He scoffed. “You owe me more than one.” Then he turned back to his paperwork.
The man wasn’t wrong. I left him in peace and jogged down to the main level to see Kelsey waiting with Teddy at her side. They looked right together.
“Hi,” I said. “Are you ready, Kelsey?”
She was pale but pretty in a light-weight blue sundress. “No, but let’s do it. Can Teddy come?”
Teddy shifted his feet and looked around the police station. With his arm still in a sling and a bruise on his neck from the crash, he looked kind of tough, even with the perfect blond hair cut and beige cargo pants. “I don’t mind waiting here so you can talk to your sister. I’ve never even met her.”
“Good plan,” I said, drawing Kelsey toward the steps. When we’d reached the second floor, I whispered, “That seems to be going well.” I led her toward the interrogation rooms.
“Yeah. He’s sweet and a lot of fun. I’m also seeing Saber on Friday, and Kurt Stockwood asked me out for Saturday night. I figured I needed to stop getting serious about a guy and figure out my life, but there’s no reason not to have some fun dating,” Kelsey said.
I grinned. “You are so right.” Excellent. Kelsey should play the field for a while as she figured out her life. Although, she didn’t know that Kurt was an ATF agent, so how close could they become? “How are things with Kurt going?” Just what had the guy told her?
“Fine. I like that he’s in private security,” Kelsey said. “Doesn’t that sound romantic? I’m thinking perhaps I could work with him. I like security.”
As much as I loved her positive attitude, nothing was going to work out until we got these charges dropped. “You know your sister better than I do. How can we get through to her?”
“She’s a murderer who was running gun parts illegally,” Kelsey said. “I don’t know her.”
Fair enough. I pushed open the door to see Krissy with her back to us, her cuffed hands secured to the table. She wore an orange jumpsuit that was too big for her frame. We shut the door and walked around to sit. The cameras and audio devices were all turned off, as per Krissy’s agreement to meet with us.
She looked at her sister. “Hi.”
Kelsey fumbled with her chair. “Hi.”
I could see the resemblance between them. They both had green eyes and similar bone structure.
Krissy looked down at the table. “I don’t know why you wanted to talk.”
Kelsey’s head jerked up. “Are you kidding me? You killed my boyfriend. Ex-boyfriend. Whatever. You’re a killer, Krissy, and now you want me to go to jail, too? How can you do that?”
Krissy stared at her hands. “They offered me a good deal. I have to take it. You don’t know how hard prison is.”
Kelsey’s mouth dropped open. Pain and tension cut lines into her usually smooth face. “So you want me to find out?”
“No,” Krissy said, lifting up to meet her sister’s gaze. “I don’t. The deal is that I testify against you and get time off my sentence, even if you’re not convicted.”
That was rare. Orrin really had wanted a deal, now hadn’t he? I stepped in. “Your testimony is really going to hurt her, Krissy. What if she gets convicted?”
Krissy shook her head. “She won’t be convicted. You’re good in court. I’ve seen you.”
“You never know what a jury will decide,” I retorted. “I can’t believe you’d do this to your own sister.”
“Please, Krissy,” Kelsey said, reaching for her sister’s hand. “Mom and Dad are out of town, and our other sisters are too busy to talk, or so they say. You’re ruining my life, and I didn’t do anything wrong. You know that.”
Tears filled Krissy’s eyes. “Danny deserved to die. He was a jerk who hit you.”
“I know,” Kelsey said, also crying.
Krissy had also killed Danny because she didn’t want to be exposed for stealing illegal gun equipment from a dangerous fringe group, but there was no need to challenge her right now. I stayed quiet as the sisters talked.
Finally, Krissy went limp. “All right. I don’t want you to go to jail, and I’ll recant my testimony. I didn’t think there was a chance you’d be convicted.”
There was always a chance.
My mood lifted finally. Good. Kelsey was going to be off the hook, and hopefully I would be soon, too. I smiled at her. We’d both been falsely accused, and it looked like the justice system was actually working.
