Page 77 of Lead Me On
She spotted Jessie as soon as the headlights flashed over the front porch. “He’s here.”
The truck rocked to a halt and she jumped out and ran across the grass.
“He just showed up,” Olive snapped. “Won’t tell me where he’s been.”
“Okay,” Jane panted. “All right. I’ll talk to him, Grandma Olive. You go on and get out of the cold.”
Jessie muttered, “I wanna get out of the cold, too,” but his grandmother slammed the door in his face.
Jane grabbed his arm and dug her nails into the leather of his coat. “Where were you?”
“I had to get out, all right? Grandma was watching aFantasy Islandmarathon, and I couldn’t take it anymore. She’s only got one fricking TV in that house.”
She shook him, hard. “Wherewereyou?”
“God.” He tore his wrist from her grasp. “I was with a girl, all right? Calm down.”
A girl. He couldn’t mean… “What girl?”
“None of your business, Jane.”
“Jessie!” she screamed.“What girl?”
The weight of Chase’s hand was a sudden comfort on her shoulder. She’d forgotten he was there.
“Jessie,” he said calmly, “this is serious. Your sister needs to know where you were.”
He finally seemed to get it. Her brother’s eyes went wide, and she was relieved to see no sign he’d gotten high. “I was with a girl named Eve. It was only for an hour or something. She just dropped me off.”
Jane swallowed hard, fearing that she might sob with relief. “She was here?”
“Yes.Dude, what’s going on?”
For a moment there, she’d thought… She’dfeared…
Jane couldn’t speak, and she was impossibly grateful when Chase cleared his throat and stepped forward. “The police want to talk to you, Jess. There may have been another murder.”
“Oh, fuck,” Jessie said. Even in the moonlight she could see his face go pale.
Now that her doubt was gone, fury took its place. “Your lawyer told you to stay home! No drinking or smoking andno girls.”
“I’m not a fucking monk, Jane. And I didn’t do anything wrong!”
“Will this Eve give you an alibi?”
He shrugged. “I think so. She doesn’t have a boyfriend or anything.”
“We’re calling your lawyer. Right now.”
To her credit, the attorney answered on the first ring, despite the late hour. Jane babbled out the whole story, feeling more calm with every no-nonsense question the woman asked.
“Stay with him,” Ms. Holloway said. “Don’t let him go anywhere. I’ll call you back in fifteen minutes.”
For the full fifteen minutes Jane paced the tiny confines of Grandma Olive’s dining room. Everyone else was crowded into the living area. Jessie lounged with his feet on the arm of the couch, of course, able to relax despite the threat hanging over him like a sword. He even charmed Grandma Olive into cackling at a joke or two.
The old woman was relaxed enough to offer margaritas, but when no one took her up on the offer, she poured herself a glass, dropped into her recliner and popped out her dentures to enjoy it.
Chase seemed surprisingly unfazed.
