“I just had to grab a file, and then… my girlfriend is babysitting her niece for a few days and… how do people sleep with babies in the house?” he whines.
“I borrowed a baby for a few days once,” Micah says. “Got me all of the attention. I didn’t even have to fight to draw my subject in. She trotted right over.”
“How do youborrowa baby?” Everly asks.
“We borrowed a young child for a while,” I comment. “We kept her in the closet?—”
Of course that’s the moment the door opens and Patel waltzes in. “I’m…wildlyinterested in hearing about this child.”
“She was so cute, I wanted to keep her for myself,” I say.
“She was a neighbor in a bad situation,” Jackson explains, like he’s worried Patel might get the wrong idea based off something I said. “We found her father, though. She… knew we were PIs and was hoping we could figure out who her father was.” It’s impressive how well he makes what really happened condense down into something that sounds legitimate.
“Oh…” Patel seems to be taken aback by our level of epicness. I don’t blame her. Maybe she wants to be adopted by us too and chill in our closet.
“You needed something?” Jackson asks.
She’s back to business as usual. “I do. Where were you yesterday?”
“The real question is… where were you all my life?” Micah asks with a grin and a wink.
Patel’s expression doesn’t evenchange,yet Micah is undeterred. Does this man really think he’s going to flirt his way into making Patel stop bothering us? I’m afraid he has a lot to learn if he thinks he’s going to win any part of this.
“And you are?” she asks, like she’s asking a tick that is attached to her pet.
“You can call me anything you’d like,” he says.
Patel seems to decide she has no interest at all in dealing with Micah, and instead, fixates on Everly who is over there fiddling with things on my desk. I can’t help but wonder if she recognizes Everly from her time dealing with Waylon’s brother and venturing into the prison more than once because of Lucas’s annoying ass.
Turning back to me, she asks, “Where were you yesterday?”
I gesture toward Micah. “Our friend Micah had a get-together at his place. Jackson and I ended up having too much to drink and stayed over. What’s going on?” I question, acting as if I’m concerned.
“Where do you live?” Patel asks Micah, as though she’s going to head right over to his place and verify that my body was present at some point during the past twenty-four hours. Like is she going to dig through the trash and try to find a can with my fingerprints on it?
Micah winks. “Usually, I take a girl out on a date before I invite her inside.”
“I’m sorry,” Jackson says. “I don’t want to seem rude, but… what’s this about? Did something happen?”
She watches us for a moment, like she can’t fathom that there’s any way that we’re not up to date on what’s happened, especially when she’s convinced we were involved… not that she’s wrong. “Do you have receipts or anything that places you here yesterday?”
“We stopped to get gas; did you grab the receipt?” I ask Jackson.
He shakes his head. “I don’t usually take the receipt unless I’m driving places for work purposes.”
“Where did you stop? I’m sure they’d have a record,” Patel says.
“Where’s your partner?” Everly asks. “I know I’m not a police officer, but I’ve worked with enough to know that you work in pairs… does that mean you’re not here on official business?”
Patel hesitates. “My partner is out in the car. You think I need her in here? I’m simply asking questions.”
“We went to that gas station off Front Street,” I say. “The one on the corner near the library. Can’t remember which it is.” I do remember which it is because Cassel informed me that it doesn’t have a working security system. She can run over, but she’ll never be able to prove that we weren’t there.
She watches me closely. “I don’t believe you,” she states. “I know you’re involved. And you can either tell me now, or I’m going to figure it out myself.”
“Oh… kay? Good luck with that. I’m sorry I can’t tell you whatever it is that you want to hear.”
Patel steps closer to me. “It’ll hurt a lot less if you don’t fuck with me.”
