“Some. Banner was trying to give me more this morning, but we kept getting interrupted.”
Wade leans back and starts at the beginning, telling Blake everything that happened before Marcus and I arrived at the station, and at the hospital after we left.
Blake whistles. “So this isn’t an isolated incident?”
“Not even close. And right now, I’m worried about Sorrow’s safety.”
I stand straight and move closer. “What do you mean, safety? You think someone will hurt her?”
“Shewashurt, Banner, and by a cop, of all things. Shit like that just gives the rest of the residents a green light to do thesame. You should have seen the way she was treated at the hospital. If I weren’t with her, I wouldn’t be surprised if she were still waiting in the room today to be stitched up.”
“She needed stitches?” I curse. I saw the bandages, of course. I just didn’t realize it was that bad.
“This whole thing is volatile. And all it will take is for someone to make sparks, and everything will go up in flames.”
“She said she’s leaving. She just needs to sell her mom’s place.”
“I wouldn’t bank on that happening. Not if the realtors are anything like the other residents. They’ll make selling as difficult as possible. But right now, my main concern is her safety. I know if something happens to her or she’s threatened, the last thing she’s going to do is call the cops. I mean, would you?”
Marcus curses, each of us realizing how quickly this situation is deteriorating.
“You want to hire us to watch over her?” Blade guesses.
Wade nods. “I’m limited in what I can do, but you’re not.”
Blade steeples his fingers and leans his elbows on his desk in contemplation. “Alright. I’ll put someone on her, but I won’t be charging you for it. This is my town too. It’s not just your job to keep people safe, Wade.”
“Fucking feels like it sometimes,” he grumbles, looking exhausted.
“I’ll watch her,” I offer before I can back out.
“Not sure that’s a good call here, Banner,” Blake states, watching me.
“I won’t let anything happen to her. Besides, I’m right next door.”
“Your family has a lot of pull in this town. They won’t be happy with you guarding her. They’ll expect you to step down.”
“They don’t get a say in how I do my job.”
Wade sighs but leans forward. “I’m not trying to kick up a hornet’s nest here, but you have to know if you do this. It’s going to ruffle a lot of feathers, especially when I do some digging.”
“Digging?” Marcus cocks his eyebrow.
“Something one of the detectives said. I can’t shake it. He told me to go all the way back to the beginning.”
“The beginning…you mean Alec’s death?”
Wade nods.
“She was already convicted, Wade. I’m not sure anything good can come from playing with skeletons.”
“That’s easy for you to say, Banner, when you’re not the one who had your freedom stripped from you.”
He holds up his hand to stop me when I go to speak. “I’m not saying I’ll dig up anything new or that it will change anything. But after today, I want to make sure we didn’t railroad an innocent girl and put her in prison because it was easier to point and lay blame at her feet than to look in the mirror and ask why it all played out with a seventeen-year-old girl facing down a whole town while she stood alone.”
Chapter Thirteen
SORROW
