Page 4 of Defend Me

“There were no fingerprints at the scene,” I say. “No fingerprints on the letters. The only fingerprint is on the casing. Why, if it were really me who did it, would I not wear gloves for every action? Even back then, before I was officially a deputy, I knew police procedure and the rules of evidence. Why hide my printseverywhere but there? It doesn’t make any logical sense. Unless it was done intentionally.”

Caden cocks his head. “Who would want to frame you?”

“I don’t know.” I’m at a loss.

“First things first,” Caden says, cracking his knuckles. “We’ve got to get you out of here. You’re going to need a lawyer.”

I hate lawyers. Lawyers let my parents’ killer get away.

“They can’t keep me here,” I say. “I’m innocent.”

Caden believing me has buoyed my spirits. But the way he’s looking at me now puts a damper on things.

“Noah,” he says slowly, like I’m a kid who needs to listen carefully. “I heard the deputies talking when I arrived. They’re putting you in a cell for the rest of the weekend, until the arraignment on Monday. The sheriff made this big splash with the arrest. You think they’re just going to let you leave?”

For a moment, the room seems to spin. The floor tilts under my feet.

Yes, I did think that. Because innocent people do not belong in jail. And I am innocent.

I open my mouth but no sound comes out. Caden stands, comes around the table, and puts his hand on my shoulder.

“Breathe,” he says, and I inhale sharply. The air feels too thin.

“Arraignment?” I gasp. Obviously, I know how the system works. The accused gets arraigned before a judge, who sets bail and a trial date and all that. But I’ve always been on the other side of the aisle.

It suddenly feels spectacularly unfair that the courts are closed on the weekends.

“I’ll take care of bail,” Caden reassures me. “We’ll get you a good lawyer too, not a public defender. No way.”

“I can’t let you?—”

“Yes, you can,” Caden snaps. “Someone is framing my best friend for my mother’s murder. They’ve made this even more personal. You’re part of the family, Noah. We’ve got to counteractthis in the press. I’ll talk to Alistair. Finn might be able to use his political contacts too. And Von—” Caden stops midsentence, his jaw hanging open. “Now there’s an idea.”

“What’s an idea?” I ask warily.

Caden shoots me a hard grin. “I think I just found you a lawyer.”

CHAPTER TWO

VON

My family sits in the large, airy sunroom at the back of the mansion I grew up in, waiting for Caden to return from the sheriff’s department.

“I can’t believe this,” my little sister Daisy says, slowly shaking her head. “I can’t believe Noah would hurt Mom. He’s like part of the family.”

“Caden will figure this out,” my brother Alistair says, coming over to sit beside her on the enormous white couch.

I glance at my father and wonder what he’s thinking. I know that no matter what, we’ll follow his lead. That’s the way it’s always been. The only person who could ever nudge Dad down a different path was Mom.

She loved Noah like he was her own son. Dad knows that as much as all of us do.

I’ve never gotten along with Noah—he’s just such a wide-eyed, optimistic, do-gooder. I was raised by Russell Everton, cutthroat businessman and grudge-keeper extraordinaire. I know how thesausage gets made and what it takes to be successful in this world. Noah’s ideas of right and wrong are cute and all, but the real world is morally gray.

But kill my mother? The longer I think about it the more unlikely it seems. He adored my mom. It was annoying to be honest. Another older brother I felt I had to compete with. And he was always sonice.

Plus, Mom was likely killed by whoever was stalking her. I can’t imagine Noah writing her love letters. The thought makes my skin crawl.

My family estate is situated right on Magnolia Bay. The enormous floor-to-ceiling windows of the sunroom give stunning views of the water, the back lawn rolling in a lush green carpet down to the water’s edge, Mom’s garden sprawling east toward the woods that line our estate. There are five of us Everton siblings: Caden, me, my twin brothers Alistair and Finn, and Daisy, the youngest and the family darling. Daisy always thinks the best of everyone.

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