The second officer read Christopher his rights.
“What am I charged with?” Christopher said when he’d finished.
“As if you don’t know.” Meghan stomped down the stairs and grabbed my arm again, but I refused to budge.
I needed an explanation.
“They found work gloves with red paint and your missing socks and underwear,” said Meghan. “In his desk. At work.” She hissed the final words.
Meghan had it wrong. Eric must have planted the evidence. That explained the missing security card. Christopher was innocent. A tight band formed around my chest. I wanted to explain what must have happened. Tears gathered in my eyes. I clenched my jaw to keep them from falling. I couldn’t find my voice.
Christopher shook his head. His beautiful blue eyes trained on me. “Lizzie, I promise it wasn’t me. You know who it was. We’ll figure this out.”
I nodded to reassure him, though I was scared. This was all wrong.
The taller officer handcuffed Christopher, who didn’t resist.
“Mr. Winters, you’re coming with us,” said the first officer. “Ladies, please return to the house.”
She still trained her gun on my boyfriend. As he turned toward the police car, she holstered her gun. I shook like a leaf. It hadn’t been Christopher in my house, moving things, taking things. Eric had framed him.
I jerked away from Meghan again and tried to get to Christopher so I could say goodbye. My voice wouldn’t work. I tried to scream, but it was only the sound of air, not his name. I needed him to know that I believed him.
The officer blocked my attempts to get to Christopher.
“Calm down, Miss. He can’t hurt you anymore.”
The dam burst as tears of frustration broke free. I wanted to explain that it couldn’t have been Christopher. At the time of the break-ins and paint, we’d been together at his house. I could vouch for his innocence.
“Lizzie,” Christopher said, “You know it wasn’t me.”
His voice soothed me, and I nodded. I focused on his eyes. He was telling the truth. Every fibre of my being believed him.
“I’ll call a lawyer, don’t worry. I promise we’ll sort it out.”
He radiated calm, but I didn’t know how he managed. Tears streamed down my face as they guided him to the back seat of the navy blue and white police cruiser, slammed the doors, and drove away. I wrapped my arms around myself and squeezed.
Meghan tried to comfort me by putting her arm around me. I shoved her away and took out my phone, turning it on with shaking hands. I had five missed phone calls. Four from her today and one from Andrew yesterday. They’d tried to warn me. We hadn’t told them where we were going in case the goons from Real Tech became desperate for our location. My family couldn’t give us away if they didn’t know. We’d said we were going on a retreat and that we wouldn’t regularly check our phones. I had twenty-seven messages from her I didn’t have time to read.
“What the hell?”I shook with fury, making it hard to text.
“Come inside and I’ll explain. It’s cold out here.”
Once more, she tried to wrap her arm around me. I threw it off.
“Don’t touch me.”My face burned and now that the tears had stopped, my blood boiled. I stalked into the house. I wanted an explanation.
The scents of roasting turkey and the cinnamon of sweet apple pie filled the house, but I wasn’t interested in either. Andrew and Dad stood in the kitchen by the table. They’d watched from inside. Cowards.
“Meghan and I ran into Eric on Tuesday.” Andrew held up his hands. “No, I didn’t run him over with my car.”
It was supposed to be a joke, but I wasn’t amused. I was so irate that I couldn’t see straight. My heart pounded like I’d run a marathon and it was all I could do not to grab him by the shoulders and shake his words loose.
“I can see you’re upset, but let me explain,” he said.
Anger blazed from my eyes, and he stepped back. I took a deep breath. When nobody spoke, I tapped my toe on the laminate floor, standing with my arms crossed while I waited to hear what he had to say.
“I was rude to Eric and pissed off about the engagement party incident,” he said. “Eric said he was upset and remorseful. He felt horrible about that miscommunication. He said he took off when Christopher attacked him for no reason.”
