7
The interrogation room looked like many others Dalton had been in over the years; cinder block walls painted two shades of gray, a standard-issue metal table in the center, a chair on either side. Nicky was seated in one of the chairs and Jamison had pulled the other chair close, invading Nicky’s space. Dalton knew the technique. Cops sometimes used it to cause immediate discomfort and in this case it had clearly worked. Nicky’s hand rode on his bouncing knee as his teeth worried his lower lip. The kid was obviously scared to death.
The younger cop was speaking to Nicky when Dalton arrived.
“Can I get you anything before we get started? A bottle of water or a cola?”
“No, I’m good,” Nicky said, though it was obvious he was anything but.
The cop turned to Dalton. “Would you like anything?”
“Yeah, I’d like a moment to speak privately with my client.”
“Your client.” Jamison’s glance took in his paint spattered clothes and disheveled hair and he smirked. “Sure thing. I don’t suppose I could see some identification? I’ll need your name for my report.”
He’d already given the cop at the front desk his information, but even so, Dalton retrieved a business card from his wallet and tapped it across the table. Jamison gave it a brief glance before he stowed it in his shirt pocket and signaled to his partner.
“Fifteen minutes,” he said, and swaggered from the room.
When the heavy, metal door thudded closed behind them, Nicky let out a breath. “Man.”
“Relax.”
“So, are you really a lawyer, or what?”
“I really am. And my first piece of advice is don’t ever talk to the cops without one present.”
“Yeah, but I don’t have anything to hide. I didn’t do anything wrong.”
How many times had Dalton heard those words? Too many to count. But in this case, it was true. His training had produced in him an uncanny ability to discern truth and lies, innocence and guilt. His father would accept nothing less. While other children had play dates, Dalton had endless exercises. There were word and number games to increase his vocabulary and sharpen his concentration. Exercises in reading body language. Training for comprehension tests and national spelling competitions. He’d been conditioned to have an organized, analytical mind. His father’s mind. He’d been nothing if not well trained. His body and mind were well nourished, but his soul was starved.
Until he met Tasha.
“I know you didn’t do anything wrong,” he said. “But they think you did, or we wouldn’t be here, right?”
Nicky’s knee started to bounce again. “Man. What a mess.”
“Relax. It’ll be all right.” Dalton moved Jamison’s chair to the other side of the table and sat facing Nicky. “How about you start by telling me where you went on Saturday night after you left the carnival.”
Nicky shrugged and stared at his hands, busily picking at his cuticles.
“I can’t help you if you don’t talk to me, kid.”
“Like I told them, I drove around for a while. Then I went and sat on the old Townline Bridge. Nobody ever goes there. They don’t use it anymore.”
“And you sat on the bridge for what reason?”
He shrugged again.
“Were you drinking?”
“No.”
“Using drugs?”
“Heck, no!”
“All right, were you alone?”
After a long moment of what was clearly an internal tug of war, he said, “I was with my girlfriend, Finley.”
“Why didn’t you tell them that?”
“Because Finley is on probation. She was out past curfew. If she gets caught again, she could go to juvie.”
Dalton blew out a breath. “I don’t suppose anyone else saw you two?”
“No.”
“Think about it, Nicky. Retrace your steps from the time you two left the festival.”
“We drove around town. That was it.”
“Did you stop anywhere?”
“Yeah, we stopped at the gas station and bought iced coffees before we went out to the bridge.”
“OK, now we’re getting somewhere. What time was that, approximately?”
“Probably around ten, maybe a little before.”
“Perfect. Where was this gas station?”
“The Handy Mart out on .”
“How close is that to the festival grounds?”
“Not very. It’s outside of town. That’s why we went there. Because we didn’t want to be seen.”
“I don’t suppose you paid for the coffees with a debit card?”
“I think I gave them cash.”
“Any chance you still have the receipt?”
“Fin might have it. She keeps stuff like that, ticket stubs, old receipts. She says she’s collecting life experiences. Keeps them in a jug she calls her joy jar. She’s weird like that.”
“Let’s hope your coffee date qualified. If we can put you even fifteen minutes away from the break in, they’ll have even less than the nothing they already do.”
Relief washed over Nicky’s face. “I’ll ask her. I’ll check the car. I’ll even go back and look through the trash at the gas station if I have to.”
Dalton sat back, thought for a moment. “Tell me about your classmates.”
As Nicky spoke, Dalton gathered the information like pieces of a puzzle and methodically began to fit them together. Exactly fifteen minutes after it had closed, the metal door opened, and Jamison and his partner walked in. Jamison looked deflated and the young cop wouldn’t look Dalton in the eye, which told him they’d had time to do at least a perfunctory check of him. They knew he was the real deal.
How much else did they know?
“So, Nicky,” Jamison placed his hands, palms down, on the table, standing a respectable distance away from Dalton. “Let’s start again. Where were you on Saturday night, son?”
“He’s told you where he was,” Dalton said.
He continued to stare Nicky down, ignoring the comment. “You said you were driving around. Can you be a little more specific?”
“Don’t answer that, Nicky.”
The old cop turned to him with thinly veiled hostility. “You’re forgetting we have a witness that might be able to place him at the scene of the break-in. A little transparency on the boy’s part would go a long way right now.”
“ Might be able to place him at the scene.” Dalton gave him a cool smile. “Three cars broken into in a month’s time, I’m sure the department is putting pressure on you to find someone to blame. But I’d be very careful with the reputation of a minor if I were you. Small town like this, a wrongful accusation is bound to have long term effects. It’s bound to cause emotional pain and suffering. You’d hate to be named in a defamation lawsuit.”
Jamison’s face turned an alarming shade of purple. “Lawsuit? Now hold on just a minute.”
“Let me break this down for you, Officer Jamison. Nicky has one-hundred-ninety classmates. Out of those one hundred-ninety, eighty-seven are boys. And out of those eighty-seven, forty are around 5’10”. Thirty of those forty have blond hair. At least a dozen of those thirty, quote unquote, look a lot like Nicky. Especially at ten o’clock at night. And that’s just the boys in his class.” He stood. “So, unless you have something more substantial than that, we’ll be leaving now.”
~*~
It was astounding how everything could change in an instant. One moment she and Nicky were laughing together, and Dalton King was just a good-looking drifter who’d given up the carnival to paint Aunt Clara’s gazebo. And the next, Nicky was in trouble and Dalton was… an attorney?
It hadn’t fully sunk in until now. In those first moments after the police took Nicky away, with Dalton close behind them, she’d run inside to check on Aunt Clara. Thank heavens that without her hearing aids her aunt slept like a rock.
Please, God. Don’t let her wake up to an empty house and come looking for us…
She’d grabbed the car keys and rushed out the door, thinking only of getting to the police station as quickly as possible.
Not knowing where else to turn for help, she’d called Kat Delany.
“Oh, Harper, this is just terrible,” Kat had said. “Of course, Nicky didn’t break into that car!”
“The cops are sure acting as if he did.” Her voice caught. “They treated us like criminals.”
“Austin’s working late tonight. Let me call him and see what he says about it all. Don’t worry, honey, everything will be OK.”
Now, in the waiting area, amid the clamor of squawking police radios and ringing telephones, she was praying that what Kat said was true. She knew for certain her brother was innocent. As for Dalton, she knew nothing at all. Was he a lawyer posing as a handyman or a handyman pretending to be a lawyer?
After what seemed an eternity, Austin Delany appeared in the waiting room. “How are you holding up, Harper?”
His commanding yet gentle presence put her immediately at ease. “Austin, thank heavens you’re here. What’s happening with Nicky?”
“They’re questioning him about a car break-in on Saturday night. I’m working a different case, so I don’t know all of the details.”
“They wouldn’t let me go in with him.”
“He’s in good hands.”
“He is?”
“I checked out your guy. His name is Dalton Kingston, as in Kingston, Abrams, and Porter, one of the top law firms in Cleveland.” He let loose a short bark of laughter. “I’ve got to hand it to you, Harper, if you had to stumble across a lawyer, you sure landed on your feet. I hope for Jamison’s sake that he dotted all his I’s and crossed all his T’s. These guys are pit bulls.”
“Wait, Dalton Kingston ? I don’t understand…” It was more than she could grasp; a reputable lawyer using a false name while working at a carnival? For what possible reason?
Her face flooded with heat. She’d foolishly told him her secrets, had actually started to have feelings for him. She’d honestly believed he cared about her family. But maybe there was something else going on. Something more devious. Her hand crept to her middle, as if to shield her unborn child. Her little girl. She wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry. Her emotions had been all over the place for weeks, but this was different. What she felt now was something primitive and fierce and unlike anything she’d ever experienced before. In those moments maternal love and the desire to protect her baby twisted in her heart and grabbed hold. “Speak of the devil,” she murmured.
Dalton appeared in the doorway, along with Nicky and the younger of the two cops.
“They’re letting Nicky go for now,” Dalton told her. “Pending further investigation, but I highly doubt it will come to anything.”
“Nicky.” Harper enfolded her brother in a hug. “Thank goodness. Are you all right?”
“I’m fine, sis, thanks to my dude. He was amazing in there.”
“Mr. Kingston, can I have a word?” Austin steered Dalton to the side of the room and the two men spoke quietly for a few moments.
Dalton returned. “We’re good to go,” he said.
“What do we owe you?” Harper asked.
“You don’t owe me anything, Harper.”
“Can we please just get out of here?” Nicky asked, shifting nervously in his high tops.
“Aunt Clara’s car is parked out front. Take it and go straight home and check on her. I want a word with Mr. Kingston as well.”
Out in the parking lot, Dalton opened the passenger door for her, like the well--heeled gentleman he was. Like a modern-day Prince Charming. But Harper did not feel like a princess. She felt like a fool. As he steered from the lot and drove down Main Street, she tried to rein in her galloping thoughts.
“Are you OK?” he asked.
“Yes, I’m OK.”
“What did you want to talk to me about?”
“It’s just…” she turned her gaze on him. “I’m not sure who you are now.”
“I’m the same person I was an hour ago,” he said.
“Except your name isn’t Dalton King. It’s Kingston. Why did you shorten it? Why did you lie?”
He sighed. “Because that’s not who I am anymore, Harper. I haven’t practiced law in over a year.”
“Why not?”
“It’s complicated.”
He was throwing her words back at her, but she was not having it. There was too much at stake. She needed the truth.
“Did you come here to look into us?”
He seemed genuinely surprised. “Look into you? No.”
“Look, I know that Aunt Clara is confused right now, and my business is struggling, and the cops seem to think my brother is some sort of juvenile delinquent. But I assure you, we’re a good, stable family.”
“I know that.”
“Why are you here then? And I want the truth.”
He sighed. “I joined the carnival to get away for a while, to try and figure some things out. I got tired of the noise and the crowds, so I agreed to paint your aunt’s gazebo. That’s why I’m here. That’s the truth.”
Somehow, she believed him. “OK.”
They pulled into Clara’s driveway, but he let the car idle. “Why would you think I was looking into you? Have you done something criminal?”
“No.”
He stared at her, stared right inside her, and she was suddenly ashamed. “Look, I’m being irrational. Blame it on a hormonal overload. I’m sorry.”
He waved the apology away with a flick of his hand.
“Thank you for helping Nicky tonight. It means a lot to me.”
“You’re welcome.”
“So, you really think the whole thing will blow over?”
“They have nothing on him, Harper. But let me give you my number, in case they try to start up again after I leave. I’ll hook you up with a good local attorney.” He handed her a business card, his name printed in bold, no-nonsense black letters.
DALTON KINGSTON
KINGSTON, AbrAMS, AND PORTER ATTORNEYS AT LAW
She tucked the card in her purse. “Where will you go from here?”
“I don’t know. Let’s get you inside. You look exhausted.”
As she climbed from the car, a fearsome knocking sensation in her midsection caught her off guard and she quickly sat back down. “Oh!”
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, except that I just got a good, swift kick in the stomach.”
“Are you serious?”
“The baby’s dancing up a storm in there.” She gently kneaded her tummy. “My nurse tells me she can hear us. I think she likes the sound of your voice.”
He looked stricken. “She?”
“We won’t know one-hundred per cent until I have my ultrasound, but yeah, the nurse was pretty sure. Oh! There it is again.” She impulsively grabbed his hand and placed it on her stomach. His fingers trembled beneath hers. “Do you feel that?”
“Yeah.” His eyes glowed with unmasked admiration. He lowered his head to her lap. “Hello in there.”
There was stillness for a moment, and then Harper felt what seemed like the furious fluttering of butterfly wings. Dalton slowly withdrew his hand. “No wonder you look tired. You’re growing a whole entire person. A ballerina, from the feel of it.”
“I think she likes you.” It was impulsive and reckless and very unlike Harper, but they’d just shared an intimate moment together, a sacred moment, so she kissed him on the cheek. “I think I do too.”
As she climbed out of the car, she heard him say softly, “I think I like you too, Harper Blessings.”