27. Chapter Twenty-Seven
ANNA
“Black. Let’s go.”
Anna slowly got to her feet. Based on the number of meals and shift changes, she’d been in the holding cell of the Pine Ridge Police Department for about forty-eight hours, give or take. They’d made a few more cursory attempts at interrogation, but those sessions had gotten shorter and shorter each time as they realized she was serious about the right to remain silent thing.
“Hands.”
Anna put her hands out, and the officer slapped a set of cuffs on. Another set went around her ankles, and then a chain was linked between the two sets. She wanted to ask if that was really necessary because, besides shutting up, she had been cooperative. Did they really think she was going to suddenly turn violent? And even if they did, what was she going to do?
She was shuffled out of the holding cell, down a short corridor, and pushed out of an exit door at the back of the station. A van was waiting, the name of a county correctional facility stenciled on the side. She supposed that was where people accused of crimes were sent to await trial, but she didn’t know, because no one was telling her anything. They’d stopped talking soon after she did.
The driver gave her a passing glance through the metal divide that separated the back from the front. The holes were too small to see anything but a silhouette of his head and shoulders and the fact that he was wearing a baseball-style cap.
He faced forward again as she was unceremoniously manhandled into the back, turning a blind eye to the shoves and bumps. There were two rows of bench seats, each one running from front to back. She was pushed into the middle of the one on the left. Her hands and feet were secured first, and then a seat belt was pulled tight over her hips and the tops of her thighs. Seemed like overkill to her, but whatever.
They didn’t like her, and she didn’t blame them. They thought she’d tried to murder an old woman and steal her jewelry and cash. She wouldn’t care much for herself either, if any of that were actually true.
The rear door was slammed shut. The panel between the front and the back closed. The escorting officer slapped his palm on the side to signal it was good to go. Then, the van lurched forward.
When she’d thought about leaving Pine Ridge, she hadn’t imagined it would be like this.
She was going to miss Elsa. She was genuinely fond of the older woman. Most of all, she worried about what would happen to Elsa when she was released from the hospital. Without Anna or someone else around to help her, would Eddie get his way?
Based on the trumped-up—and totally bogus—charges, Elsa’s weasel of a grandson was behind everything. He had a key to the house. He could have slipped in and switched out the meds when they were out as easily as he could have planted that stuff in Anna’s room. Hell, he was probably the one who had picked up the watch from Otto’s Jeweler and made up that whole pawnshop story.
Would someone eventually figure it out? Maybe, but by then, it could be too late. Eddie was clearly desperate, and there was no telling the lengths he would go to, to get power of attorney—and thus gain control over Elsa’s assets.
Hell, if he’d managed to switch the meds and plant evidence in Anna’s room, then forging a POA probably wasn’t much of a stretch.
She thought about Matt too. Anna didn’t care about most people’s opinions because they didn’t matter. But the thought of him believing she was capable of doing those things cut like a blade in the heart.
It didn’t even make sense. They hadn’t spent that much time together, and most of that had been him trying to figure out if she was scamming his elderly neighbor. Oh, he was pretty smooth about it, but she’d been around con men all her life. The ones who smiled and said nice things under the guise of wanting to get to know her. The ones who appeared suddenly out of nowhere and pretended it was a chance encounter.
The difference between them and Matt was, while Matt had been digging for information, he’d done so out of concern for his elderly neighbor, not for personal gain.
As the tires ate up the miles, Anna put her head back and closed her eyes. She felt like she hadn’t slept in days. As long as she was in the van and they were moving, she could afford a wink or two.
Or so she thought.