Page 63 of Long Road Home

Kenna smiled. “Funny, I was about to say the same thing.” She strode past him. It wasn’t worth getting into a bickering match. He’d realize what a low opinion she had of a man who’d only managed to retain his job for the past thirty-however-many years. He hadn’t been required to grow. But soon enough he’d be challenged. She almost wanted to pray he would be ousted.

That gave her the energy to stomp all the way to thegarage, where she unlocked her RV and tried not to slam the door behind her. She called Maizie, who answered immediately.

“I’m on it,” Maizie said. “I can’t believe they arrested Forrest!”

“You and me both, Maze.” Kenna put her earbuds in. She grabbed the edge of her counter at the kitchen sink and bent forward, stretching her back. “I haven’t even been to the diner where he died. I haven’t seen his body, but I did talk to Marion.”

“Does Forrest have an alibi?”

“That’s for a lawyer to find out.”

“As soon as I read that paper, I did a web search,” Maizie explained. “I don’t know much about warrants, but it looked bad enough, and she doesn’t have anyone that’s a lawyer in her contacts.”

Kenna straightened. “You found someone?”

“It’s a firm in Chicago with a sister firm in New York. They take on criminal cases, and high-profile civil ones. They have a junior associate who can take the helicopter up.”

“Some kid just out of law school?” Probably the family member of a friend, some kid whose daddy paid his way.

“It’s not what I know you think,” Maizie said. “He’s won three cases, and as soon as I mentioned your name, they were falling over themselves to call me back. They said he’s their brightest up-and-comer, and he will drop what he’s working on to come up there.”

“Tell them to send him.”

Maizie’s computer keys clacked across the phone line. “The retainer is a pretty hefty. It’s?—”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“You’re certain she’s innocent?”

Kenna could plead her friend’s guiltlessness, but that wasn’t always how the justice system worked. “It’s not on me to prove she’s innocent. It’s on the DA to prove her guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. And I’ve got nothing but doubts right now. There’s no way they’d have arrested her unless they know something I don’t. It all seems seriously flimsy. Not to mention circumstantial. If this kid is as good as they say he is, he’ll tear their case to shreds and have her released before the end of the day.”

“Good.”

Kenna wanted to ask Maizie what she’d been doing that morning, but their pact was that the girl shared if she chose to. Instead, she asked, “Have you heard from Jax?”

The question came out before she realized its implications.

She bit her lip and straightened.

“From what’s coming and going on his phone, something serious is going down in San Diego.” Maizie paused. “There’s been nothing for an hour, but he’s at the office and he hasn’t left.”

“Okay.” Maybe that was it. He was just busy.

“What did you send him? It looks like an MP3 file.”

“Voice message.”

“Oh. Is that so I can’t read it?”

“That isn’t why I did it that way.” Kenna sighed. “I just wanted him to hear the tone in my voice.” So maybe he would understand why she’d reacted the way she did.

Someone pounded on her RV door.

Kenna called out, “Yeah?”

“You have guests.”

She stuck her feet into her rubber boots before stepping out but didn’t put her coat on. The sweater she had on with her jeans was just fine. She stowed her phone in herback pocket with her earbuds switched to let in ambient sound and the volume on the call turned down.

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