“Sir, she needs to be cleaned up first, and she needs to call her lawyer.”
He snaps his head around to look at Wade. “Did she ask for legal counsel?”
Wade grits his teeth before indicating to the pad in my hand. “She wrote down the details for me to call them.”
I have no idea how he saw that, but I’m grateful.
The chief pulls the pad from my hand and tosses it on Wade’s desk. “She had the chance to ask, and she didn’t. I don’t play games.”
“She can’t speak?—”
“Yes, she can. She’s just choosing not to. Trust me, I’ve known Miss Wells all her life,” he says with such disdain, he grabs the attention of everyone around us.
“Sir—” Wade tries again, but the chief glares at him.
“You are dangerously close to finding yourself reprimanded, Wade. I’d have thought, given what this girl did to your friend, you’d know better than to fall for a pretty face.”
Wade’s mouth drops open in shock for the second time since he arrived, and he’s not the only one.
Before anyone can say anything else, the chief grabs my wrist, making me yelp. He grins victoriously. “Told you she could speak.”
I look at him as if he’s an idiot because he is. His face darkens with anger before he pulls me away toward the interrogation rooms. I turn to look at Wade, who is on his phone, his eyes fixed on mine. In them, I see something I haven’t seen for so long that it almost brings me to my knees. His expression is one of promise. He’ll get me out of here. I just need to hold on. Here, where it all started in a small-town police station, where my life was pulled apart, he’s asking me to have faith. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at the irony, but something tells me not to write Wade off just yet.
Chapter Ten
BANNER
Marcus stops near his truck and answers his phone before his eyes dart around to look at me. I don’t hear what he says, but he nods and hangs up as I jog over.
“I need a copy of the footage from the coffee shop for Wade, ASAP.”
“I’ll send it over now.”
“Can you hack the cameras on the van?”
“No, but I don’t need to. I can access them with the van being open and copy the data.”
“Is that gonna be admissible in court?”
“If I broke in, no. But the cop left the van open for everyone. He effectively gave us access, and Wade gave us permission when he asked us to bring footage in.”
He blows out a deep breath and runs his hand through his hair. “Send me what you have while I get it to Wade.”
“If I send it to him directly, why go in at all?”
Marcus glares at me. “Something was really fucking off in Wade’s voice. More is going down than we’re privy to. I want togo down there and make it very clear we know what went down, so this isn’t brushed under the rug.”
“I’ll come with?—”
“No. If you go in there and fuck it up because it’s Sorrow?—”
Now, it’s my turn to cut him off. “I know how to do my fucking job, Marcus.”
His shoulders drop before he nods. “Fine. We’ll take my car. I’ll drive while you send the footage.”
“Give me a second.” I head back to my truck and retrieve my belongings from inside, including my messenger bag containing my laptop. I go to the van next and download the footage from the cameras onto a thumb drive before heading back to Marcus. I climb in beside him and strap in before slipping the thumb drive into the laptop. I download the footage and send a copy to Wade, Blake, and myself before watching it.
There is no sound, but the view is much clearer now that they are closer to the cameras. I pick up the smirk on the rookie’s face and the look of resignation on Sorrow’s. I watch everything play out and still have no idea what’s happening. Neither of us speaks until we pull up at the station.
