Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 71625 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 358(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71625 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 358(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
He nodded his head and continued perusing the hotdogs rolling on the warmer.
“Hey, kid.”
She looked up, startled to see me, and then her face fell.
She looked familiar, but I couldn’t quite place her. It’d come back to me once she told me her name. I knew it.
“Let me have them.” I gestured with my hand.
She looked down, then she pulled the earbuds out of the pocket of her jacket and placed them in the palm of my hand.
“Why did you steal these?”
She grimaced. “Because I needed them.”
“You needed them so bad that you had to steal them?”
She looked away.
I knew she wasn’t going to tell me why. Most of these teenagers didn’t have a single bone in their body that gave them even a little bit of self-preservation.
“What’s your name?”
She didn’t hesitate to answer. “Conleigh.”
The name didn’t sound familiar, which surprised me. I knew nearly everyone in this town.
“Where do you live?”
“Off Mimosa.”
My street.
“Let’s go,” I said to the girl.
“But my ride…”
“Your car can stay here until I speak with your parents.”
The girl didn’t say anything as I escorted her to my cruiser.
I could tell that she was worried.
She should be.
A police officer had just caught her stealing shit from a gas station.
But, if she hadn’t truly looked terrified and repentant for stealing the earphones, then I would’ve booked her just because I could. Kids these days were getting worse and worse, and I wanted to make sure that she got herself straight now rather than being forced to do it the hard way later.
After depositing her in my cruiser, I went back inside and put the earphones on the counter.
“Let me get these.”
“That all?” Patty, who was behind the counter today, asked.
I nodded.
She rang them up and said, “Seven dollars.”
I handed her a ten, got my change, then gestured to Aaron who was still in front of the hot dogs. “Just get the boudin.”
Then I left, leaving him to his own devices—and meat selection.
Once in my car, I made my way to my street—also her street—and asked for more specific information.
She directed me to the house that was directly across from mine.
Shit.
I knew who lived there.
I hadn’t seen her—or her kids apparently—much, but I knew.
Winnifred Holyfield, Matt Holyfield’s ex-wife. Matt Holyfield, a cop in my station. Fuck.
This kid’s dad was a fucking cop. One of my fucking cops.
Goddammit.
I pulled into her driveway without another word, then got out.
Once I opened her door, I walked with her up to the front door and knocked before she could walk straight in.
There was some shuffling, and then the door opened.
Winnifred’s eyes went to me, then to her daughter, and then back.
While she was busy checking me out, I was busy trying to remember how to breathe. Goddamn, but she was beautiful. She could’ve passed for the troublemaker’s big sister, even though I knew she was her mom.
Her face fell in the interim.
“Conleigh,” she whispered.
That’s when Conleigh broke down.
“I just wanted some headphones that I didn’t have to share with all the other poor kids.” She burst out into explosive sobs. “Everyone makes fun of me!”
Winnifred’s eyes closed, and her own tears started to fall.
And that was when I realized that there was much more to this situation than met the eye.
“Come in,” she pulled the door open wide, and then stepped back.
My eyes went to the walker that was helping Winnifred walk, and I was suddenly very confused.
Last week, she hadn’t been using a walker. Hell, she hadn’t looked anything but in control of her faculties.
But she had been leaning quite heavily on that shopping cart, I told myself.
She’d also glared rather glacially at her ex-husband like he was the worst of scum.
Which had me confused, too.
Matt had told everyone she’d left him. I’d only assumed that it was due to something in their relationship, but now I had a whole lot of questions running through my mind.
The most important of which being: Who left who?
Because this woman in front of me didn’t look like she would leave her husband. Not with a young kid who looked to be about four or five and a sixteen-year-old. Not when she couldn’t afford to make it on her own…which reminded me of a promise that I’d made to a friend a couple of months back.
Her name was Krisney, and she’d bought this house.
After moving back home following her parents’ deaths, she’d asked me to help keep an eye on it.
I had…peripherally.
Now I wondered if it wasn’t the house that I was supposed to keep an eye on, but its occupants.
“Conleigh, head to your room, please,” Winnifred said tiredly.
I waited until she was down the hall with the door closed before I turned my eyes to the mother.
“Thank you for bringing her home,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry.”
I studied the tired woman. “What’s going on that she can’t afford headphones?”