“You totally got the answering machine right,” Harlow said.
Daisy sat up straighter.“I’m glad.I wouldn’t want to missa single message.”
“Yes,” Ruby agreed.“It was how we knew you were being heldby the police as a material witness to federal crimes.”
“Just drink.”Her mom put the whiskey in her da’s hand veryquickly.
And he drained it.
Yep, she was driving her sweet da to drink.
“I still don’t quite understand what happened,” AuntCharlotte said.
She’d gone over this again and again in the last twenty-fourhours.“So the woman came in and she’s getting married to this guy but shethinks her fiancé is cheating on her because once a month he goes to thisbuilding downtown.She’s followed him before but she’s never gone in, and shesaid when he would come out hours later he looked super satisfied.Like whenthey had sex.”
“I’m so glad she can expertly read facial expressions.”Uncle Ian looked like he was ready to giggle.
They always underestimated the younger generation.They hadgood instincts, too, though not in this case.“Anyway, so I thought he probablywasn’t cheating because she seemed sweet, you know.Like if some guy’s cheatingon her then we’re all in trouble.”
“Yes, we are all in trouble,” Harlow agreed.
“So I thought we would go down and maybe he was planning asurprise for their wedding,” Daisy explained.
Her da shook his head as her mom passed him another glass.“My poor, sweet, naïve girl.”
She wasn’t naïve.“Well, he wasn’t cheating.Turns out hewas checking on a shipment from his employer.”
“A shipment of what, Daisy?”Ruby asked.
As a boss, she was going to be the unrelenting one.“Atfirst I thought it was maybe, like, powder.”
She could have sworn her da had tears in his eyes.“Shewouldn’t know what cocaine is, much less what it looks like.My god, girl, youcould have been killed.”
“I mostly kept my distance, but then my client was angry andshe rushed out of the spot where we were hiding,” Daisy continued.
“You went into the building?”her da asked, horror evidentin his tone.
“Of course.How else would I have gotten the pictures of herfiancé meeting with the head of the cartel?They were good pictures, too.Whosays cell phones can’t take excellent pictures?When I realized this was likemy first case, I even thought to get a selfie with the drug lord in thebackground.”It had been an excellent picture.“But the police made me take itdown.I was getting good reach and everything.”
Now her uncle simply laughed his ass off.“She put it onInstagram.”
“You looked good, sweetie,” Aunt Charlotte said.“You got agreat angle.”
“Do not encourage her.”Her mother was not amused.
“Like I said, I kind of thought it was all okay until Britexted me.She told me she thought it was probably cocaine and I should get outof there before the cartel people killed me.”Her friends always looked out forher.She’d gotten severalyou’re about to dietexts, and Cooper McKayhad shown up with her brother in tow just in time to watch her get carted offby the police.
Law and Ordermade interrogations look glamourous.They had kept her there for hours, and the snacks had been terrible.
“It’s me fault,” her da was saying.“I should never have lether out in the world alone.”
He didn’t understand.“Like I said, Da, I wasn’t alone.Theclient was with me.And she got upset and yelled, and that was how the peoplefigured out we were hiding.I got into the building through a window they leftopen.I didn’t think I could wriggle through, but I totally did.I think I’mtruly cut out for this line of work.”
“I do, too, kiddo,” Uncle Ian said.
It was good to know at least one person believed in her.
Mitch Bradford had been quiet the whole time, but he leanedforward now.“Ian, this is serious.I don’t want to think about what would havehappened if she hadn’t posted a dumbass pic to social media.Her friendsfigured out where she was and called the police immediately.”
