Total pages in book: 152
Estimated words: 147545 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 738(@200wpm)___ 590(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147545 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 738(@200wpm)___ 590(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
When he finally ends the call, he looks at me across the table.
My eyebrows rise expectantly. “Well?”
“I have to go to the police station today.”
My stomach sinks. “For what? Are you in trouble?”
“No,” he assures me quickly, shaking his head. “I’m fine. But there’s been a development in the case, and they need to ask me a couple of questions. They’ll want to talk to you, too.”
“What’s the development?” I ask, watching as he shifts and pulls out his wallet.
“Let me get the check first. We’ll talk about it when we leave.”
I frown, unsettled by what feels like stalling. That, or it’s really bad, and he knows I’m not going to take it well.
All the food I just enjoyed roils in my stomach.
This has to be it. I don’t know why he worded it the way he did—we already knew Russell was going to talk to the cops today—but they have to be calling us about Russell’s statement. Maybe it’s something Tor didn’t expect. Maybe they found the gun he got rid of last night. Maybe he didn’t clean it as well as he thought he did, and they found a fingerprint.
It has to be really bad because we’re alone in this corner of the restaurant, and we have already been talking about things we wouldn’t want anyone to overhear. Tor deliberately sat with his back to the wall so he could halt our conversation if the waitress came over or if anyone was seated near us who might overhear.
Now he gets up and heads to the front of the restaurant to pay our bill, and I feel like I’m going to be sick.
Tor leads me out of the restaurant, opening the door for me. The cool air hits me and makes me feel slightly less queasy, but not by much.
The sky is a moody gray. The clouds are heavy with rain that should start falling soon.
“What’s going on, Tor?”
He stops outside my car, rakes a hand through his dark hair as he looks anywhere but at me, then he says, “Let’s, uh… let’s drive to the lawyer’s office first.”
“No,” I say, eyes widening. “I want to know what’s going on now.”
He sighs, annoyance flickering across his face, but he adjusts accordingly. “Fine. We’ll leave your car here. We can come pick it up later. I’ll drive. We can talk in the car.”
“You’re scaring me,” I tell him.
He laughs shortly, opening the car door for me. “Get used to it. It’s gonna be a long day.”
I don’t know what that means.
I get in his car anyway.
I know he’s keeping something from me at the moment, but I know it’s because he believes it’s the best thing for me, too. I trust him.
Tor shuts the door once I’m in, then he walks around to the driver’s side.
I swallow, tracking his every move as he drops into the seat and starts the car.
When waiting for him to speak yields complete silence as he drives down the road, I finally burst out, “Are they arresting me?”
“No,” he says, almost shortly. “And get that thought out of your head right now. I don’t want you even considering the possibility that you’ll be arrested in connection with any of this, because if you’re thinking it, it might show on your face. Banish it. I told you this is the reality now. As far as the police are concerned, you didn’t do anything that warrants being arrested. When you talk to them, you talk to them while knowing that. You are not going to jail today. There’s no reason for you to. Got it?”
I nod, biting my lower lip. “Then what was the phone call?”
“They need to bring us in for follow-up interviews so they can ask us questions about Russell.”
My heart stalls. Deep down, I had the tiniest flicker of hope that he didn’t throw me to the wolves, but I knew it wasn’t realistic. He isn’t Tor. He’s not some criminal mastermind. The only thing Russell could do was tell the truth. Otherwise, he might be in hot water himself, and he wouldn’t do that for me. Especially not now.
“The lawyer will have more information, so I’m sure he will advise us, but obviously, we need to talk about a couple of things before we see him. I suspect they will ask when you last spoke to Russell, and I think you should tell the truth. Tell them he was waiting for you when we got back from the movies last night, that he didn’t make his presence known until I left. Tell them every true thing you can. We’re not going to practice or get too specific. Just use common sense, and you’ll be fine. The only lie I need you to tell is this one: if they ask if you told me about Russell waiting for you outside your house last night, say you didn’t. Give whatever reason feels right to you. Obviously, you texted me afterward about popcorn, and we called on the burners, so there’s no evidence of that. And we did meet up at the motel afterward, but we can just say we decided to do that after the movie. We went home to pack overnight bags.”