Page 62 of Defend Me

“That may take a while. I keep sign in logs the old-fashioned way—in books, handwritten. There’s a bunch of them in storage.”

“We’ll take whatever we can get,” I say gratefully.

Stan rubs his jaw. “Iknowthe sheriff would not like that.”

“The sheriff is refusing to look at anything that might prove Noah’s innocence,” Derek says, speaking up with surprising confidence. “It’s not right, Stan. Noah deserves a fair trial, just like anyone else in this town would. Like you said, we’re waking up to the truth. And an innocent person should not go to jail. So which side are you on? Real justice? Or doing what the sheriff would want?”

It’s very rare of Derek to be so forthright. I’m impressed, to be honest. Stan looks the same.

“Seems you’re growing a set at last, deputy,” he says with a grim smile. “Okay. I’ll get the logs.”

He heads down a hallway and I turn to Von. “Well—” I begin but she holds up a hand.

“I think we both knew me keeping quiet was a pipe dream,” she says.

“I was going to say well done,” I tell her.

“Yeah, you were great,” Derek enthuses.

“Oh.” She purses her lips and looks pleased.

“Do you really think someone could have just walked out with Noah’s gun?” Derek asks.

Von nods. “I can easily see Stan being busy closing up shop, and someone—on the pretense of putting their own gun away—taking Noah’s. Unless Stan actually checked both the drawer and the case it was in, he’d never know it was gone in the first place. Noah was the only person using it. Stan should get a new system. Put metal detectors at those doors.”

“I’d love to hear you suggest that,” I say.

She shoots me a wry grin. “I’m not an idiot.”

Stan returns. “The logbooks from that year must be in storage,” he says. “I’ll let you know when I find them.”

Frustration pricks at me. I was hoping we could leave herewith fresh leads to follow. If we could go to trial with an alibianda new suspect, that would really be something.

“Thank you for your time,” Von says, extending her hand. “And I’m happy to talk to Jake Stein about his legal troubles.”

I glance at her, surprised, but she seems sincere. Stan looks surprised too.

“Oh,” he says, then shakes her hand. “Well. Good.”

“Do you have his contact information?”

“I do,” I offer.

“Great,” she says.

We head out to Derek’s minivan.

“I’ll keep at him for those books,” Derek says. “Someone went to a lot of trouble to make it look like you did this, Noah.”

“Yeah,” I say, chewing on my lower lip.

“Thank you for your assistance, Deputy,” Von says. “Would you mind giving us a ride to Everton Estate?”

“Sure,” Derek says. He starts the car and pulls out onto the street.

“Why are we going to Everton?” I ask. Von hides her expression behind her huge sunglasses.

“You’ll see,” she says smugly.

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