“Hello, Oliver.” Next Door’s Kid’s Dad gave him a curt nod of recognition that made it way too clear he’d decided Oliver was the mature one in our relationship. “I was just telling your partner that something’s happened to our greenhouse.”
“He’s accusing Jaz of smashing it,” I clarified.
With the air of a person handing over a piece of damning evidence, Next Door’s Kid’s Dad handed Oliver the cricket ball. “Colin saw her throw this through one of the windows.”
“Oh, did he?” I said, and Oliver said, “Oh, did he?” but I think we both meant very different things by it.
“Thank you for drawing this to my attention,” Oliver continued. “I assure you it will be dealt with.”
“Make sure it is.” Next Door’s Kid’s Dad was talking to Oliver, but he made a point of looking at me.
Apparently, there was some kind of adulting rule I didn’t understand which made “Make sure it is” a perfectly acceptable way to end a conversation with a neighbour, because Next Door’s Kid’s Dad left it at that, and Oliver went straight back through to the kitchen, where Jaz had done a way better job than I would have done of not letting anything catch fire.
“We could leave this until after dinner,” I stage-whispered to Oliver. “No sense in letting it spoil our afternoon.”
But we couldn’t. Or at least Oliver couldn’t. It wasn’t in his nature. “Jasmine, I need to ask you about something.”
I could see Jaz going fight-or-flight pretty much instantly, but she managed to keep it together just long enough to say to a panful of onions, “Hang on, these are nearly done.”
“I need to talk to you now.”
I, I noticed, notwe.
Jaz conscientiously turned the hob off and pivoted to face him. “What?”
“Richard from next door says you smashed his greenhouse.” Oliver was doing his best to sound firm but not angry. I wasn’t sure it was helping.
“Didn’t.”
“He says Colin saw you.”
“Lying.”
Oliver looked at Jaz, and the way he looked at her made my stomach crawl. When I was in school we’d doneTo Kill a Mockingbird, and there’s this bit, right at the end, where Atticus Finch nearly turns his own son in to the cops because he thinks he might have done a murder. And okay, that’s probably good ethics and shit because murder is bad, and okay, he’s the guy who inspired basically every lawyer to want to be a lawyer. But my takeaway from that book has always been that Atticus Finch was a fucking terrible dad.
I was getting strong Atticus Finch energy from Oliver right now.
“And why would he do that?” he asked.
“Kids do lie,” I pointed out. I’d been trying really hard not to saybecause he’s a piece of shit, which meant I was way more pleased than I should have been when Jaz answered, “Because he’s a piece of shit?”
“Jasmine,” Oliver Atticused. “That’s not helpful. We’re not angry with y—”
“You got nothing to be angryabout.” Jaz was backed right up against the cooker now, and I thought I could see her hands shaking. “’Cause I ain’t fucking done nothing.”
Oliver, still holding the evidence ball, put his hands up very slowly. “I’m not saying you have.”
“You fucking are.”
In Oliver’s defence, from his perspective he honestly wasn’t. In Jaz’s defence, from her perspective he totally fucking was.
“Jasmine,” said Oliver because he was still stubbornly clinging to the belief that calling her by her full name made him sound authoritative instead of like he just didn’t care. “I’ve asked you before to try to moderate your language.”
I opened my mouth to try and say…something. I wasn’t sure what exactly. Just something gap-bridging or oil-water pouring, but even if I’d been able to think of the perfect, magic phrase that would make everything better, it wouldn’t have mattered. I’d never have got a word in.
“I didn’t fucking do nothing.” Jaz wasn’t exactly screaming, but she was very, very far from having effective strategies for managing her emotions. “What about fucking innocent until proven guilty?”
I was veryslightlyproud of Oliver for not going off on a tangent about burden of proof and how it related to evidentiary standards in the separate spheres of jurisprudence and law enforcement. But, honestly, it might have been better if he had. “I’m just trying to find out what happened.”
