Delia began to stir. Zach babbled to himself as he thumped out of bed. Nick tucked his gun into the back of his waistband and shrugged on his shirt, drawing it down just in time to cover the grip as Zach and Delia came bursting into the hall. I pulled Vero’s door shut so they wouldn’t notice Javi packing her things.
Nick gritted his teeth. “I’ll go make some coffee.” He kissed my temple and turned to the kids. “Who wants pancakes?” Delia and Zach cheered and followed him eagerly to the kitchen.
I rapped quietly on Vero’s door before nudging it open. I leaned on the frame, watching Javi as he grabbed an armful of Vero’s sweaters.
“Does Vero need something?” I asked.
“I don’t know. She still hasn’t called me.”
“Why don’t I drive all this to her mother’s house for you? I’ll check on her and—”
“I can do it,” he said, taking Vero’s photo album and jamming it into the bag.
“I thought you weren’t welcome at Norma’s.”
“I’m not planning on staying.”
The key fob to his Camaro rested on the bed, and I had the horrible sense that I knew what he was planning.
“You can’t leave with her, Javi. She’s on house arrest. Her ankle bracelet will alert the police the minute she steps foot outside of her mother’s property. They’ll find her.”
“Not if I drive fast enough.” He zipped up the bag and carried it to the door.
I stood stubbornly in front of it until we were nearly eye to eye. “If she goes to trial, there’s still a chance that she’ll come home. But if she violates her house arrest and leaves the state, she’ll be running from those charges for the rest of her life. And you will be an accomplice.”
“She can’t stay where she is, Finlay! Everyone thinks she stole that money because she was the only poor Latina living in a sorority house full of white bitch princesses with rich daddies and their goddamn trust funds. And Vero looks guilty because she got scared and she ran.”
“So your answer is to convince her to run again?”
“They’re going to put her in prison!” His voice broke. “I’ve been behind bars, and that shit stays with you! It stays on your record,for the rest of yourlife. On every job application. Every rental form you fill out. It stays with you here,” he said, jabbing his chest with a finger. “I can’t let her go through that!”
“Then we’ll just have to make sure she’s acquitted.”
Javi scoffed. “Have you seen the guy who’s representing her? He’s barely got a pulse.” I couldn’t say I disagreed. The public defender assigned to her case was tired and jaded and long overdue for retirement. He certainly didn’t have Julian’s youthful energy or a single ounce of fire in his prominent belly. But when I had offered to help pay for someone better, the only criminal defense lawyers I could afford looked as professional as the ambulance chasers on billboards on I-95. And Vero’s mother certainly didn’t have the money for a fancy attorney. By the look on Javi’s face, he knew it, too. “That useless waste of space is going to push her to plead guilty. He’ll convince her it’s her only choice, but I can give her another one.”
I pushed him back into the room and closed the door. I lowered my voice so the kids wouldn’t hear us. “You and I both know Vero didn’t steal that money. Which means someone else did. The police just need to figure out who.”
Javi barked out a laugh. “You think the cops in Maryland are working overtime on that? As far as they’re concerned, the DA’s case is open-and-shut. Vero was the treasurer of her sorority. She was in charge of the money. It was in her room, and then suddenly it wasn’t. Case closed.”
“The cops aren’t the only ones who know how to solve a case,” I whispered, certain Nick was listening downstairs between the clatter of forks and plates and the children’s chatter. “If the police won’t do it, maybe it’s time we should.”
Javi’s eyes met mine.
Up until now, I had trusted that Vero’s hearings would allturn out okay because I trusted Nick, Georgia, Sam, and Julian. My sister, Georgia, was a good cop. Sam and Nick were good cops. And Julian had the passion and determination to be an excellent public defender someday. But Javi’s experience was different from mine and he brought up a fair point. Our legal system was far from perfect, and maybe I had trusted that system for too long. I didn’t know the detectives who’d been handling Vero’s case in Maryland. I didn’t know her attorney personally, or if he even cared. All I knew for certain was that Vero hadn’t committed this crime, and if we didn’t do something soon to help her, she was either going to jail or she was going to flee the state with Javi. Either way, she wouldn’t come back to this bedroom again, and that was a thought I simply couldn’t stomach.
Vero and I had cracked a cold case less than a month ago. Before that, we’d solved a pretty damn warm one. How difficult could it be to figure out who’d stolen a backpack full of cash from some teenage girls in a sorority house?
“Finish packing and wait for me downstairs,” I said. “I’m going with you to Maryland.”
“Everything okay?” Nick asked when I came down to the kitchen and poured myself some coffee.
“For now.”
He came up behind me and put his arms around me, his dark scruff tickling my ear as I turned to face him. “Want me to drive Delia to school on my way to the station?” It had become part of our routine on the nights when Nick stayed over, and I had been glad for the help.
“Thanks, but I’m going to keep her home today.” Nick raised an eyebrow. “I’m going to Maryland with Javi,” I explained. “I won’tmake it back in time for school pickup this afternoon. It’ll be easier if I take both kids with me.”
He frowned. “Is Vero okay?”
