“Not in our line of work, as you can probably tell.”
I pull away to look up at him. “Well, I don’t know anything about being a lawyer, but your heart led you to help people start their businesses, and that’s important too.”
“Did Monika tell you that when she did a background check on me?”
I smile a little. “Yes. I told her not to, but she did anyway.”
“I would expect nothing less.”
“Why don’t you just quit being a lawyer to focus on investing instead? I can see how much you love the coffee shop, and I’m sure you love your other businesses too.”
“Our family firm goes back four generations of James men who have served our community. Jalen already jumped ship to start his crisis management firm. If I leave, then there won’t be any Jameses left.” He pauses and shakes his head. “That’s a conversation for another time, though. I need to make a few calls to find out when they expect you to come back in to give your print so that I can try to put it off as long as possible.”
I step back to let him get to work, but he tightens his grip on me. “I only need one hand to make a call, so where do you think you’re going?”
I laugh despite the heaviness that has settled into my bones and take another purposeful step back to put some spacebetween us. “I want to call Monika again, so let’s divide and conquer.”
He concedes, and we go to opposite ends of the room to try and figure out a way to keep me out of custody, at least for tonight. As I am about to click the button to call Monika, though, my phone rings in my hand with an incoming call from the person that I never expected to hear from again.
I hold up the phone to my ear. “Hello?”
“Drew, it’s Judith. I need to talk to you. It’s urgent.”
Chapter forty-eight
ENOUGH
“Hello,areyouthere?”Judith asks when I am still too stunned to speak.
“I’m here,” I manage. She sighs in relief.
“Good. Listen, Drew. I’ve been following the case online from where I am hiding out, and I’m sure you already know about the rumors going around about you, but I just wanted to tell you that I know for certain that Ollie and Val did this, so that you can throw their names out next time you talk to the police.”
I black out for a split second as her words hit me. “What rumors?”
“Some anonymous person is all over the message boards saying they have a source at the department, and that you are about to be arrested for Delaney’s murder. I don’t believe it, though, because I am good at reading people. I’ve had to do it my entire career in retail, so that I knew what customers were there to spend money, and which ones were just wasting my time. Val, on the other hand, gave me a very bad vibe from the second I mether. I’m not sure if Ollie helped her off Delaney, but I’m sure he at least helped her to cover it up.”
I bring my hand up to my temple to press against the headache that has just formed there. “Val didn’t murder Delaney,” I say. “She gave a print and was cleared, among other things.”
“Maybe it was Leah then,” she pivots. “She’s a liar, Drew. She lied about being a teacher, and so many other things.” When I don’t respond, she continues with her crazy theory. “My daughter is anactualteacher, so I tried to play nice and ask Leah about the teacher shortage crisis in education right now to make conversation. She had no clue what I was talking about.”
“She’s not from North Carolina, though. Things might be different in Jersey,” I argue, but keep the fact that Monika confirmed her teaching license to myself. Clearly, Judith is just throwing every name at the wall and hoping something sticks.
“It’s a nationwide shortage,” she argues. “And I Googled it after we spoke, just to make sure that my distrust of her wasn’t unfounded. New Jersey is affected too.”
I bite my tongue to keep from saying that her dislike of every single person at the retreat was the only thing that was unfounded and decide it’s time to end the call. “Thanks for looking out for me, Judith. I really appreciate it, but I need to go now.”
“Trust me,” she says, but I hang up anyway, having heard more than enough.
I turn back to gauge how Cameron’s call to Detective Cartwright is going and stop myself from pressing Monika’s contact when I see him rubbing the back of his neck.
“Thanks so much, Cartwright. For everything,” he says, then hangs up.
“Did he have any news?”
“Yes, although none of it was good. Apparently, he has been put on admin leave starting immediately.”
“What?”
