said.

  “Yeah, I’m on my way,” he muttered and hung up.

  Then he stared at his phone, wondering if he should have said no. After all, nothing about Harley was worth this kind of hassle.

  He didn’t know what it was between him and Harley. He only knew that when she needed him, he always came running.

  Like a damned dog.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  “Man, what is this chick to you, anyway?” Stubbs was saying. Stubbs was Iain’s old partner. They were standing in the lobby of the police station. Stubbs’s hair was a little bit mussed, because he’d been sleeping when Iain had called him and gotten him out of bed. Iain and Stubbs weren’t friendly, not exactly, but they had been through a lot together. If anyone was going to help him out, it was Stubbs. Iain didn’t know who else to call.

  Everyone liked Stubbs. People did favors for Stubbs. They didn’t so much do that for Iain.

  “She’s a friend,” said Iain.

  “Yeah?” Stubbs shoved his hands into his pockets. “A good friend, I guess. You’re the reason she’s still out on the streets in the first place.”

  Iain looked away.

  “You swore up and down what she did was self-defense. But she just got picked up for fighting, huh? Maybe she’s more violent than you think.”

  Iain rubbed his forehead. “It was self-defense.”

  “Come on, man, would you just admit that you’re fucking her or whatever? Why it is always this ‘friend’ shit?”

  Iain flinched.

  “I don’t know,” said Stubbs. “Maybe you aren’t fucking her. Maybe you’re just blank between your legs like a Ken doll. I cannot figure you out.”

  Iain glared at him. “What does it matter? And how is it your business?”

  “It’s my business because you’re asking me to stick my neck out for her. And I don’t get why. If you tell me it’s because she’s pussy, then at least it makes sense.”

  Iain’s jaw twitched. He stared at Stubbs and his voice was bland. “She’s pussy.”

  Stubbs did a double take, and then he started laughing.

  Iain felt himself flushing. The whole thing was mortifying. He knew what everyone on the police force thought of Harley. She wasn’t a criminal or anything, but she did have a way of misbehaving. The thing with Dale, that had been the worst of it, but she really had been in danger from him. Still, she wasn’t the kind of girl that someone like Iain should be associating with, and he knew that. He knew how it made him look. He should have told her to screw herself.

  Stubbs clapped him on the back, still chuckling. “You know, maybe you’re not as much of a tightass as everyone says, Hudson.”

  Jesus. Iain looked over Stubbs shoulder, wishing the ground would swallow him up.

  “I’ll talk to Nash, okay? I’ll release her into your custody. But she skips out on her hearing, and this blows back on me, I will straight-up murder your ass.”

  “I got it,” said Iain. “Thank you. I’m sorry for getting you out of bed.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Stubbs rolled his head on his shoulders. “Well, I did owe you for the times you covered for me when I was late.”

  That was true. And Stubbs had been late a lot.

  “All right,” said Stubbs. “Wait here. I should have her out in twenty minutes, all right?”

  * * *

  “No, you’re not coming back to my place,” said Iain. He was driving through the streets of the city.

  “What?” said Harley from the passenger seat of the car. She had scratches on her face and a bloody nose. She looked awful. “But I thought I was released into your custody.”

  “I’m taking you to your house, and putting you to bed. I’ll stay until you’re asleep.”

  “No, you can’t take me there,” she said. “I don’t want you there.”

  “Too bad.”

  “No, Iain, no.”

  “You don’t get a choice in this,” he said.

  She folded her arms over her chest. “Why can’t we go back to your place?”

  “Because you’re going to sleep in, and you’ll be there when I wake up, and I can not deal with you in the morning,” he said.

  “Seriously?” she said. “Why not? When you see me in the morning, you realize I’m a dirty slut that’s beneath you?”

  He glanced at her. “Something like that.”

  “Fuck you.”

  He was quiet.

  “You’re just mad at me,” she said finally. “You don’t really think that about me.”

  “I am mad,” he said. “I’m really damned pissed. You can’t do this to me anymore.”

  “Anymore? It’s not like I get arrested all the time or anything.”

  He didn’t say anything.

  “It’s not.” Her voice was rising in pitch. “Look, screw you. You can just pull over and let me out here.”

  “No,” he said. “Like you said, you’re in my custody. I have to make sure you don’t break any other laws tonight.”

  “I don’t want you at my house.”

  “Well, that’s where we’re going, so you can deal with it.”

  She hugged herself. “Damn it.”

  “Why’s it such a big deal, anyway?”

  “It’s a mess. I’m embarrassed.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Oh, sure.”

  “I’m serious,” she said. “It’s not good. Especially upstairs. You promise me you won’t go upstairs. It’s a disaster up there. And your place is always so neat and tidy. I don’t want you to see it. Hell, Iain, I’m already embarrassed enough about tonight. I would have called someone else if I had anyone else to call.”

  “Whatever.”

  “Promise me you won’t go upstairs.”

  “Your bed’s upstairs. I’m not leaving until I know you’re sound asleep.”

  “I can sleep on the couch.”

  “This is silly, Harley. I’ve seen your messy house before. You never cared then.”

  “It’s worse,” she said. “So much worse. And I did so care, I just pretended I didn’t.”

  This woman was going to drive him insane. “Okay, okay. Fine. I won’t go upstairs.”

  * * *

  But when he got to her house, he didn’t think it was all that messy at all. In fact, it seemed cleaner than usual. It reminded him of the way it had looked when Dale lived there. He used to insist she kept the place spick-and-span. Iain thought she probably didn’t clean just as a rebellion to all of that. The guy had been a bastard. Deserved the bullet he got, however it had happened.

  Iain didn’t like thinking about that, so he put it from his head. He was tired, so he didn’t make any waves. He waited while she got cleaned up and then he tucked her in on the couch.

  When she was lying there, covers up to her chin, s
he looked younger, like when she was a teenager, when they’d first met. She yawned. “What would I do without you, Iain?”

  “I don’t know,” he said.

  One of her hands snaked out from under the covers to stroke his jaw. “Thank you,” she whispered.

  “Yeah,” he said.

  “I mean it,” she said. “Thank you. You’re my white knight, you know?”

  He sighed. “I don’t know why you have to get yourself into so much trouble, Harley.”

  “I don’t either,” she said. She wrapped her hand around his neck and pulled his face down.

  He kissed her.

  They broke away, and they gazed into each other’s eyes.

  He sat back up. “Go to sleep, Harley.”

  Obediently, she closed her eyes. It didn’t take long until she was completely asleep. He slipped out the front door and drove back to his apartment.

  In the lobby of the building, a man was sitting and scrolling on his phone. When he saw Iain, he leaped to his feet. “God, I knew I’d catch you on your way back. I can’t believe I missed you before.”

  Iain furrowed his brow. Who the hell was this?

  “So, Mick Thomas, Haven Hills Daily News. Can I ask you a couple of questions?”

  “You’re a reporter?”

  “It’s about the case you’re working on with the Conviction Review Unit. We’ve heard that it’s the Mukherjee case from twenty-five years ago. Is that true?”

  Iain rubbed his face and started walking toward the elevator.

  Mick came after him. “I hear you’re testing DNA, but I don’t understand why. Obviously, if Saanvi Mukherjee lived in the house and Kevin Greene was a frequent visitor, their DNA would have been everywhere. What’s the point of the DNA testing?”

  Iain reached the elevator bank. He pushed the up button.

  “Come on, man. I’ve been camped out here since seven this evening. Give me something.”

  Iain surveyed him. “It’s late.”

  “I know that.”

  “I don’t want to talk to you.”

  “I’m just trying to do my job,” said Mick.

  “Well, I’m just trying to go to bed.”

  “Come on, just one comment. Please?”

  Where was the damned elevator? Iain tapped his foot against the floor.

  “The DNA. Why the DNA?”

  Iain sighed. “We’re not looking for Saanvi’s or Kevin’s DNA.”

  “Then whose?”

  “Some other suspects we have,” said Iain. “The best way to clear their names is to find out who actually did it.”

  “But if you know they’re innocent, then that’s all you need, right? You don’t need to know the real murderer.”

  The elevator door opened. Iain stepped inside. “Who knows? If we want the department and the DA to believe us, maybe we do need to find the murderer.”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  “All right, hold on, who are you again?” said Rory Gutierrez. She was sitting behind her desk at the office where she worked. Nowadays, instead of being an angry student, she worked as a manager at a bank. “You’re police officers?”

  “He’s a police officer,” said Elke, pointing at Iain. “I’m a lawyer. We work for the Conviction—”

  “Review Unit. Yeah, I got that,” said Rory. “I guess I’m confused as to why you’re talking to me.”

  “We’re going over the Mukherjee case,” said Iain.

  “Because…?” Rory raised her eyebrows.

  “We want to make sure that justice was served the first time through,” said Elke. “We want to make sure the right person was locked up for the murder.”

  “Oh,” said Rory, smiling knowingly. “And so I’m a suspect again, then. Great.” She looked up at the clock above the door. “Listen, I learned some things the first time around, like the fact that I don’t have to talk to anyone if I’m not being detained. So, is that happening? You guys going to bring me in and hold me and question me?”

  Elke shook her head, forcing a big smile on her face. “You’ve got this all wrong. All we’re trying to do is go over what you said and rule you out.”

  “Yeah,” said Rory. “That’s what they said last time.”

  “And they did rule you out,” said Elke.

  “Yeah, because I have an alibi,” said Rory.

  “Let’s start at the beginning,” said Elke. “Can you tell us a little bit about your relationship with Dr. Mukherjee?”

  “Whoa, we didn’t have a relationship. He was old and married, and I was not about to… no.”

  Elke sighed. “I mean, your working relationship.”

  “Oh,” said Rory, laughing a little. “Okay, well, I guess, um, it was mostly good. I thought it was anyway. But he was apparently, like, really passive aggressive, because he was very displeased with my performance, but never said anything until he gave me that failing grade.”

  “You were his work study. What does that mean, exactly?”

  “I basically was like an assistant, only I didn’t get paid in money. I got paid with a grade. I was there three days a week for an hour, and I helped with all the things he was doing in the health clinic at the college, which was basically like a doctor’s office.”

  “So, you didn’t think the grade was fair?”

  “No,” she said. “I didn’t. At the time, I was young and kind of naive. I didn’t really understand how the world works. And I guess I actually hadn’t been doing a great job, after all. I mean, I was late a lot, and I didn’t have the greatest attendance, but like I said, he never indicated to me that I was going to fail. I thought maybe he’d give me a C or something. The thing was, it wasn’t even related to my major. I needed credits to graduate, and that was the only thing I could fit into my schedule. And he was taking it seriously, like I should really want to learn about illnesses and medicines and shots and stuff? But I didn’t care. I just wanted to get my credits and get out of there, you know?”

  “When you got the grade, how did you feel?”

  “I was pretty angry. I went to the clinic and I yelled at him. He didn’t yell back. He was completely composed. He let me finish, and then he told me to leave or else he would call campus security. I left, and then two days later, he was dead.”

  “How angry were you with him?”

  “I was furious. I wasn’t going to graduate on time, and I was disgusted. I thought it was the worst thing that could possibly happen to me. But it ended up being fine. I took a summer class and got the credits, and it only took a couple extra months to graduate. It was nothing. It definitely isn’t a motive for murder. Besides, like I said, I have an alibi.”

  “About that,” said Iain. “I talked to your old roommate recently.”

  Rory’s eyes darted toward the door and then toward the window, and then back to them. “Okay?”

  “She admits that you weren’t with her, and that you blackmailed her into providing that alibi,” said Iain.

  Rory’s lips parted.

  “Where were you the night of the murder?” said Elke.

  Rory stood up. “If I’m not being detained, I don’t think I have anything else to say.”

  Elke sighed. “You know that if you don’t cooperate with us, it will only make us more suspicious.”

  “I think I want you to leave,” said Rory.

  * * *

  Zachary Wheeler shook hands with Elke and then offered his hand to Iain. “We know our rights, and we don’t have to talk to you.” He was smiling affably. Wheeler was a slim man in his late forties. His blond hair was cut short against his head. He wore a striped polo shirt and a pair of khakis.

  “But we’re curious about this new evidence,” said Joseph Chapman, shaking Elke’s hand after shaking Iain’s. “We’ve always found this case pretty interesting.”

  “We think maybe the brownie daughter was sort of a tool of the Almighty or something,” said Wheeler. “That mutt took that scumbag off this earth. He didn’t deserve better.”

>   “No?” said Elke. That was quite a way to lead things off if you didn’t want to appear suspicious, wasn’t it? These two were arrogant bastards, and she would have liked nothing better than to find something—anything—that they were guilty of.

  The two received Elke and Iain in their recording studio, where they recorded their podcast, a mixture of conspiracy theory, radical politics, and pure hatred towards other races. There was a poster on the wall of a gun that said, Preserve the 2nd Amendment. An overflowing ashtray sat on the table between the men.

  Chapman took out a cigarette. “Mind if I smoke?”

  “Actually, yes,” Iain spoke up.

  Chapman snickered. He lit the cigarette anyway.

  Iain made a pained expression.

  It only made Elke more annoyed with these men. They were like wolves in disguise. They spoke well, and they were intelligent, so they didn’t seem to fit into the stereotype of the typical racially prejudiced bumpkins, but their arrogance gave it all away. They were ignorant and hateful.

  “So, what’s the new evidence?” said Wheeler.

  “DNA,” said Iain, who was more and more talkative these days. “Don’t suppose you two would like to give us a sample?”

  “Are you kidding?” said Chapman. “So that you could falsify the evidence and frame us? Yeah, right.”

  “Didn’t think so,” said Iain.

  “What kind of DNA we talking about here?” said Wheeler.

  “How about we ask the questions?” said Elke. “Why don’t you tell us about how you first came to know of Dr. Abeer Mukherjee?”

  “A college girl wrote an anonymous letter to the editor about how she’d had an abortion and regretted it, and said that the curry-nigger doctor pushed her into it,” said Chapman. “That pretty much set us off.”

  Elke choked at the racial slur.

  “Sorry,” said Chapman, but he didn’t sound sorry. “The, uh, doctor of Indian descent pushed her into it.”

  “And not just us,” said Wheeler. “There were a lot of other groups pretty angry too.”