Page 65 of Long Road Home

“I want an answer,” Kenna said. “Before Forrest has to spend a night in jail.” She stared at the door to the house, wondering if the sheriff was on the other side, listening. Or if he was somewhere else in the house, touching personal things and being nosy in the process of doing his job.

Were the state police asking themselves if they’d been dragged into something that was going to make them look like chumps?

Who in town was congratulating themselves because their plan to frame an innocent woman and stop her from what—writing a book about J.Pierce—was going well so far?

“I don’t understand why Forrest is such a threat,” Kenna added. But whoever was behind this would learn quick she was a force to be reckoned with.

Was it J.Pierce himself?

Or someone else entirely?

One of the officers carried a box out to the car. There were a number of further trips, and the three of them shot the breeze, probably speculating. No one was convinced this arrest had any weight. They’d rather believe—even if it turned out to be foolish—that Forrest would be free.

Kenna had set several things in motion, but as soon as the cops were done, she’d be back pounding the pavement.

The search took the better part of an hour, during which she set up lawn chairs for Theo and Alonzo and made them both a cup of coffee. Kenna leaned against the hood of her Subaru while they sat on the drive next to the RV garage, watching the cops haul out box after box.

Then more. Then more still.

Her phone buzzed. “That’s me. You might want to look at it.”

She didn’t react right away to Maizie’s statement. Instead, she waited a second before she tipped her hip, up, tugged out her phone, and looked at the new message. Air caught in her throat, and she coughed.

“Everything good?” the guys asked in chorus.

“Mm-hmm. It’s good.” She didn’t look up from her phone.

Theo knew it wasn’t okay, that whatever she’d just looked at had significance. He just didn’t know she was looking at an epic picture of him in the ’80s in the Chicago club scene, dressed in a suit with ruffles on his shirt front. Slicked back hair and a pinkie ring. The undercover federal agent had busted up a ring of drug and human traffickers who were all Sicilian mobsters.

Alonzo wasn’t pictured there, but she figured he’d been a part of it. Or another case that put them both up here, pretty much in hiding.

Through the earbuds, Maizie said, “Looks like you were right about the marshal thing. I’ll figure out what his last case was before he dropped under the radar, and if we need to worry about this book.”

She shot back a text to Maizie that just said,

Sounds good

Alonzo said, “We’re just gonna sit here and let them take her stuff.”

One of the cops glanced at them on the way to the car, evidently able to hear that.

“It’s a legal document,” Kenna said. “They’re within their rights to take what they deem relevant. If it goes nowhere, she gets it all back.” But the damage to Forrest’s privacy would be done. “There’s nothing we can do without making things worse for her…and for us.”

She figured as much as Theo and Alonzo wanted to intervene, they needed to stay off the radar of the sheriff’s department and state police. Two men with a connected past who’d stayed safe for years knew how to keep themselves safe. She shouldn’t be as worried about them getting involved as she was. But the fact was that after one note, a man was dead and an innocent woman had been arrested.

Kenna turned to the two older men. “She is innocent, isn’t she? That’s not just wishful thinking.” They started to bluster, and she held up one hand. “I haven’t known Forrest except for the past few weeks. There’s nothing about the time I’ve spent with her that makes me believe she had anything to do with her family’s deaths or Bruce’s. There’s no way. But before I go all-in to defend her, I have to ask.”

Theo said, “She’s innocent.”

“Okay.” She happened to agree, but it was about what she could prove.

Alonzo just looked at her like she’d betrayed thefamiliaand needed to learn a lesson. One she wasn’t super excited to learn. There had been enough craziness. She should sit them down and tell them her story. Lean on these two men to help her figure out how to get Forrest out from police suspicion.

Gingrich appeared. “We’re done.”

“Great. Thanks so much for coming. Have a good day.” She walked toward him, arms out, ushering him to the curb. “Good to see you.”

He glanced over and eyed her. “Don’t leave town. Anddon’tmake trouble.”

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